Pine Island Sound Redfish Took Some Hunting

I'll start by saying this wasn't an easy redfish trip.

We covered quite a bit of Pine Island Sound before putting together a decent morning.

The first shoreline looked perfect. Good water, mullet everywhere and plenty of activity—but after 30 minutes we had exactly one small snook to show for it.

Our second stop wasn't much better.

Instead of continuing to run shorelines, we moved onto the grass and started drifting for trout.

That produced almost immediately.

We caught around a dozen trout over the next hour, mostly smaller fish with several nice ones mixed in. A 3-inch paddletail on a light jighead was all we needed.

Once we had some action under our belts, we went back looking for redfish as the tide got higher.

This time we found them.

The reds were sitting farther underneath the mangroves than expected, and accurate casts were important. We landed four redfish, lost another and caught two additional snook before calling it a morning.

Nobody is going to call four redfish a world-class bite, but after the way the morning started, we were happy to find them.

The grass flats have been the more dependable option when the shoreline bite gets difficult.

What's Working

• 3-inch paddletails over grass
• Live bait underneath mangroves
• Higher stages of the tide for redfish
• Grass flats for consistent trout action

Captain's Take: If the mangroves aren't producing, don't spend three hours forcing it. The trout have been much more cooperative.