# School me on Redfish



## Josh315 (Jun 3, 2014)

Hello guys my trip is getting near and I will be down next week for some fishing. 
I'm from Texas and freshwater fish just about every weekend. My last trip to Pensacola was really my first experience with saltwater and it pretty much hooked me. I caught some specs,flounder,gafftop, and sharks. I'm bringing my boat this time around so I can get around a little easier. I'll be staying on Pensacola Beach on the sound side. I would really like to catch some redfish. I don't know much about them or where to target them. Anyhelp would be appreciated as I am going in blind. I'm not opposed to using live bait or artificials. I have a good sized boat and can get around pretty much anywhere. 
This forum has been a great source of information and I appreciate all the help.


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## LIM-IT-OUT (Aug 26, 2014)

Capt for hire*
Ill show yoy a red or 2


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Josh helping another Josh out!!!


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

Josh315, here's a article that may help you, it's edited but still should get the points across. 


TRICKING REDFISH WITH ARTIFICIAL BAITS
A FEATURE ARTICLE FROM September, 2001
BY CAPT. BOBBY ABRUSCATO

Here are a few things I do to catch these redfish on artificial bait. Some of the techniques I already knew and some others I have recently developed.

USING SOFT-PLASTIC BAITS

Without even consulting my journal, I can tell you I have caught more redfish on soft-plastic baits than any other type of bait. I could probably safely go out on a limb and say more redfish are caught on this type of bait by the entire population of fisherman than any other type of bait.

I believe the main reason this type of bait is so effective is because when it is rigged on a lead-head jig and hopped along the bottom, it imitates a shrimp. As with all saltwater fish, redfish eat shrimp. It doesn’t matter how old, how young, how big or how small they are — redfish eat shrimp.

There is another effective technique for presenting soft plastics for redfish involving swimming the bait instead of hopping it on the bottom. This really works well in shallow water less than 3-feet deep.

Typically, I use this technique when I am trying to catch redfish that may be feeding on smaller minnows, such as bull minnows, at the mouth of a small creek or bayou. It works well if you are fishing over shallow oyster beds or grass, too.

A lot of attention is paid to the color of the grub body and heads, and quite honestly, with all of the colors available it can be hard to decide what to put on.

My tackle box contains every color and shade God and man have dreamed up. I could lighten up my tackle box dramatically, though, because I have only a couple of colors that I really use.

Chartreuse with a white jig-head gets thrown in off-color or water more than 12-feet deep or during low-light conditions. Arkansas shiner and root beer work well for me in normal or clear-water conditions.

Another type of soft-plastic bait is the shrimp imitation like the DOA shrimp. This bait has been around for a while, but I have just begun using it in the last year. Scott Ritter turned me on to it this past winter.

I was on a big bite of trout, but was only catching them when it was cold. When the weather got warm for a few days during the winter, I was having trouble catching them.

Ritter had the DOA rigged under an “equalizer” cork and it proved to be the trick to catching trout on warm winter days for me.

I was trying to find a bait that would catch redfish in very shallow water less than 1½-feet deep, and I started playing with the DOA shrimp. I did away with the cork and started tight-lining it.

As it comes from the manufacturer, I found it sank too fast to use over shallow oyster beds. What I have done is replace the giant nickel hook on which it comes rigged with a thin, 2/0 Gamakatsu worm hook.

It is uncanny how real the bait looks when it sinks — both to me and apparently to the redfish because it has proven to be very effective in shallow water.

Present the DOA like you would a slowly retrieved crankbait. Cast it out and s-l-o-w-l-y reel it back in, giving an occasional twitch with the rod tip. An accidental advantage I discovered was the bait lands very quietly, which has helped in catching these spooky shallow-water reds.

There is no subtlety to the bite either. The redfish will jerk the rod out of your hands if you’re not paying attention.

BULLDOGGING THE

SPOONS AND HARD BAITS

To this day I have not figured out what redfish think a Johnson “Silver Minnow” or a “Sprite” is, but they really like — or hate — it. My favorite color is gold, but I have talked to people who use silver and copper with success.

One of the beauties of this type of bait is it can be fished fast to cover a lot of ground. It also has good natural action, so it doesn’t require you to do much more than cast it out and reel it back in.

I have also found I don’t do well with this type of bait in water deeper than about six feet or in hard-current situations. The spoons tend to move up in the water column as the retrieve speed increases. Hard current exaggerates the speed of the retrieve and brings the bait too far up into the water column.

Mullet imitations such as “MirrOLures” and top-water baits catch redfish because redfish eat mullet, too. You can always tell when someone is experienced in catching fish with a top-water bait by how many times they put you in the “air raid” position when they get a strike.

One of the keys to fishing a top-water bait is to feel the fish before setting the hook rather than trying to set the hook on the strike.

I can open the box on a new top-water bait and it will instantly come to life and hook itself to my shirt, the other lures in the tackle box and other people in the boat, but a redfish can hit it four or five times, knocking the bait completely out of the water, and never get hooked.

Because of the way their mouths are turned down, they have to come over the bait in kind of an awkward roll/explosion to get it. They will keep hitting the bait until it almost gets to the boat if they don’t get hooked.

One morning of catching redfish on top-water baits is definitely worth a year of experience with top-water bait fishing.

Crankbaits like the Frenzy Rattler are just another technique that has worked very well for me catching redfish near sharp dropoffs. They allow you to cover the entire water column along the dropoff.

A FEW OTHER THINGS

TO KEEP IN MIND

One look at the position of the redfish’s mouth and it is easy to see where they spend their time feeding. They are designed to feed on the bottom. Even though they are aggressive enough to move throughout the water column, it is easiest for them to feed very near the bottom.

I have found I catch more redfish by concentrating my presentations near the bottom, or at least in the lower part of the water column.

It depends on what day it is as to whether I believe redfish have keen eyesight or are as blind as bats. I catch them on artificial bait in water seemingly with zero visibility and have cast all around a fish I could see in clear water only to have him swim right by my bait.

One thing for sure is they do have a very sharp sense of smell. This is the case in any forage-feeding fish versus an ambush feeder like a speckled trout. I have become a big fan of scented baits and bait scent enhancers, especially when fishing for redfish.

For a few weeks in the winter I had been on a school of redfish that was a guide’s dream come true. It didn’t seem to matter if we had a cool front or if it was warm and the water was high, the fish were there.

I had a trip right before a strong front was expected to pass through the area, and with a strong southwest wind and high water was able to catch 20 or so slot reds that had been there. The problem was the temperature was going to drop 55 degrees overnight.

I went back the next day and the north wind had blown all of the water out. The shallow bank where I had been catching redfish was now only mud.

Had the redfish left, I wondered? My second cast proved they had not.

The same fish were still there and had only slipped down into the deeper water. I had to slow down my presentation and didn’t catch as many, but they hadn’t left. I believe water temperature on the northern Gulf Coast does not affect redfish to the extent that it does some of the other inshore saltwater species of fish.

Redfish, especially, slot-size redfish, are schooling fish. If you find one you have found a school. The important thing to remember to do is to figure out how you caught the first one and try to imitate that as closely as possible without spooking the fish.

Part of the fun, to me anyway, is to have several fish on at the same time. It sure doesn’t hurt your chances in a tournament to be able to weigh as many as you can before releasing them. A few ounces can make a big difference in a tournament where you are limited on the size of the fish you can catch.

CONCLUSION

There are so many ways, places and techniques to catch redfish and it seems every time I talk to someone or go out scouting I learn something new. I hope even a small piece of what I have learned will help my partner and me to be successful on this very competitive tour.

I also hope what you have read in this article helps you become better at catching redfish on artificial bait.


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## kanaka (Oct 3, 2007)

And this:

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND 
FOR USING ARTIFICIAL BAITS 
DURING SUMMER

It’s so easy to rely on live bait when it is plentiful during these periods and, quite honestly, live bait would catch more fish for me during the summer than artificial.

But like I was reminded on the trip with Digger, there are still plenty of fish to be caught with fake bait. After all, the bait you are imitating is the bait the trout and redfish are eating.

Hard baits like the broken-back minnow and MirrOLures are mullet imitations. With ambush-feeders like trout and foragers like redfish feeding into the current, I think the best presentation of this type of bait is somewhere around 90 degrees relative to the direction of the current.

Although it would be natural to retrieve the mullet imitation from any direction, retrieving across the current sets the bait up very easy for the fish to strike it.

Top-water baits are also mullet imitations. The same applies to them. I have always considered top-water baits to be primarily spring and fall baits, but find myself doing well during the warmer months fishing them early and late in the day.

The strikes seem to be even more aggressive as well. The top-water baits really do a good job of imitating a mullet smoking like they do during the warmer months because the warmer water is able to hold less dissolved oxygen.

Because there is no water resistance behind the lure to help set the hook on a top-water bait, it’s a little difficult to hook every fish that bites. One thing that has helped me improve my hookup ratio is to replace the hooks that come on the lure out of the box with some good, super sharp hooks.

The VMC cone-shaped hooks are what I have been using, and I keep the hooks the same size as what was on the lure when I bought it.

There are probably more trout and redfish caught on soft-plastic baits than any other type of artificial bait. The baits are relatively easy to use and work fine when rigged with a lead jig head.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using soft plastics or grubs.

Firstly, when the lure is hopped across the bottom it is a shrimp imitation. That means the best presentation for a soft-plastic bait is to cast upcurrent and retrieve downcurrent.

This is the way a shrimp would be moving if it were caught in a tidal current, thus the lure looks most-natural when presented in this fashion.

Not much attention is paid to the shape of the lure when the age-old question of “What did you catch ‘em on?” is asked — and usually lied about — at the dock, but it is something that needs to be considered.

The next time you have an opportunity to observe a lure’s action in clear water — I use my swimming pool and my wife Kim “loves” it when I’m casting into the pool while she’s in it — compare the sink rate for the slug- or fluke-shaped baits with that of one with the paddle tail or curly tail.

The slugs sink much faster. These types of baits tend to work better for me when I’m fishing deeper water because they will reach the lower third of the water column quicker and this is where the shrimp would look most natural.


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## Josh315 (Jun 3, 2014)

Thanks Kanaka!!! Great read.


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

Yep, good stuff!
Thanks for posting it.


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