How To Scout For Bull Redfish On The Flats (New Exploration Trip)
- By: Justin Ritchey
- on
The mullet are coming to town and the flats and shallows will be a mullet frenzy very soon.
And while scouting new flats can have its challenges, the benefits of a good scouting trip are priceless!
Check out some tips on fishing new flats down below and what you’ll need for a successful scouting mission.
How To Scout For Bull Redfish On The Flats [VIDEO]
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Mullet have been spotted in areas along the Atlantic and things are about to heat up!
The bull redfish are going to start showing up along the flats to feed on these pods of mullet.
On this trip, I wanted to scout early morning.
It’s best to throw some topwater lures to entice some bites and use this as your search tool.
The Moonwalker or the Rapala Skitterwalk are fantastic lures for this application.
And for this time of year, the Slam Shady Bomber is also an essential lure!
On the other hand, if big redfish are not chasing mullet pods, it will be useful to have the Power Prawn.
The Power Prawn presents itself as an easy meal to a redfish buried in the mud.
And while the trout came out to play, there was not much action from my target species.
So I moved on to Plan B!
After cruising the shorelines and finding some broken branches along the mangroves, redfish were piled up in groups of 2-3 but had no interest in biting lures.
Then the water became murky so that warranted the change-up to the gold digger paddletail.
And BOOM!
After sighting a belly-crawling redfish, I was able to cane pole it next to the kayak!
Conclusion
The big schools of mullet will be popping up any time soon and that will attract the bull reds to the flats.
It is a good idea to have a backup plan and shift gears if the main approach is not working so you can put yourself in a better position to catch more fish.
It is vital to pick up on fish patterns and know that 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water because then you can apply that knowledge to find fish ANYWHERE!
Have any questions about this trip?
Let me know in the comments below!
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Nice redfish Justin !!!! That was awesome as he hit the gold digger so close to the kayak
Thanks Pablo! I’m still in disbelief I was able to pull that one off. Haha
You guys!!! This is the content I love to watch. Seeing the guys I learn the most from, catching fish like fishing YouTubers. Good work Justin on all of those solid catches and for putting together a great vid that was casually informational, but also featured a lot of fish catching! Can’t wait to see more like this.
Pa-POW! Yeah Buddy! Thanks Tristan. I’ll definitely be making more videos like this in the future.
What brand net where you using?
I am using a Frabill Floating Trout Net with Coated Mesh Netting (to help protect the slime coat on the fish). Floating Trout Net | FRABILL | Fly-Fishing Nets
Yea we here in northeast fl have murky water at least 75 percent of the year with exceptions of late fall all thru winter and very early spring and while sight fishing is popular where your fishing it’s only done here on an occasional basis on which I have only witnessed on several in all my 20 years fishing inshore Florida waters but one of my favorite baits for fall fishing summer and spring for reds as well as flounder is the gold bladed paddletail spinnerbait in murky water a chartruese tail is a must tipped with a small piece of fishbites and a slight bit of procure fish scent in either flounder pounder or inshore scent and slowrolled on the bottom by oyster mounds or scattered oysters near grass lines or pitched under docks by pickings is a hard bait to beat and all I know is it works for me!😉😁
Were you paddling all day, 8-9+ miles? Amazing the way you have that kayak rigged. What kind of investment?
Yessir, 8-9 Miles just up & down the open flats. I probably zig-zagged 4x from Beacon 42 all the way up to WSEG and then back down again, covering depths of 2′ all the way out to 5′ (hoping to mark a School with my Fish Finder). I’m fishing out of a Hobie Outback 12′ Pedal Drive Kayak. All together I think I have about $2,500 invested in the kayak. But it takes me wherever I want to go!
Great footage. When that red took off, for a second I felt like I needed to start feeling it in. Love the on the water kayak videos!
Haha! Glad you liked the video, Andrew!
Was looking for reds in the wabasso area yesterday caught a cute little goliath grouper on the Fred paddle tail mullet were everywhere no reds just a couple small snook fun day anyway.
I bet some of those Reds are tucked back inside Preachers Island right now! Hope you find them on your next trip Michael!
A buffet of lures, how could they resist!!! Great video
A “Smorgasbord”, if you will. $5 word of the day!
Great video. I love how you talk to the fish because I do the same thing.
I talk to the fish (and myself) all the time on the water! 🙂 Gotta give myself some motivational support out there sometimes!
Great video Justin!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in that same situation with the fish so close just to scare it off. Great job on getting it done!
My favorite part was when you said “Don’t do weird stuff”, I about spit my drink out! I’ve thought that same thing. Always an adventure fighting fish in a kayak!
Can’t wait for the bulls to start schooling!
Haha! Full Panic Mode set in when the fish realized he had no where he could swim! From seeing the fish, getting him to eat, not having him tangle me in the mangroves, etc: the whole situation aligned perfectly. Hope I see you out on the flats soon my friend!