January 27 – Feb 2
This week started out with knowing Monday and Tuesday were going to be the last days to fish until the weekend due to the cold and rain on the way. Monday we made a few stops close to town without a bite. As the tide started to fall we made the move up to the north and had good luck on the redfish in the slot size, fishing a little deeper water – about 4 to 8 feet. We continued in this pattern, catching one after the other until the water got so low it was time to move.
We moved out onto the flats to target a couple schools of redfish. They were there in big numbers, but not too interested in eating anything we threw to them. You know its time to move on when the whole school just camps out on top of a quarter blue crab and won’t eat it!
Tuesday was fairly good weather early, but as the day progressed it began to get worse with the temperatures dropping and the wind picking up. The visibility was low with fog setting in. During the higher tide we were targeting trout with the fly rod. My “go to” set up for trout is a sinking tip line with a chartreuse and white clouser minnow. But on this day the trout just didn’t want to play. The plan was to swap up to a floating line and go pole the flats for redfish. But with the wind picking up I decided to change up and go with spin tackle.
With the barometer falling and the cold weather on the way – the fish were feeding up. In the end, we stayed in this mode for two hours – catching redfish in the 20 to 24 inch range and having a blast. Once the tide got low we moved out onto the same flat we had tried Monday. The difference was – today they were hungry and ready to eat! We power poled down and caught four fish between 25 – 27 inches. After these big ones – everyone on the boat was cold, and had caught plenty of fish. With a 10 mile run back to St. Augustine, and a successful day – it was time to go and celebrate the success!