Redfish In The Shallows

Catching redfish in the shallows is the norm in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge here in central Florida.

This afternoon I decided to fish an area in the refuge where I missed a nice black drum this past week.

In the summer, this area is usually high and dry but this time of the year, the mud flats are covered with enough water to attract both redfish and black drum in good numbers.

I cast netted some mud minnows for bait and headed for the spot which was already taken up by a fellow angler I sometimes see fishing the area.

I pulled up past where he was fishing and after asking if he minded me putting in near him I loaded up a spinning rod with a small mud minnow and one of my casting rods with a peeled frozen shrimp juiced up with a bit of Pro-Cure gel scent. 

I introduced myself to Brandyn and discovered that he is a reader of this site.  He said that before I pulled up, he hooked a nice size black drum on shrimp but lost the fish as he was trying to land it at the bank.

We relaxed and enjoyed the day until my bait casting reel started clicking with a fish on.

I got to the rod, set the hook on the fish and asked Brandyn if he would mind taking a video of the action.

He agreed so I gave him the rod and went for my trusty Nikon CoolPix while he was fighting the fish below.


I gave Brandyn the camera while I finished landing the redfish as he took this respectable video (above) of the action.

The slot sized fish measured in at just over 26 inches and had swallowed the hook too deep to retrieve, so I cut the line just just above the hook, took a few still pics (below) and released the red to fight another day.

I normally don't keep the fish I catch unless they are too far gone to release, but this fish was in pretty good shape so after a few "swishes" it quickly swam off into the shallows.

I never got a hit on the mud minnow so I swapped it for another dead shrimp and sat around waiting for something else to bite.

Although we saw several fish tailing in the shallows, I never got another hit.

Being the impatient individual that I am, I couldn't sit much longer in one spot and since it was getting late, I decided to pack it up and head for some leftover turkey.

I learned that Brandyn drives out to the area from Orlando at least once a week to fish and that he never saw black drum or redfish tailing like they were today so I gave him my leftover mud minnows to use for bait.

Generally, mud minnows are redfish "candy" and when catching redfish in the shallows will catch larger fish if they are in the area.

The fish that were tailing today were both black drum and redfish.

On the way home I told my wife about the area and she will probably come fishing with me tomorrow if weather conditions permit.

Till next time, Tight Lines.