A blog about boats, fishing, water sports and having fun on the ocean
What is the best bait for red fish?
by
During the spring, the best baitfish to use are mullet, pilchards, greenies or pogies. Although redfish also eat shellfish and crabs, they’ll eat the prey that’s easiest. If you’re not able to get some live bait, you also can use dead bait too. Use a 7/0 hook and put some mullet fillet on it.
Anglers can play into a redfish’s senses of sight and smell to draw them to the swimming lure by using scented plastics in the middle of the water column, where both senses are essential. If scented plastics are unavailable, adding a small piece of crab or shrimp to the hook can help lure redfish in.
How deep do you fish for redfish?
You can catch redfish from just about any water depth from 6 inches in the back country shallows to more than 100 feet deep when you are fishing the offshore reefs, wrecks and oil rigs.
What is the best bait for red fish? – Related Questions
How do beginners catch redfish?
If the reds are near baitfish or sitting motionless, throw poppers. Free swimmers at the surface, floating “high and happy,” make easy targets. When reds are moving with purpose, cast baits out in front to make sure they see them. Sometimes redfish will be in water so skinny that their back sticks out.
What’s the best time to catch redfish?
Late summer into early fall is when Redfish start showing regularly around jetties, increasing in numbers through fall and early winter during annual spawning runs. That’s the best time of year to catch the biggest ones, but fortunately, redfish are available all year long, especially in the Florida area.
What color bait do redfish like?
Finally, wherever you go, redfish like the color gold. Everyone knows that a simple gold spoon is a redfish staple, and for good reason. Having some baits littered with gold flake, like Golden Boy or the new Beer Run color, is always a good idea when reds are the target.
How do you rig live crab for redfish?
What pound test is good for redfish?
Generally, a 20-30 pound braid is just what you need for redfish. A 15-pound leader for small redfish and speckled trout and a 20-30 pound leader for big red bulls. You can go lighter but risk losing bigger redfish.
What size hook is best for redfish?
Hook Size for Redfish: So you may be wondering what the best size hook is for catching redfish with white bait. I recommend 1/0 to 3/0 size circle hooks. For small white bait (2-3″) I usually use smaller 1/0 size circle hooks to avoid affecting the way the bait swims.
A lineup of the best artificial baits for redfish wouldn’t be complete without a soft-plastic shrimp. The D.O.A Shrimp, Z-Man EZ ShrimpZ, and LiveTarget Rigged Shrimp are the cream of the crop.
What tide is best for redfish?
The best tide for redfish fishing is the incoming low tide. The redfish are the first fish to move onto the flats when the tide changes from dead low to incoming. Redfish like to have first choice for the shrimp, crabs, snails and fish that got trapped in pot holes and small tidal creek channels.
What do redfish eat at night?
It will be full of small minnows, swimming crabs, and especially shrimp. These small-fry come to the lights because their food—tiny little plankton and other water creatures—are attracted to the lights. Speckled trout and redfish come to the lights because their food (minnows, crabs, and shrimp) come to lights.
Are redfish top or bottom feeders?
A redfish’s diet consists mostly of smaller fish, shrimp, clams, worms, and crabs. They’re primarily bottom feeders, but can be aggressive and feed much higher in the water column if the opportunity arises.
Do redfish like crab?
Blue crab is a staple food for Redfish and Black Drum. If you have ever accidentally hooked one of these fish deep in the throat, you may have heard a grinding and crunching sound as these are the pharyngeal teeth, or “crushers,” in the back of the fish’s mouth crushing down on your hook.
You won’t find feeding redfish in just any area of shallow water. My two favorite spots to find them are dead-end creeks or coves and open flats combined with some sort of structure. You’ll often find reds cruising shorelines, feeding around oyster bars, or hunting near seagrass.
What do redfish like to eat?
This is known as the “bull redfish run.” Young red drum feed on small crabs, shrimp, and marine worms. As they grow older, they feed on larger crabs, shrimp, small fish, and sometimes their cousins, the Atlantic croaker. They generally are bottom feeders but will feed in the water column when the opportunity arises.
Where is the best place to catch a redfish?
You’ll want to concentrate on finding the flats where reds congregate at low tide, usually oyster beds that allow the fish access to grass beds where they will feed at high tide. Areas where you find low tide flats and high tide grass in close proximity are likely to hold lots of reds.
How do you catch redfish from shore?
Can you use bass lures for redfish?
Redfish will eat anything that a bass will eat so all of your soft plastics and hard lures will work. You may need to upgrade some of your hooks though.