Lots of morning inshore trips recently at Redfish University. A few weeks ago, I met a bunch of great folks from the GCFC while I was working with Penn Reels at the Bud Light King Tournament. I also fished a few hours in the Bud Light inshore event with my old Redfish Cup partner, Sonny Granger and our friend, Chad, from Shimano. Grabbed a 6+ lb redfish and some 3# trout but never got a big bite. Of course, I stuck with artificials but strangely, the guys didn’t get any bites on the live croakers, pinfish, etc. Maybe I have them trained on artificials!! Anyway, fished with them until 10am and attended a prior engagement.
We’ve been concentrating mostly in Pensacola, Escambia and East Bays with some great early morning topwater action and then finding plenty of fish near structure in 6-15′ of water. It’s been so important to find large schools of mullet for the last few months. Both the redfish and trout have been hanging inside and outside these groups and will take topwaters early and then Gulp Jerkys and Johnson Spoons after about 730am. The Scenic Hwy flats have been pretty inconsistent lately but are always good for a few big trout and some average redfish. Our most productive areas have been on the south side of East Bay from Toms Bayou to the Garcon Point Bridge. We are looking for the mullet early and launch topwaters in between the docks to find some great trout and even some 22-26″ redfish. As the sun gets overhead, we can actually see lots of trout and redfish to target with Gulp! Shrimp, Jerkshads or 1/4oz Johnson Spoons. Some days are better than others but good water movement is the key to hungry fish. Plenty to see but they are tough on slow water in my recent experience. Slow it down in slow water. More to come. Thanks, E Holstman
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