Fishing the Forgotten Coast Essentials (Updated 7/25/2013)
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:21 am
Fishing the Forgotten Coast Essentials
Some would say that fishing season is about to begin, but in the Forgotten Coast it never stopped. We have had some fairly good water temperatures and the fish have not strayed far. Redfish have been extremely lively all Winter and showing no signs of stopping their desire to feed. You just have to find where they are getting their feed on and what to present to them in exchange for a good pull.
With the Forgotten Coast Kayak Fishing Classic a short time away I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know what you need to have with you to fish here.
Spoon
Topwater
Jighead and plastic 3” – 4” bait.
Jerkbait
And for catching flounder, Gulp or live bait with a jig head.
Live bait including live shrimp, finger mullet or mud minnows.
The spoon that has been most productive is the Aqua Dream Living in ¼ or 3/8 oz size. Weedless or Sprite (Treble trailing hook is a Sprite) is fine. The Gold or the Pink has been very productive and the 3/8 hammered Gold Spoon works pretty good too.
You may want to use the weedless spoon in areas with a lot of grass, and the sprites can be used in areas with a hard bottom and Oysters. The sprite makes a tinging sound when it bounces off the Oyster Bars and attracts Redfish and Trout. You can get hung on an Oyster with the Sprite or the weedless.
Topwater is has a lower hook up rate at around 65% but works very well at culling the smaller Redfish and Trout. If your fishing topwater you would be best suited to fish with “Walking the Dog” lures like a Heddon Super Spook, One-Knocker, Ba-donk-a-donk, a Rapala Skitterwalk, or the Mirrolure Top Dog, or Pop Dog. The popping plugs work good too, but I don’t use them as much in tournaments because I cover less water in a short amount of time when using one of the walking the dog lures that I mentioned above. When fishing for Reds a good steady “Walking the dog” retrieve works best, but when fishing for Trout, a “chug, chug, and sit to a 3-5 count” works for big Trout. To walk the dog you twitch a medium to medium heavy action rod causing the lure to alternate between a left and right motion. Also there is a small bearing in these baits that makes a loud noise that is useful in attracting fish. Topwater can also be used to locate fish when blind casting because of all its attracting capabilities. You should also use a knot that has a loop in it, or If you lazy like me I just use a split ring. This helps to steer the lure in the left or right swirving motion.
For working deeper water I use a jig head. Depending on the depth of the water, makes a difference on the weight of the jig head I like to use. For water less than 3 feet I use a 1/16 oz, and water from 3-5 feet deep I use an 1/8 oz and up to 10 feet deep I use a ¼ oz jig head.
When fishing for trout I generally use a steady retrieve with a DOA CAL series body in Brown and Chartreuse tail, or the Glow color. I also am partial to a Red Jig Head but don’t think it really matters that much to the point that I would only use one color. When fishing for Redfish and Flounder I like to cast out and use the method of pick up, and sit, pick up and sit. This gets the bait in the strike zone for a lot longer time and also attracts the flounder to bite. When fishing for Flounder or Redfish you can also try “Dead sticking’. Dead Sticking is basically letting the Gulp Shrimp or Swimming Minnow to sit in one place for 5-10 seconds before picking up to move it a few feet. I use Gulp product for this tactic cause they smell and that attracts fish to bite.
If you are fishing with live bait you can either buy live bait, put out minnow traps, or use a cast net before fishing. To fish live bait you can use a Popping Cork or CT (Cajun Thunder) and tie 2-3 feet of leader and a hook to the bottom. You put your shrimp on and toss it onto a grass flat and pop the cork every 5-10 seconds. This causes fish to get curious and attracts them to strike the live shrimp.
You can also dead stick live bait or dead bait for Redfish, and Flounder. Some folks use a jig head with live bait and drag it slowly across the bottom or just sit it on the bottom. Others use a Texas or North Carolina rig. You basically have a weight a swivel, a leader about 8-12 inches, and a hook. You put the hook through the live shrimps tail or horn, and cast it out and let it sit on the bottom and wait on a strike. This works on all species.
In addition using a 5/0 worm hook with a 5.5" DOA Glow jerkbait is a great twitch bait. Just run the hook up through the chin of the jerkbait. Thats it, don't thread it unless your fishing in lots of grass. You cast it with the jerkbait lloking like it bit the hook, and it has really great movement when you twitch it back to the yak.
Good luck and keep a tight line.
Some would say that fishing season is about to begin, but in the Forgotten Coast it never stopped. We have had some fairly good water temperatures and the fish have not strayed far. Redfish have been extremely lively all Winter and showing no signs of stopping their desire to feed. You just have to find where they are getting their feed on and what to present to them in exchange for a good pull.
With the Forgotten Coast Kayak Fishing Classic a short time away I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know what you need to have with you to fish here.
Spoon
Topwater
Jighead and plastic 3” – 4” bait.
Jerkbait
And for catching flounder, Gulp or live bait with a jig head.
Live bait including live shrimp, finger mullet or mud minnows.
The spoon that has been most productive is the Aqua Dream Living in ¼ or 3/8 oz size. Weedless or Sprite (Treble trailing hook is a Sprite) is fine. The Gold or the Pink has been very productive and the 3/8 hammered Gold Spoon works pretty good too.
You may want to use the weedless spoon in areas with a lot of grass, and the sprites can be used in areas with a hard bottom and Oysters. The sprite makes a tinging sound when it bounces off the Oyster Bars and attracts Redfish and Trout. You can get hung on an Oyster with the Sprite or the weedless.
Topwater is has a lower hook up rate at around 65% but works very well at culling the smaller Redfish and Trout. If your fishing topwater you would be best suited to fish with “Walking the Dog” lures like a Heddon Super Spook, One-Knocker, Ba-donk-a-donk, a Rapala Skitterwalk, or the Mirrolure Top Dog, or Pop Dog. The popping plugs work good too, but I don’t use them as much in tournaments because I cover less water in a short amount of time when using one of the walking the dog lures that I mentioned above. When fishing for Reds a good steady “Walking the dog” retrieve works best, but when fishing for Trout, a “chug, chug, and sit to a 3-5 count” works for big Trout. To walk the dog you twitch a medium to medium heavy action rod causing the lure to alternate between a left and right motion. Also there is a small bearing in these baits that makes a loud noise that is useful in attracting fish. Topwater can also be used to locate fish when blind casting because of all its attracting capabilities. You should also use a knot that has a loop in it, or If you lazy like me I just use a split ring. This helps to steer the lure in the left or right swirving motion.
For working deeper water I use a jig head. Depending on the depth of the water, makes a difference on the weight of the jig head I like to use. For water less than 3 feet I use a 1/16 oz, and water from 3-5 feet deep I use an 1/8 oz and up to 10 feet deep I use a ¼ oz jig head.
When fishing for trout I generally use a steady retrieve with a DOA CAL series body in Brown and Chartreuse tail, or the Glow color. I also am partial to a Red Jig Head but don’t think it really matters that much to the point that I would only use one color. When fishing for Redfish and Flounder I like to cast out and use the method of pick up, and sit, pick up and sit. This gets the bait in the strike zone for a lot longer time and also attracts the flounder to bite. When fishing for Flounder or Redfish you can also try “Dead sticking’. Dead Sticking is basically letting the Gulp Shrimp or Swimming Minnow to sit in one place for 5-10 seconds before picking up to move it a few feet. I use Gulp product for this tactic cause they smell and that attracts fish to bite.
If you are fishing with live bait you can either buy live bait, put out minnow traps, or use a cast net before fishing. To fish live bait you can use a Popping Cork or CT (Cajun Thunder) and tie 2-3 feet of leader and a hook to the bottom. You put your shrimp on and toss it onto a grass flat and pop the cork every 5-10 seconds. This causes fish to get curious and attracts them to strike the live shrimp.
You can also dead stick live bait or dead bait for Redfish, and Flounder. Some folks use a jig head with live bait and drag it slowly across the bottom or just sit it on the bottom. Others use a Texas or North Carolina rig. You basically have a weight a swivel, a leader about 8-12 inches, and a hook. You put the hook through the live shrimps tail or horn, and cast it out and let it sit on the bottom and wait on a strike. This works on all species.
In addition using a 5/0 worm hook with a 5.5" DOA Glow jerkbait is a great twitch bait. Just run the hook up through the chin of the jerkbait. Thats it, don't thread it unless your fishing in lots of grass. You cast it with the jerkbait lloking like it bit the hook, and it has really great movement when you twitch it back to the yak.
Good luck and keep a tight line.