I finally had an evening trip this week with two clients. The clients couldn't cast for beans at the beginning, but after a few lessons and practice... they were way better at hitting our target areas.
With a front approaching at around 7pm this evening, we had strong southeast winds that really uprooted a bunch of sea grass. It was hard to retrieve baits without picking up a bunch of grass and killing the bait's action. The grass was covering the bait totally in many good places that were holding good numbers of redfish and a few speckled trout here and there. Both species were following the baits but wouldn't strike it, they knew something was wrong! The clients all watched cast after cast, really thirsty for the hit that just wasn't happening.
We decided to try our luck somewhere to get out of the wind, but that was similar to the 18-30 feet water we just left. We found some bigger redfish, although there were not as many of them, in similar areas, sandy bottom with some cracked oyster shells, that didn't have as much dead, sea grass to contend with.
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 solid hits that were hooked deep so they were able to boat their limits of reds in the 24" to 26.5" range fairly quickly.
So then we decided to try for speckled trout in another area, since we had done so well with the redfish. A channel near the flats with sand and mixed grass beds provided cover and we tried the same action except the color was sandier here. One client rigged with a Root Beer Devil Eye and the other with a Strawberry one, were getting all the hits, and there were trout to 21" and plenty of them.
The holes on the flats held the largest trout but there were not 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.
With a front approaching at around 7pm this evening, we had strong southeast winds that really uprooted a bunch of sea grass. It was hard to retrieve baits without picking up a bunch of grass and killing the bait's action. The grass was covering the bait totally in many good places that were holding good numbers of redfish and a few speckled trout here and there. Both species were following the baits but wouldn't strike it, they knew something was wrong! The clients all watched cast after cast, really thirsty for the hit that just wasn't happening.
We decided to try our luck somewhere to get out of the wind, but that was similar to the 18-30 feet water we just left. We found some bigger redfish, although there were not as many of them, in similar areas, sandy bottom with some cracked oyster shells, that didn't have as much dead, sea grass to contend with.
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 solid hits that were hooked deep so they were able to boat their limits of reds in the 24" to 26.5" range fairly quickly.
So then we decided to try for speckled trout in another area, since we had done so well with the redfish. A channel near the flats with sand and mixed grass beds provided cover and we tried the same action except the color was sandier here. One client rigged with a Root Beer Devil Eye and the other with a Strawberry one, were getting all the hits, and there were trout to 21" and plenty of them.
The holes on the flats held the largest trout but there were not 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.
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 hookss. Robert recommends that you try out some fishing hooks from Brown Lures for your next fishing trip.
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