I went out yesterday and found several big schools of reds. The problem was that they were not pushing any water and I drifted right over them. They were spooked and off they went. How do you fish a school after you spook them? I just anchored up and threw cut bait around the boat. I caught 2 yesterday, but saw a 100+ fish. I am fine with that, I just want to know what to do next time. I did try throwing artificials but had no takers. I tried to retrieve it slow, but not sure if I was doing it right. When people say bump it on the bottom are they talking about large mouth style where you lift the rod tip up a couple times and let it sit, or reeling slow enough so it bumps on the bottom. Thanks for helping me become a better fisherman:smiley:. I need all the help I can get!
Don’t have a knack for makin motors crank,
But I’m pretty good at drinkin beer
The best way to a fisherman’s heart is through his fly.
It’s tough to continually present your offerings to reds when they are holding in water so deep they are difficult to see. With that said, though, they are normally easier to catch than ones holding so shallow their backs are almost out of the water. More water over their heads = less spooky. When the boat drifted over them, they obviously relocated but probably didn’t go very far. Also, relocating doesn’t necessarily mean spooked to the point of shutting down and going into a negative feeding mode. Most times, they just move to the next closest piece of hard-bottom and get back to doing whatever they were doing. It’s your job to find these key small pieces of area they like to hang around, and fish those thouroughly before the boat makes them relocate. On just about every flat I fish, there are 2-4 small places on each flat that I KNOW the fish will be holding on. That allows me to make long casts to the “sweet” spots, and the first bite is normally very quick, then the school relocates again. The only way you learn these sweet spots is time on the water which unfortunately means spooking a lot of fish, but I NEVER leave a flat until I’m SURE of where they were by running over them with the trolling motor, and I still get surprised in areas I’ve fished for 10+ years. (Obviously, don’t do this with other boats on the same flat!)
As far as artificial lure presentations go, they vary widely. Some days, dragging the lure leaving a mud trail is most effective, while on others, quick, short jerks with pauses get the most strikes. If you are not getting bit, change your retrieval cadence, but most times, not getting bit means you’re not keeping the lure in front of fish.
Good stuff as always, Rad. SW and I had a similar day yesterday in similar waters.
Something I THINK I noticed (but I am way novice at this) was the water was crystal clear, and once in awhile the water would murk up a bit, and a bit later it seemed we scared some (some mud plumes). First time I saw it I was like “Hmmm…” second time I saw it I kind of predicted it. Never was a third.
Maybe they just moved and then I officially spooked them. We didn’t catch a one but it was interesting. Found water as warm as 3 degrees warmer than the rest of the day’s water, but no fishies that we could be certain of.