This week has been a turning point in our inshore fishing… at least in my opinion. Over the past weekend we fished the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Red Trout Tournament. No one was really pumped about fishing in 9 foot tides for two tournament days but as it turns out, it wasn’t that bad.

Around high tide there was some beautiful water and it didn’t really flood like it was supposed to. The fishing was tough, but when you found fish you found a lot of them. There really wasn’t any in between. Lots of fish, or no fish.

During this week as the tides have started to settle down the water clarity has vastly improved and you can find plenty of clean water on every tide stage. You might have to move around a good bit but you should have no trouble catching fishing.

Just yesterday we started out and our first stop was covered in Redfish. When we left there we fished two more spots with no luck but in the fourth spot we hammered the Trout. We ran out of bait and switched it up to some clear DOA shrimp with red flake and didn’t miss a beat.

One suggestion on catching Redfish on the float rig; try pinching the head and tail off of your shrimp. The extra “stink” makes all the difference sometimes. I find this especially true if you are fishing an area with very little current. The smell is able to seep out and the fish will come find the bait… that is if the trash fish don’t eat it first.

90 percent of the fish that I’ve caught over the last week have been in 2 to 5 feet of water around shell points. This is when I really like to try to get away from my adjustable corks and swap back to a regular popping cork. My preference, hands down, is the Bomber Paradise Popper with the concave face. I’ve made a believer out of a few people that didn’t think the type of popping cork you use can make a real difference. I won’t go on and on about it, but try one and see what you think. I do suggest that you by the orange ones though, the yellow is very difficult to see.

To rig it up you’ll need to do a couple of important things. Unfortunately, these corks do not work just right straight out of the box. You’ll need to clamp a split shot to the wire just under the beads. This will make the cork stand up perfectly every time. The next thing is to clamp a second split shot about 8 inches above your hook. Make sure you go pretty light with your split shot. You need just enough weight to pull the shrimp down a bit.

That second split shot makes a huge difference. I’ve fished with and without and fished right beside Dad with one of using one and one of us not, and the difference is pretty substantial.

Bull Red Fishing Report for Golden Isles Area

The Bull Reds are certainly still here but it seems like the peak where we could catch 30 and 40 a trip is over. I did hear that there are a lot of mullet in Jacksonville right now and I’m wondering if we aren’t still due for a mullet run although it would be really late. I never really did see a strong run but I’ve been thinking it was because I was off the water for bad weather. Maybe it just never happened.
Either way, if the mullet come through, the Bull Reds might pick it up a notch again.