Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | Sight-fishing redfish is fun and rewarding
Trending
By CAPT. GEORGE TUNISON
You're new to the Southwest Florida redfish sight-fishing game and during polite conversation about the wrong boat you towed all the way here from Connecticut, your neighbor mentions its Red September to soon be followed by Red October and "they're biting!"
After asking who's "they?" Your neighbor politely takes you to school about Southwest Florida fall redfish schooling activity. You've now caught the bug and soon you find yourself at the local tackle shop trying to figure out what lure to buy while you overhear some sun-baked fishy-looking types talking about "happy fish," but you're reluctant to ask what "happy redfish," other than the obvious meaning, of what happy means?
Let me help. The experienced anglers were referring to a single, a pod or a whole school of redfish that are bottom feeding with tails in the air breaking the surface of the water, giving away their location and direction of movement with noses down as they vacuum the shallow hunting grounds for anything alive that might pop up out of the grass only to be inhaled in the blink of an eye, as the school moves across a flat.
Redfish are ravenous. To a fat, healthy and ever-growing red, awake means eating time. Sleeping means hours spent dreaming about breakfast. I have caught them on Spam but not on scrapple. I asked at Walmart about scrapple and they directed me to the games department. Confusing.
Soon you're at the boat dealer trying to sell the wrong boat you towed all the way from Connecticut and the numbers coming out of the dealer's mouth are hurting your ears but you decide to lick your wounds and make the trade anyway. Now you're in a brand new, high-tech poling skiff that costs more than your parents' house backing down the ramp. Mr. Redfish!
Poling a skiff quietly and patiently with the added advantage of height will open up a whole new world for you. You'll be amazed at the fish you would have never seen using an electric motor and how close you'll now be able to get to them.
If you see someone poling a boat in skinny water following a school of fish, please use common sense and courtesy - give them plenty of room. Go out and around.
If you can, plan your redfish sight-fishing trip on an early morning low incoming tide and search the water's surface for low water tails while practicing with that new push-pole. Practice side arm or skip casting to get far back under structures. Practice accurate "pitchin'" techniques to pick apart docks and downed trees. Reds love flies so learn to fly fish -- it's easy!
In your tackle selection, be sure to have at least one 8-foot medium action rod and quality reel spooled with 12 to 15-pound test line. With this long rig you can cast tremendous distances with surface plugs and spoons covering lots of water when search casting or when casting to a spotted school a little far out of range of shorter tackle.
Bring at least one fly rod, maybe an 8 or 9-weight, although a 12-pound red on a 6-weight rod is big fun. Reds love big surface poppers, so bring an assortment of big bugs, also keel flies and Clouser's for subsurface work.
Experienced anglers know that the redfish's nose can smell food a mile away. Quietly anchor or stake out on a flat and put out dead or live baits around the boat. Have patience. Keep quiet. No customers? Move on then set up shop again at your next "hot spot." When fishing mangroves, get your baits as far back and under the limbs as you can but don't let the fish take you too far back under the sticks or it's game-over quickly.
Sight-fishing fall reds is often challenging but rewarding top-notch angling fun.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at 239-579-0461 or via email at captgeorget3@aol.com.