Other hotspots to look for include runouts. These are cuts through the sandbars that redfish use to pass through shallow offshore bars to dine in deep sloughs or swash channels close to the sand. These runouts can be found much the same way offshore bars are located, by observing wave action and surf water color.
Though pompano fishermen sometimes depend on long casts to reach pompano, friend Art Ginn, of Summer Haven on Florida’s northeast coast, demonstrated how short casts can take big redfish. Art was raised on surf fishing near Matanzas Inlet, and knows every slough and inch of hard bottom in that area. He invited me to fish with him on an October afternoon during a new moon falling tide. He brought all the tackle, telling me to leave mine at home. When I arrived I was surprised that he fishes 7-foot spinning rods and 15-pound-test line.
“Most people cast way out in the surf, often beyond redfish feeding in sloughs just outside waves breaking on a beach,” said Ginn. “We could soak live mullet or cut bait on bottom and catch reds. But I prefer to cast jigs and plugs. It’s a lot more fun.” And that’s what we did. The surf was light, the ocean slick, and it was easy to read the beach. Slough runouts cut through sandbars relatively close in. Most runouts were within 100 feet of the beach, and though we didn’t need to get our toes wet to reach the spots with our casts, we did, enjoying the refreshing water, wearing T-shirts and bathing suits.
Best Redfish Beaches
Florida: Amelia Island. Jetty fishermen will find excellent-eating sheepshead, seatrout, puppy drum, flounder and redfish schooling close to submerged inlet jetty rocks.
South Atlantic: The beaches near Wilmington, North Carolina hold huge schools of giant bull drum. These schools roam the surf zone November through late February. Access to some barrier islands is by boat only.
Central Gulf: The most popular pier and bridge fishing along Louisiana’s coast can be found at Grand Isle. Take the bridge across on LA Hwy. 1. To the south and paralleling this entrance bridge is the Grand Isle Fishing Bridge. This fishing bridge, made of wooden planks and pilings, used to be the original entrance bridge to Grand Isle. It spans Caminada Pass located only a few blocks from the Gulf and is a famous bull red fishing spot open to the public at no charge.
Texas: Pristine Padre Island National Seashore is a famous surf fishing area. The surf zone produces many species besides redfish. Beach driving is allowed, but restrictions are proposed for turtle season. This is a very sensitive area; tread softly.
We hadn’t fished more than a few minutes and Art hooked a good red. The fish ran up a slough, then ran back toward us, passed us, and went up the slough in the opposite direction. Finally, the fish tired, and Art worked it close, allowing a slow-breaking wave to wash the red onto the sand where he removed his jig, then held the 8-pounder high for me to see. “Not too bad for the first fish,” Ginn said, “and only 50 feet off the beach.”
We fished until almost dark, and steadily caught reds. The fishing improved dramatically at dusk, and in all, we caught a dozen redfish between 4 and 10 pounds, never casting more than 100 feet. We could have caught most of the fish on fly tackle come to think of it.
In shallow sloughs, and outside inlets and passes—especially in the Gulf of Mexico—sightfishing for cruising or even tailing redfish in clear beach water is not unheard of. Daybreak and dusk fishing are especially productive because beaches are usually vacant of swimmers at those times, and fish are most likely to feed near shore undisturbed. In Northeast Florida, you can walk a beach looking for tailing reds, or swirls and wakes of feeding redfish, or showering baitfish. It’s a lot like surf fishing for snook.
But at times, long casts with standard surf tackle are needed to reach redfish. “Any beach fisherman with light casting tackle can cast short, but when the time comes for long casts, you’ll need to get equipped for it,” says Joe Squires, a North Carolina surf veteran and guide who specializes in surf reds at Portsmouth Island on the Outer Banks. “Sometimes reds feed on sandbars 100 to 150 yards out and you’ve got to be able to reach them.”
Squires refers to the redfish “zone” located about 100 yards off the beach. To reach those distant bars and sloughs, he recommends a spinning rod 9 to 11 feet long with a fast action and enough backbone to handle up to 8 ounces of lead and bait.
“A surf rod should have large guides to allow easy flow of line for long casts. A large-spool spinning reel also helps achieve extra casting distance,” said Squires. “If I’m throwing large plugs for redfish close to the beach I’ll use 20-pound line. If I’m using bait and trying to get maximum distance, I spool with 15-pound or even 12-pound test because smaller diameter line means longer casts. By carrying spare reel spools it’s easy to change line tests. Squires claims that some days, 2-pound puppy drum raid the surf, and at other times, bulls up to 50 pounds move in.”
Redfish Baits and Rigs
Redfish aren’t fickle feeders in the surf. They can be caught on live and dead shrimp, cut chunks of mullet or other baitfish, squid, and pieces of, or whole blue crabs.
One of the best and most popular baits is a mantis shrimp, or as it’s commonly called in many regions, a “shrimp malmy.” Not a true shrimp, it looks like a cross between a 3- to 6-inch-long lobster and a praying mantis. The only practical means of obtaining mantis shrimp is from commercial shrimp trawlers who ordinarily discard the superb redfish baits when caught in trawl nets. The easiest bait to come by is a 2- to 4-inch-long finger mullet, the universal favorite among surf anglers. Pinfish, menhaden, spots and croakers are great alternatives.
Two basic bottom bait rigs work well. For “puppy drum” weighing under 15 pounds, a standard surf dropper rig (like those used for pompano) is best. Two hooks are tied on dropper loops about a foot apart, with the bottom loop about 18 inches above the end of a fishing line to which is tied a swivel snap. Anything from a 2- to 8-ounce pyramid sinker (weight determined by current and tackle employed) is attached. A 1/0 stainless steel, long-shank, offset hook is tied to the end of each leader.
For bigger redfish, a standard surf fish-finder rig is most effective. A 2- to 8-ounce pyramid sinker is used on a “sinker slide” and positioned on the line. A sinker slide is simply a small terminal accessory that has an eye on one end (for the fishing line to run through), and a snap on the other end to which a sinker is attached, which makes changing sinkers easy. A top-quality, heavy-duty barrel swivel is tied in to connect fishing line to leader. Leaders are about three feet long, made of 100-pound test monofilament. A 4/0 to 9/0 sproat or circle-style hook (depending on bait size) is tied to the leader end. —B.M.
