The water was just reaching the shorter grass on the flat and we knew it would not be long until the first fish arrived. Poling the boat along the edge of our target area it was not long before we saw the first tail lazying around the edge of a pod of grass as the redfish quietly went about its business of burrowing for food. Our first cast, that happened to be mine, was off target as the adrenaline got the best of me, but the next cast by my buddy was right on the money, just in front of the foraging redfish. The slight splash of the Z-Man jerkbait got the fishs attention without spooking it and it quickly turned and snatched the bait as it slowly sank to the bottom. The fight was on and after several marsh grass crashing, water erupting runs the redfish was boat side and released to be caught another day.
If you have ever had the privilege to watch tailing redfish feeding in shallow water, particularly in short grass on a flood tide, it is a truly amazing site. There is very little indication that a big fish is in that shallow water unless it makes a sudden movement or when they burrow down in the ground and that tail silently waves to you. I recently took my wife out to sight cast for the very first time and I must have told her about 100 times that I am continually amazed at just how stealthy these fish are. There is no big commotion that you would expect out of fish that can be over 30 in some cases. As a matter of fact the only time we saw these fish act erratically was when my elbow bumped the pushpole that was resting on the platform beside me and when it hit the deck the 2 fish that were heading toward us high tailed it out of our area.
When you are fishing this type of situation you need to match the stealth of the fish, especially this time of year as the water begins to clear. Sudden movements in the boat when fish are close will cause them to spook. Any banging noise in the bottom of the boat will cause the fish to spook as well. Obviously your actions will have a lot to do with how many f