Guided Mr. Paul Heatherington this morning for what may be one of Redfish University’s last trips on the year in Santa Rosa Sound. It’s not that the fishing is horrible over there, it’s just that there’s so many more fish in a few areas to the north. We were interested in seeing some redfish and trying to get some larger trout in the deeper water. Started out with very small topwater baits at first light and really nailed some great redfish outside the schools of large mullet. The key this morning was a very soft dog-walked retrieve with a 3-4 second pause every 5 feet. Most fish crushed the bait as it was stationary and they had a huge problem eating it while it moved. Neap tide, very little water movement and laziness are my guess. Once we could see them around 800am, we switched to very small Johnson Gold Spoons and picked some more redfish. Pushed off the banks in some areas to go back to topwater and found some decent speckled trout on the sandholes in 4-6 ft of water. The fish are thinning out in the Sound in my opinion but there are still some nice redfish if you get there early and mid-week always helps. A great bonus for today was the chance to pull on some fish with my Conquer 2000’s/All-Star ASR 7′ with 6# Spiderwire Ultracast Invisi-Braid in preparation for Belize’s tailing bonefish, permit as well as tarpon and snook. Casts an 1/8-1/16 Bone jig a mile!! Book now to learn more about inshore angling than you’ll ever imagine at Redfish University. Happy Fishing.
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