If you fish for redfish then you know they can be frustrating.  Here today and gone tomorrow.  Typically, I start fishing redfish on the south shore of Tampa Bay in the fall, sometime around mid-September depending on the conditions.  Every year conditions change.  Sometimes a little bit, sometimes a lot.  The availability of bait, the abundance of local forage and their locations, cold fronts, storms...they all impact the fish and as a result, we as fisherman are wise to adapt and follow the trends to increase our chances of getting on the fish.

 

This fall started out rather frustrating for me in particular.  Many "spots" I once depended on for fall red's simply did not produce or produced poorly, yielding less and smaller fish than recent years.  Really a blessing in disguise, it encouraged me to go beat some new water and see what I could scratch up.  That's exactly what I did and it seems to have paid off, at least in the short term.  In the last 2 weeks I've spent quite a few hours scouting around and prospecting new water.  When looking for redfish I always seek areas that have the right combination of bottom, current, structure and travel routes you would expect the fish to use when transitioning throughout the different stages of the tide.  If you can find areas like this, it's a good idea to check them out and observe.  The other key is mullet.  Mullet, mullet, mullet!  Red's are often found in or around mullet schools concentrating on the forage they stir up off the bottom.  If you can find the right looking area and see it's populated with mullet, your probably not too far off the mark. 

 

A little frustration early on this fall prompted me to get back to the basics and get back on the move looking for redfish.  That paid off in the last 2 trips.  Fishing brand new areas we've gotten into a bunch of quality fish all the while seeing very few competing boats.  Sometimes you've gotta do a little homework and trust your instincts to find your fish.