Guided Mr. Jim Tully and Mr. Dustin Martinson this morning in the upper bays. Both are avid anglers and were lots of fun to fish with. We were met with cold temperatures, a stiff wind and some very sneaky redfish. With the water falling rapidly, we started by targeting some shallow flats with decently clear water. After struggling for the first hour or so, we finally stuck our first fish, a 27″ 6.5# redfish. Continued on the same path for a while and then hit some shallow, muddy areas where we found them pretty thick. Lots of mid-size to smaller fish but plenty of them! Dustin has a few epic strikes after seeing fish leave the bank and made awesome casts to the waking redfish. Very cool hookups! Concentrated on replicating the same areas and it really paid off. Stuck with three techniques today. Jerkys, spoons and popping corks. All together over 20 redfish, 1 nice trout and a turtle. Please click on image to...
Read MorePrefishing-Day 2 at Redfish U.-December 3, 2009
Fished from 1000am-1130am this morning in the upper bay areas with friend and my web designer, Mr. Randy Hamilton. Lots of reschedules and recent bookings so I needed to take a look at some areas after this drastic weather change. Found dirty water and some very clean water. It was windy and cold but manageable. The water was low but not as low as normal with the water pouring out of the rivers. Went to the Marsh Works Big Poppy cork today with a Gulp! 4″ Shrimp in natural. Found some decent redfish and boated three fish pretty quickly. Also missed some heavy bites, so the fish are there, you just have to find them. Looked for some speckled trout to end the morning but came up empty. Lots of freshwater, a full moon and dropping temps may be the culprit but I expect the trout to be more aggressive in the coming...
Read MoreMobile Bay and Orange Beach Redfish University-November 27, 2009
Guided Mr. Billy Thigpen of Flowery Branch, Ga. this morning over in Orange Beach. Billy is usually an offshore angler and a bass fisherman and was a ton of fun to fish with! The weather cooperated so we entered Mobile Bay at daylight and covered some very productive areas and found plenty of great concentrations of redfish. Very little water movement and cold temperatures meant very slow presentation. All fish were caught on Gulp! 3″ Shrimp in New Penny rigged on an 1/8oz. Marsh Works Bull Red jighead. Encountered groups of 100+ fish which were pretty difficult at times but we figured out the bait and the presentation to boat over 20 quality redfish. In an area that is usually productive with spinnerbaits and corks, we gave them the subtle approach and it proved deadly. All redfish released. Please click on an image to...
Read MoreLots of fish on Dad’s birthday at Redfish U.-November 23, 2009
My dad and brother joined me today for my dad’s birthday trip. We got out around 10:30am for the last few hours of falling water before the low tide. I forgot what awesome anglers these guys are and I found myself trying to keep up! With a great tide and overcast conditions, we figured the fish would really be aggressive and they sure were. We targeted some sandy bottom shallow flats and found some very nice upper slot fish. Picked up solid redfish and some nice trout in three productive areas and closed it down after about two hours. The water was a little off color so I threw a Marsh Works Buzz Pop with a Gulp! Shrimp which produced some great redfish. My brother and dad stuck with the Gulp! 5″ Jerkys in camo rigged with an 1/8oz. Marsh Works Bull Red jighead and stuck the crap out of them. All fish released except for three that were taken for the grill. The cold weather this week should really improve the redfish’s attitude later this week. Please click an image to...
Read MoreWest Bay again at Redfish University-November 20, 2009
Guided Mr. David Williams this morning in West Bay, Panama City. Basically, the same results as yesterday. Plenty of uncooperative fish but it wouldn’t be as fun and gratifying if every fish jumped on the bait, now would it? Concentrated on some of the same areas as yesterday and then a few different ones. Zero tailing fish today which indicates they just weren’t terribly hungry but we did fool a handful of quality redfish which fell to long and very accurate casts. Ended up with 4 fish in the 25-27.5″ range and then a few 22″ fish that seems a little more aggressive. The wind helped us today with long casts and some added distraction from the boat. Slick, windless conditions can be a nightmare in Panama City’s clear waters. Gulp! 5″ Jerkys did the trick and we used a little more weight on the Owner Twist-Locks because of the wind. Back in West Bay on Tuesday, hope the fish start to bite a little...
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