I’ll keep this short and sweet. Went fishing this weekend and ended up in a shallow basin. Stupid shallow, like around a foot. There was so much bait that the water looked like it was boiling. Fish everywhere. Reds were slapping the side of the boat there were so many. Tossed mudders and shrimp at them. Nada! We couldn’t understand why we couldn’t pick up at least one of the over 30 fish we saw. Was there just too much bait for them to worry about ours? It was pretty cool to see the reds chasing the bait even though they just bypassed ours. We came out of the basin with no reds. Caught a keeper flounder on the way out though.
The fish we did catch that day seemed to be pretty sluggish too. Just kind of picked up the bait instead of hitting it hard. Any insight into that behavior?
Are you sure they were reds? I was on the Wando a couple of weeks ago in a school of BIG mullet. I would’ve sworn they were reds until I got right on top of them in the yak.
could also have been that you were right on top of them which turned the bite off… I have been trolling along a bank before, seen a hole in the grass with reds stacked up in the hole waiting for bait to swim by and just the mere sight of the boat and/or me blocking their exit turned the bite off. threw every plastic and every live we had at them, they could care less, but soon we moved the boat away from the pocket it was ON , it was on like donkey kong… ever since that day when I see a bunch of reds stacked up, I always try them from a few different angles before giving up… ps most likely were mullet… never seen a red hit the side of a boat chasin bait or tail slap… large mullet do it all the time…hint…if you motor into a creek and its still and then all of a sudden you see tail swirls all over you just spoked a whole mess of mullet…
There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. ~Steven Wright
Man, could have been mullet. I’m still pretty green. Do mullet crush bait like reds do?
Yes and the little blue fish do also. Often, I find that those shallow water pockets hold the mullet (mentioned above) and little blue fish that keep the mullet running around while trying not to get eaten. So, the water churns and it looks like reds but, it is often mullet and blues. Not to say a red isn't in there somewhere also. :wink:
Man, it would explain things. It was exciting and frustrating at the same time. At one point bait was getting crushed ahead of us and behind us. All just out of casting range of course. Despite the lack of a hit it was pretty cool to watch the action. Looked like torpedoes in the water.
