Monday, September 26, 2011

The Redfish are Coming! - The Redfish are Coming!

No, not The Redcoats - "The Redfish"!  Ever since the cold blast we had back in January 2010 the redfishing has been excellent.  This last weekend it was as good as it gets.  My brother was in from Bozeman, Montana and we loaded up the 21 Redfisher and headed to the Flamingo area for some great redfish fishing.  We worked hard the first few hours hitting the deeper Island moats.  It was tough, we only landed one red and several ladyfish.  It was high tide and I figured these fish must be "up on the flats" so we headed for a luscious grass flat with good water flow and as we pulled up slowly with the trolling motor - the water "came alive" - tails, pushes, wakes from redfish everywhere!  Quick, get a cast in there!  Bam, Bam - two reds on and several following our hooked fish in toward the boat.  Then the water really came alive with well over 500 redfish scurrying across the flats.  They were working a section of the grass flat about 200 yards long and 50 yards wide.  They would move away when we hooked up and after a minute or two they would move back into our range and Bam, Bam hooked up with another double.  They were all 2 to 5 pounders and this went on for about an hour.  A big thunderstorm moved in on us and we left the reds - still biting.  We boated well over 70 fish.  It doesn't get any better than that! 
 
Last week we worked the flats up in the Bites (or what is better know as Bays in most areas).  The baby tarpon were out in force and we landed 3 for about 7 on jerk baits and swim baits.  These baby tarpon were making crazy jumps and headshaking that can toss the hook in a hurry.  They were averaging 2 to 8 pounds.  Lots of fun on light spinning rods.  We also got into a few nice snook and redfish.  Snook up to 8 pounds and reds up to 6 pounds.  The trout and snapper bite has been excellent as well.
 
The Fall is always a great time to fish.  The high tides pull lots of feeding fish up on the grass flats and when they see a free offering they readily except - usually in a very aggressive manner.  The change in the season is right around the corner and these fish will again change there feeding habits - but that's OK - I think I know where they will be. 
 
Come-on down to the Keys for some great fishing!
 
Thanks,
Captain Steve Murray
Phone:  305 - 393 - 1641
Email:  stevemurray126@att.net
Website:  www.tarponheadquarters.com