Stripers, Redfish and Seatrout
Most of the striper fishermen have been lamenting the striper has not been strong. The past couple weeks provided several cold days pushing stripers down stream creating a very good bite for fly fishermen, buck tails and live bait. Whistlers and large clousers have worked well on the fly. Bucktail fishermen prefer 1 to 1 1/2 yellow or white jigs. Stripers are also taking both dead and live shrimp and mullet. The striper bite is good. The key to striper fishing, like most fishing, is having a “good drift”. Slow moving water generally isn’t the most productive. Fish structure and look drifts.
The redfish bite has been good but it taking on more of a winter look. Namely slow moving cold, clear water. Fish under these conditions are easily spooked. Most of fish are in small groups, rather than large schools, probably due to fishing pressure. As fishermen avoid cold days it’s likely to see large schools of reds warming themselves on local mudflats. Live shrimp is still available. This is great bait for redfish. You might try gobbing shrimp on your hook. Sometimes fresh dead is more effective than live bait. Fish with minimizing sound in mind and you’ll probably catch some nice reds. There have probably been more second year redfish caught this year than we’ve seen in many season. Some have said we’re seeing more second year redfish due to limits on redfish that in acted a few year ago. Fishing for redfish has been very good!
The seatrout bite is still going on. Some fishermen look at 50 degrees as the critical number when the bite shuts down. At present water temperature, in local waters is around 53 degrees. The trout bite can go either way depending on cold fronts. A couple of warm days will bring seatrout high onto mudflats. The best bite has been by those trolling and pitching grubs in the heads of rivers and creeks as well live bait fishing in those areas. Although we’re approaching winter the late fall bite has been good for fly, artificials and bait fishing.
Good Fishing! Capt. Jack McGowan