The first evening trip of the week and I finally had some clients to take out for some windy winter fishing. They weren't much at casting when they first arrived, but we worked with them a bit and they got good enough to hit the practice targets.
A bunch of sea grass got uprooted from the strong southeast winds that started up around 7pm with the front that was approaching. The wads of floating, dead sea grass was making it harder to retrieve baits without snagging and it was altering the bait's movement. There were good places that redfish and a few speckled trout were hunkered down under the dead grass, but we couldn't get either one to hit on the retrieves, they sensed something wasn?t right! Cast after cast, the clients kept trying for a strike that seemed non-existent even though we could see the fish chasing the lures.
Eventually we had to leave the area, which was sand and grass beds around 18-30' deep. We headed off to areas more protected from the wind. We found some areas with the same bottom structure and depth, but had scattered oyster shell and not as much floating grass. There weren?t as many redfish here, but the size was better overall.
Working the Pink Hologram Devil Eye on a 1/16 oz. TruLoc jig head, slowly up and down, we thought we would have better results than with darker colors since the water was so clear. We were right, within a few attempts we had redfish chasing after the lures. When my clients saw the redfish following the bait and swirling the water they got so excited they kept retrieving the lure, so fast in fact, the fish couldn't catch it. I had to tell them to relax, and wait to set the hook once you feel the strike, since they needed to present the bait in front of the fish, with such clear conditions. The redfish started wolfing the lures down.
Five of them got their limits of reds in the 24" to 26.5" range. All of them were hooked deep and solid, there was no way that they were getting off!
We left that area to try for some speckled trout to go along with the redfish. Next, we hit a channel near the flats with sand and mixed grass beds that tapered off from flats going into the channel. Using the same color scheme, we tried the same action but the color was a bit sandier here. There were plenty of trout present, in mixed sizes from "peckerheads" to 21". I had one client rigged with a Rootbeer Devil Eye and the other with a Strawberry one, and both were getting popped constantly.
The holes on the flats held the largest trout, but there weren't as many of them as there were smaller, keeper fish that were holding on the drop off to the channel but were still some nice looking fish. In less than 4 hours, they had a lot of action counting the ones they released and they kept 14 of the speckled trout!
We never lost any of the new TruLoc jig heads, mainly because of the good quality, sharp hooks, and only lost the tails on two lures that got smashed by redfish and you just can?t help that when they're slamming them like they were. I really like those jig heads for a good, strong, hook set. - 16887
A bunch of sea grass got uprooted from the strong southeast winds that started up around 7pm with the front that was approaching. The wads of floating, dead sea grass was making it harder to retrieve baits without snagging and it was altering the bait's movement. There were good places that redfish and a few speckled trout were hunkered down under the dead grass, but we couldn't get either one to hit on the retrieves, they sensed something wasn?t right! Cast after cast, the clients kept trying for a strike that seemed non-existent even though we could see the fish chasing the lures.
Eventually we had to leave the area, which was sand and grass beds around 18-30' deep. We headed off to areas more protected from the wind. We found some areas with the same bottom structure and depth, but had scattered oyster shell and not as much floating grass. There weren?t as many redfish here, but the size was better overall.
Working the Pink Hologram Devil Eye on a 1/16 oz. TruLoc jig head, slowly up and down, we thought we would have better results than with darker colors since the water was so clear. We were right, within a few attempts we had redfish chasing after the lures. When my clients saw the redfish following the bait and swirling the water they got so excited they kept retrieving the lure, so fast in fact, the fish couldn't catch it. I had to tell them to relax, and wait to set the hook once you feel the strike, since they needed to present the bait in front of the fish, with such clear conditions. The redfish started wolfing the lures down.
Five of them got their limits of reds in the 24" to 26.5" range. All of them were hooked deep and solid, there was no way that they were getting off!
We left that area to try for some speckled trout to go along with the redfish. Next, we hit a channel near the flats with sand and mixed grass beds that tapered off from flats going into the channel. Using the same color scheme, we tried the same action but the color was a bit sandier here. There were plenty of trout present, in mixed sizes from "peckerheads" to 21". I had one client rigged with a Rootbeer Devil Eye and the other with a Strawberry one, and both were getting popped constantly.
The holes on the flats held the largest trout, but there weren't as many of them as there were smaller, keeper fish that were holding on the drop off to the channel but were still some nice looking fish. In less than 4 hours, they had a lot of action counting the ones they released and they kept 14 of the speckled trout!
We never lost any of the new TruLoc jig heads, mainly because of the good quality, sharp hooks, and only lost the tails on two lures that got smashed by redfish and you just can?t help that when they're slamming them like they were. I really like those jig heads for a good, strong, hook set. - 16887
About the Author:
Captain Robert Brooks is a licensed fishing guide who specializes in wadefishing for big speckled trout and redfish on the Gulf Coast using salt water fishing hooksss. Robert recommends that you try out some fishing hookss from Brown Lures for your next fishing trip.
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