It was the first real freeze we have had the night before but the weather forcast was calling for dimishing winds throughtout the day with a high of around 53. I figured without the wind it couldnt be to bad and it was another reason to try and figure out the quickly changing fish patterns. First off, I just want to thank the inventor of Under Armour. The ability to get out in the cold with out looking like the little kid from “Christmas Story” is just amazing.
I got out on the water just before 10am with the temp still right around freezing and about 30 mins from low tide. I decided to try and find some low tide mud flats and look for reds trying to warm up in the sun. I was quite shocked to feel the water temp above 60 degrees but with the 70 something degree rains we had the other day i guess i shouldnt have be too shocked. I managed a nice 20" red on my second cast of the morning but it would be a while longer before i was able to find any other fish. I did manage to find a nice tide pool that had a decent school of trapped finger mullet that i could use for bait along with the shrimp i had picked up at the tackle shop.
After the water started moving again I headed back out to the ICW to look for reds pushing in the shallows. As soon as i got out there i started see very nervous looking water up and down the bank but they were not feeding on anything that I was throwing. I finally decided to switch to much smaller baits and started throwing Zman Rain Minnows on a 1/8 ounce jig head. They could not pass it up. Over the next two hours i managed to get around 20 slot reds. All but two came on the rain minnows. One was one a Zman jerk bait with Pro Cure and the other was on a Texas rigged Zman cented shrimp.
The wind was almost a non factor for the day but i was never able to truley sight fish because the sun stayed behind thin clouds for most of the day. After the water had come up for a couple of hours a decided to try my luck on trout. I threw everything I could think of for next two hours with very
and loving it