The winter doldrums can be spiced up with schooling Redfish. During the Charleston winter months ( Dec-Feb), shallow water species become limited. Unlike our summers when you can catch an upwards of 10 species or more during a day of fishing. The winter nearshore species are limited to trout, sheepshead, flounder, and redfish. In mid December the trout bite started to slack off, and currently the sheepshead and flounder are moving out to the nearshore reefs and wrecks. Do not be depressed or discouraged with the dropping water temperatures, the redfish begin to school up on our local flats. Although they are easily seen, they are always not so easily caught.
For example I took a friend out to scout some new fish for some upcoming charters. I poled him onto a flat and within ten minutes I spotted a school of about 75 reds. I thought that we had hit the jackpot, but after a half an hour of working these fish with all sorts of artificials not the first bite.
We moved on to the next flat with the same sort of luck, lots of fish but no bites. The next day I decided to go back and change my strategy. I brought live mud minnows, cut mullet, and dead shrimp. No luck with the minnows or the shrimp, but they could not resist the mullet. The fish would turn within a few seconds after the mullet had hit the water. We ended up tagging 5 fish with the biggest one being a nice female weighing 17lbs.
Decided to leave the fish before they got sore mouthed, I did not want to spoil it before my charter tomorrow. So we headed towards the next flat a few miles down. I found a smaller school of 30 fish in the 2-6 lb range. These fish were the total opposite from the ones that we had just left. They would not hit any live or dead bait, but they went crazy for an Exude soft jerk bait, and Riptide grubs soaked in shredder crab.
The key to catching these fish is to have a variety of baits, methods, and patience. Just remember to be kind to the ocean and her creatures. Catch an release for future and take a kid fishing.