Great Weather and Fishing in the Hernando Beach Cuts.

This was one of the better days fishing in the Hernando Beach cuts. Based on the recent trips to the cut, I thought it might be a difficult day fishing. But it was nice to be wrong.

We stopped at the Hernando Beach channel turn marker on the way to the cuts and the whitebait was plentiful. At the time I was hoping that there was not too much bait around. Last week when I fished the cuts there was so much bait that the fish did not try very hard to chase the bait.

The first cut we fished was marker number 21. After about 10 minutes I was about to move and just happened to look along the edge of the rocks and saw a couple of redfish cruising toward us.

The first redfish was 29 inches, just a little too big. I saw two other redfish chasing this one as I brought it to the boat. This one looked to be the biggest out of the group.

I released this one an grabbed another bait.

About a minute later I had the another redfish on. This time it was just over 23 inches and coming home for dinner.



I tossed out another bait and as soon as the bait hit the water I saw a fish come up from the bottom to hit the bait. Typically redfish do not do that and as it turns out it was 25 inch snaggled tooth trout.

After the trout things slowed way down. I could not see any more fish cruising the sand edges of the rocks. I was about to move when we hooked up with big sting ray. It pulled the boat through the cut, so I decided to move to the next cut to the west. The first fish was a decent trout about 23 inches.

I watched for redfish along the edges and not long after we got there I saw 3 redfish laying in along the edge. The next redfish came in at 26 inches and filled our limit. We had plans to have grilled redfish for our guest and did not want to disappoint our dinner guest.


After I caught that fish a school of over sized redfish moved in to the cut and it was no longer fishing, it was catching! We caught big redfish non-stop for the next hour. The best part about this was that I could see the redfish stacked up on the east side of the cut. So this was sight fishing while anchored. You do get to do that very often. There was a small school of whitebait and a school of redfish chasing them. I added couple of split shots to the line to get the bait closer to the bottom and slow the bait down so the redfish would have no trouble catching my bait. Everything bait that hit the water was greeted by a hungry redfish.

I took care of releasing each fish making sure it was revived

We had plenty of rod bending action

At this point we where getting tired, my wife hooked that last fish and it was the biggest fish of the day. She decided it would be best if she fought this fish marlin style...

The redfish put up a great fight.

After about a 15 minute fight I revived the last fish. We decided it was time to go swimming and relax after a great day fishing. When we left the redfish where still chasing baits and I'm sure we could have caught many more fish. However it is important not to over stress too many fish, especially in the same school. These fish will lay millions of eggs that will ultimately produce many more fishing/catching days like today!


Good Luck
zippyjr
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Tide : Falling 0.7 3:28pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: Third Quarter 45% full
Temp: 92F
Water Temp : 85F
Wind: 5-10 W mph
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 10 Over slot Redfish - 3 Redfish 23-26 - 3 Trout - 1 Jack - 1 Big String Ray.

Sight Fishing For Redfish.

One of my favorite types of fishing is sight fishing. Fishing the shallow water offers a great opportunity to sight fish. I fish a lot in Centipede bay where there are many winding creeks and redfish. But if you look at most of the west coast of Florida, Centipede bay looks about the same as most other areas. So this sight fishing methodology would apply to almost any shallow water area in Florida.

The number one thing you have to remember when you are sight fishing, is that you are really stalking; not fishing. This means you have to be very quiet and stealthy. So before you begin, take a look at your boat and see what you can do to make it more stealthy. Some things you will want to look are;

• Where you keep your tackle. Your tackle should be easily accessed with out having to open any hatches or move anything to get to your tackle. I use a small divided box with a lid that will hold everything I need and keep near my casting platform.
• Tools should be kept in a safe but easily accessible area. One thing that many anglers will do is to toss their pliers down on the floor. This will spoke most redfish that are near by.
• Where you stand while fishing, you will want to make sure that there are no creeks when you move around in this area. You may need to tighten screws or put down a foam mat. I built a casting platform and attached the deck using rubber cushion to limit any noise.
  
• Rocking the boat, this is almost as bad as bang the side of the boat. Fish are pressure sensitive and when your boat rocks it sends out pressure waves that the fish can pick up. While they may not take off running, they may spoke enough to make them wary of any bait you offer them.
• If you are going to use live bait, make sure you can get to the bait easily without making noise. Also make sure you have a net near the live well. On my live well I have a latch that will hold the hatch door open and out of the way.
• If you are using lures, have a couple of extra lures in a small box to keep with you while you are fishing.
• Keep the deck clear, you will want to be able to move from bow to stern without having to step over or on anything besides the deck.
• Your landing net should be out and ready to be used.

Now that you have stealtherized your boat, you are ready to sight fish. The best bait to use is shrimp. They are easy to keep and redfish love them and you do not need a live well. You can put them in a bag or small bucket with some ice and they will keep for hours and still be lively a few minutes after you take them off the ice.

The best place to start looking is in the creeks.

View Sight Fishing in a larger map

As you start to move in to the creek, take you time and go slow. If you rush through you will only see the redfish running scared. If you have a trolling motor set it to the slowest speed, or if you're lucky and can find someone to pole you around, make sure they are quiet. Typically I look for areas where there will be grass between the boat and the area I want to look.
This is an area that is not too far in and will typically hold fish. Once hooked the redfish will run out of this cove, so you will need to be ready to move which ever direction the redfish takes you. Other areas are much larger and still offer a protected spot you can peak in and see if any redfish are home, with out the redfish seeing the boat. You do have to be careful they can see you and if you make any fast movements and the redfish will run.

Next time you have a few hours to fish, pick up some live jumbo and give sight fishing a try. Once you experience sight fishing it's hard to go back to the bait and wait method.

Good Luck
Zippyjr