# First trip inshore



## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

So I made my first inshore trip targeting trout and reds. I am staying on the inter coastal by the Oyster Bar in Perdido Key. I paddled out towards the bay (away from the bridge if you are familiar with the area) at 6:30 am. Water and wind were slack calm and the bay seemed dead. I threw a DOA shrimp with a popping cork on a grass flat until my arm hurt...nothing. Having 0.0 confidence a bite was anywhere close, I moved towards shore and started fishing the docks. Caught a trout pretty quick, but the bites were few and far between... Once the wind and the tide picked up a bit I moved back out to the flat and caught a slot red. Neither were huge, (I did tell my mom about the trout) both kept and tasted great. 

Gonna do it again tomorrow and hope its a little more active. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Guy at the tackle store suggested a yozori. I bought it... Will see what happens.


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## SHO-NUFF (May 30, 2011)

Live or fresh dead shrimp. Clark gold spoon. :thumbup:


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## Night Wing (May 16, 2011)

Nice catch.


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## foreverfishing (Nov 30, 2012)

x2 for the clark spoon. 

is it just me or does that redfish tail look a little funny?


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## Magic Mike (Jun 30, 2009)

Mirrolure 17mr. Slower retrieve with intermittent jerks


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

foreverfishing said:


> x2 for the clark spoon.
> 
> is it just me or does that redfish tail look a little funny?


First thing I noticed when I got him to the yak. Like he has scoliosis or something. :001_huh:


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## tank banger (Oct 2, 2012)

Nice fish!!!


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## Redalert08 (May 30, 2011)

Skitterwalker and a doa cal shad tail does the trick everytime...and if the bite isn't picking up MirroDine, something small with alot of flash that is moving pretty slow.


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## beachsceneguy (May 20, 2008)

NICE FISH.:whistling::whistling:


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## Magic Mike (Jun 30, 2009)

It does look like you slammed the cooler lid on its tail


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

The red probably suffered an attack as a young'un...just grew up crooked. I've seen lots of bass w/ crooked tails from almost being eaten.

Rookie...you have your best answer...when the wind/tide picked up, fish started biting..fish the moving water, watch for bait activity, match the bait size which now is approx. 3-5", fish the 3 water columns, top, middle and bottom...till you establish a pattern..then raise hell.

Have fun.


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

Magic Mike said:


> It does look like you slammed the cooler lid on its tail


Honest...no coolers involved. The fish had a jacked up tail when I pulled him out of the water. To my daughters delight, both fish were alive and spry when I got back to the dock. 

About to sound like a shill... Just before I came down for this trip I drilled holes into the "tuna tank" on my Jackson Big Tuna. I was skeptical as heck, but it works! :thumbup: the trout was in there about an hour and the red for 30 minutes or so. I doubt they were comfortable as the confined were tight for both of them, but the tuna tank does work.


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

Thanks to all for the advice. I sucked this morning. Tried several different things.... DOA with popping cork, without, another type of artificial shrimpand a yozori (Sp) flashy minnow thing. Don't have a spoon yet. 

My excuse... wife started calling before the fish started biting.


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## servo765 (May 25, 2013)

I am by no means an expert, but I can offer rambling anecdotal observations:

This Monday I scored alright inshore, and then went back to the same place, at the same tides, same weather patterns (mostly), and fished the same baits on Tuesday and I got nothing but a few under-slot specks and a jack crevalle on the way. That to me is the most confounding thing about fishing...There are no absolutes, and it is all about the process. If you search Dabutcher's posts, he has some of the most helpful information about setting up patterns and I like his 'numbers game' approach.

I usually rig three rods, one with a spook for a topwater search bait, one with a 17MR, and one with a soft plastic or to drift a live bait behind the yak if I score some bait by accident. I rotate through them quickly and move on if I don't find anything. That helps me cover water quickly since the achilles heel of my yak is distance.

For what its worth, on Monday I was smashing specks quickly enough that I was able to do a science project. Once the cooler was full I fished spooks, 17MRs, yo-zuri crystal minnows, yo-zuri shrimp, jig/gulp, live pinfish, and spoons, and the little bastards would only bite the spoon. I could sandwich casts of the spoon with other baits, and only catch on the spoon. This at first seemed like a victory, but led me down a rabbit hole in fish behavior. On all those days I've been skunked, had I simply not made it to the right lure in time? Other days it seems like all you need to do is be in the same zip code and they will bite anything. Who the heck knows. 

Sorry for rambling.

One other curious detail. I usually open their stomachs while cleaning and all these guys were more or less empty, to include the redfish I had half filleted when I remembered to take a pic. There were some small minnow remnants but I would have thought for sure they would be in a voracious feeding pattern, but the stomach contents kind of confirmed how picky they were being in my science project.


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

Nope... Thanks for rambling. I enjoyed it... And good catch.


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## beachautopainting (Aug 22, 2013)

*nice catches...*

you're having better luck than me and the wife. we'll see you out there this a.m. if you're still going. perdido o.b. and big lagoon is our local haunt. just loaded the gear and making coffee now. predictions show that the bite won't pick up 'till about 9ish.


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

beachautopainting said:


> you're having better luck than me and the wife. we'll see you out there this a.m. if you're still going. perdido o.b. and big lagoon is our local haunt. just loaded the gear and making coffee now. predictions show that the bite won't pick up 'till about 9ish.


Wish I could. I gotta play husband and dad today. Catch-em up!


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## beachautopainting (Aug 22, 2013)

Not Even A Bite Yet!


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## KOfishing (Jun 1, 2013)

We hit big lagoon atleast one a week. Look for posting African Pompano, caught on 9-26.
We don't fill up the cooler but catch some nice fish.


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## The_Rookie (Jul 4, 2012)

beachautopainting said:


> Not Even A Bite Yet!


What are the conditions like? I got out in the intercostal this morning to "exercise"... At least that's what I told everyone. Wind was ripping.


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