Déjà Vu all over again

In the words of the infamous NY Yankee, Yogi Berra
“It’s Déjà vu all over again”. It’s the weather were referring to. Just like last year we are having record low temperatures. The only difference is that it’s a lot earlier in the season than when last years freeze took place. We can only hope that after this week we don’t see another freeze for a while. Last year was devastating to our snook and baitfish stocks. We can only hope that after this week we don’t see another freeze for a while. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Saturday, my buddy Bruce and I headed out to look for redfish in Silver Lake. The air was brisk with a light breeze making for a slight chop on the water and the sky overcast. The latter two conditions made it difficult to sight cast in the clear shallow water so we had to resort to blind casting. As we worked the shoreline and oyster bars we spooked a couple of lone redfish but no hook ups. We then came to an area that was blocked by the wind and the water was calm. Perfect fly casting conditions.
I placed a cast up between two oyster bars and let the fly land. I made one small strip of my fly and I felt the line tighten. At first I thought I was stuck on an oyster but when my line started moving I knew I was hooked up to a red. It felt like an under sized red at first because of the way it picked up the fly and put up very little resistance until it was about half way to the boat. Once we had a visual on the fish we could see that it was about 25 inches and once the fish saw us the fight was on. Unfortunately the fight only lasted about a minute when the hooked pulled out of the fish, redfish 1 angler nothing. We worked that lake one more time to no avail so we decided to see if we could find some trout. When that didn’t pan out we called it a day.
Winter is a great time of year to fish the shallows for redfish. This is when they school heavily. Normally you’ll find reds basking and feeding in the shallows a day or two after a cold front. Gold spoons, Berkley Gulp on a jig head or live bait such as mud minnows, live or cut mullet and shrimp will all work on wintertime reds. Dress warm, pick a calm day and go wet a line.

Capt Rob Ottlein
386-439-2636
www.flaglerfishingcharters.com