What a fun day on the flats! Made a last second trip to Boca Grande, FL due to some awesome weather for a quick morning trip out on the flats armed with a couple soft plastic jerkbaits to target redfish. Also, I packed along a camera to document the trip (fortunately I had an old one too because I must have forgot to charge up my main camera and the batteries ran out before I got into the good fish).
I started in a boat, but saw that the mullet schools were hanging out in really shallow water, so I decided to hop out and go on foot to cast in the mullet schools in hopes of catching some redfish (which typically hang around mullet schools to pick up easy meals that they spook from the grass).
Here is a quick list of what I caught:
Redfish: 5 – 3 of them in the slot (one was ~26 inches) and two rats
Snook: 4 – all below slot… biggest was prob 24 inches
Trout: 3 – two were over the 15″ minimum… biggest one was ~22 inches
Here’s the gear that I was using:
Rod: 7’6″ St. Croix Triumph – medium action
Reel: Shimano Saros 3000
Line: 10 lb PowerPro (green)
Leader: 30 lb florocarbon
Hook: Owner twist-lock
Jerkbaits:
First, I was throwing a 5 inch Gulp jerkbait – watermellon
Then, I switched over to a DOA paddletail – root beer with yellow tail
Time of Day:
Left dock at 8:30am and got back at noon.
Weather Details:
5-10 mph wind from the north. Temp – High in the mid 80s and low in the mid 60s
Tide: Fishing dead low tide and starting to rise
Visit http://www.saltstrong.com to see tons of awesome videos. Be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter so you can continually receive our best fishing videos and reports without having to lift a finger.
In your service,
Luke Simonds
