The highs and lows of summertime redfish.

It's been a busy summer between family, work, and fishing.  I've been on the water with charters and with friends as much as possible, and it's been pretty good here on the coast. 

A lot of my low tide spots have been holding good numbers of redfish.  I love low tide sight fishing for reds.  Even when the water is muddy from wind and rain, it's hard for the fish to hide as they push through inches of water.  On my last trip, we witnessed one redfish inching its way through the water right up against the bank with its entire back exposed.  What a sight as he crawled along, only a few yards from the boat.

The low tide redfish can be picky and spooky at times, so a quiet approach and good caster help.  That being said, when trying to sight cast to individual fish, this is by far one of the coolest ways to go after them.

Mid tide and high tide fish are a lot less spooky, but harder to spot as they easily move below the surface of the deeper water without being seen.  Since they are hard to spot, we rely on blind casting attention getting lures like MirrOlure Top Dogs or flies like poppers and gurglers.  The top water bite can be explosive and really catch an angler off guard when they're not expecting it.  We've caught some really nice reds this summer on the high tide top water bite.

Around the full moon and new moon we get my favorite flood tides that push in high enough to let the redfish enter the grass and tail on fiddler crabs.  We've had some really great tailing tides this summer, with lots of shots at redfish on most trips.  If you haven't seen a redfish doing a headstand in ten inches of water right in front of you, you're missing out.  We should be seeing good tailing redfish at least through the end of September.