The word from local captains and other sources tell me the fishing has been kind of slow lately. Capt Chris Herrera told me he found a school of reds in some very shallow water and was tossing flies at them and had nothing but refusals. Personally I have nothing to report since I haven’t been on the water in over a week. The last time I fished our local flats I could only find a couple of small reds but no schools.
Traditionally by the time the month of December winds down and January rolls in schools of reds start to appear in the flats. By this time the water should cool to the low 60’s to upper 50’s and bring in gin clear water to the northern flats of the county. This is a good time to sight fish for reds. They will come up into the flats as the day wears on to warm up and feed. At this time it’s not unusual to find schools of reds that number into the 100’s. I have witnessed such schools on more than one occasion. You can chase one school for as long as the tide will let you.
Once you locate a school you’ll want to use some stealth. If you need to drop anchor, lower it into the water softly so as not to spook the fish. Try to keep movement on the boat to a minimum. Any noise you make on the boat transfers into the water. Use your trolling motor or push pole, if you have one, to search for the fish. Don’t go roaring into the flats, throw your anchor into the water, and expect to catch fish. You’ve just scared off any fish that were there and it could take a good while before they return.
What type of baits to use? That depends on your style of fishing. For live bait fisherman, live or cut mullet is always a good choice. A live shrimp is also a good choice. You can live line it or rig it on a 1/16th once jig head. Live mud minnows work extremely well too. For those of you that use artificial baits your choices are numerous. Soft plastic shrimp, jerk baits, curly tailed grubs and imitation minnows all work. Berkley gulp imitations are a sure bet as are gold spoons. The fly fisherman can use clouser minnows, crab or shrimp patterns and spoon flies. All of the above mention baits will all work, some better than others at certain times.


Photo: Captain Rob Ottlein with a 6 ¾ lb trout that was caught on bubble-head fly back in early November.