This report will sound dumb to veteran salt anglers, but here it goes. Am a capable fresh water fisherman, but have fished in the salt for only a short time, and I do suck pretty bad at it. Was fishing the falling tide yesterday morning (18th) on a side creek off of the Folly River. Working gutters and oyster rakes. Near the very back of the main creek was fishing the mouth of a medium size gutter and noticed a splash downstream on my side of the creek. Was not anchored so I let the boat drift down quietly to the splash. A very large red was rooting for crabs in less than one foot of water. Have caught a thirty incher before and this fish was every bit of 30 inches. The fish was circling in and out of the grass. It is the first time I have seen the tail and dorsal of a red in shallow water like that. As I drifted past the fish, it came out of the shallows and passed about fifteen feet in front of my boat. I cast what I had in my hand (zman grub on jig head) gently about eight feet ahead of fish. Reeled slowly up to where he should have been but no bite. If I had my wits about me I would have photographed the tail. I was so excited so see the fish tail that I had to write about it. I knew it would sound dumb because I failed to catch it.
Not dumb just great to see, for the first time or anytime
Bubba can we go Fishing?? Can I drive the boat
I know the feeling. I haven’t seen a red yet out here. I recently moved here from FL and just got a boat 2 weeks ago.
I can’t wait to get on some reds. Not as easy as it was in FL. Granted I haven’t fished in almost 5 years while I was overseas.
Not dumb at all. Even the veterans you speak of rarely catch every tailing fish they see. Finding them is hard enough; casting to them, and getting them to eat after you find them (without spooking them) is a whole 'nother task altogether…
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”
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Originally posted by Black BartNot dumb at all. Even the veterans you speak of rarely catch every tailing fish they see. Finding them is hard enough; casting to them, and getting them to eat after you find them (without spooking them) is a whole 'nother task altogether…
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”
Exactly. Cast to 5 fish on the fly Saturday and only hooked and landed 1. Its not easy!
I learned from this website that reds spook easily in shallow water.
Once I sighted the tail, I did not move at all, other than to cast. I did not fire up the trolling motor. However, the dopth finder was running and I have read that fish pick up on the sonar pings. I had rigged up a fairly quiet and effective zman paddle tail grub, and my one cast was just about perfect. The rod was in my hand and there was no time to change baits. Don’t know what I did wrong. Any advice appreciated.
quote:
Originally posted by Black BartNot dumb at all. Even the veterans you speak of rarely catch every tailing fish they see. Finding them is hard enough; casting to them, and getting them to eat after you find them (without spooking them) is a whole 'nother task altogether…
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”
No one catches every fish. If they tell you they do, they’re a liar.
Most of the good fly fisherman I know rarely do better than 50% hook up for fish that they seeing tailing and get to cast to. Me personally, I probably hook one out of every ten I see tailing. Sometimes they don’t tail very long, sometimes they aren’t interested in the fly, sometimes they change direction for no reason, sometimes you hit them on the head with the fly. 
Lots of things have to line up right in order to sucessfully catch a tailing redfish. Patience and a little bit of luck helps too.
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Originally posted by 23Sailfishquote:
Originally posted by Black BartNot dumb at all. Even the veterans you speak of rarely catch every tailing fish they see. Finding them is hard enough; casting to them, and getting them to eat after you find them (without spooking them) is a whole 'nother task altogether…
“I’m not a hundred percent in love with your tone right now…”
No one catches every fish. If they tell you they do, they’re a liar.
Most of the good fly fisherman I know rarely do better than 50% hook up for fish that they seeing tailing and get to cast to. Me personally, I probably hook one out of every ten I see tailing. Sometimes they don’t tail very long, sometimes they aren’t interested in the fly, sometimes they change direction for no reason, sometimes you hit them on the head with the fly.
Aint that the truth. Saw probably 25 tails fish in the grass yesterday and only caught 2. Sometimes they would not take it, others they hit the line or just spooked and sometimes they went the other way from where we cast. we did not even cast at many of the far away ones. The way i see it catching them is a bonus, I just like watching them root around with their tails up.
- I’d rather be a free man in my grave than liv
When using a zman or similar swim bait, make sure to lead the red by 2-3 feet depending on direction red is swimming. Baitfish don’t swim into a reds mouth normally. A perfect cast is always followed by a perfect retrieve for the best chance to catch. Radar doesn’t matter. Color does matter in some cases but you gotta go with ya got and hope for best.
Whatever bait you are using on tailing fish use as little weight as possible, most of the time I use no weight at all. All depends on the day and how aggressive the fish are, the less noise from the bait hitting the water the less chance of it spooking. When I’m using scented baits such as gulp or zman scented I won’t retrieve the bait at all and with the right cast the fish will eat it with no retrieve at all.