January 6 – 12
This week with the cold weather I really didn’t get on the water much. Monday through Thursday we had a mixed bag of weather. Monday was windy and rainy, Tuesday and Wednesday were very cold and windy. Thursday was warm, but with wind and rain.
I did get out on the water Friday, but the bite was a little slow. I was reading water temps as low as 52°, which is very cold water for this area. The fish seemed lethargic and slow to eat. We ended up with a few keeper redfish in the 24” range with quite a few short fish under 18”. Saturday was a complete blow out with overcast skies and high winds around 25 mph.
Sunday turned out to be a nice day, and with rising water temps the fish were fired up and eating. We were doing a half day trip and every place we stopped we caught fish. I didn’t keep count of exactly how many fish we caught but I know we had over a dozen nice slot fish in the 24” – 27” range with lots of small fish 16” – 17”, along with a nice flounder around 4 lbs. This is my favorite time of year to be on the water, and with some more normal weather days the fishing is going to be on fire.
Jan 13 – 26
The week of the 13th gave us some pretty warm weather compared to what we have had. The redfish bite was good but not what you would expect this time of year. Out of 20 spots you fish and do really well, there may be 2 of those spots holding fish that will actually eat. When they did eat, the bite has been very subtle – just a light thump on the rod – with the fish more or less just holding onto the bait.
The fish have been hanging out on hard bottom ledges in 4 to 6 feet of water, dropping into 8 – 12 feet. They want to eat, but with the quick drop in water temps in the back- country (as low as 51°), they’re just moving slow and are very lethargic. The catch lately has been pretty much all redfish, with the black drum and speckled trout not really showing up much.
The 20th – 26th I fished on Monday afternoon with a couple of really good fishermen. We worked really hard and ended up with 4 redfish for the afternoon on live bait. This was the last afternoon ahead of a major cold front and I had hoped the bite would have been a little better.
The weather didn’t allow us to get back on the water until the weekend, and with the slight warm-up – the redfish bite fired up. Almost all the fish over the weekend were in the range of 18 – 27 inches, with a few undersized and oversized. Again, the speckled trout and black drum just didn’t show up. But as this weather is beginning to get a little more stable with some warmer temps, we’ll start seeing our familiar mixed bags of species again very soon!