# TR- Slow day in surfside



## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Hit up some of the marshes North of surfside on Friday (10/2) hoping to get into some classic October redfishing. Was greeted at the ramp with high winds out of North, which was nice bc it kept the swarms of mosquitos that usually hang around the ramp off of me. I ran to the first marsh and found the tide way up, but it was going to be dropping in a few hours so I had hope. Unfortunately, it just wasn't my day. The wind really dirtied up the water which made seeing fish pretty tough and there weren't any signs of fish actively feeding. I'd see mud boils here and there but the fish seemed pretty spread out and laid up off of the shorelines. I covered a bunch of water and had a few shots at some laid up fish but they just weren't having it. I threw crack flies, kwans, clousers, small flies, big flies, you name it. I tried bringing the fly across their face, putting on their nose, dumping it on their head, etc and got nothing but refusals. The tide really started dumping out of the marshes around 10 and I figured that would get them feeding, but it was pretty much the same story. Idk if that little front had them messed up or what. It was a frustrating day to say the least but I guess I'll chalk it up as a learning trip as I did get to work on casting into a pretty stiff wind. 

Any body else fish this weekend?


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## Permit Rat (May 13, 2014)

Wish I had been there to see the reaction of the fish to your fly...like if they spooked or simply refused to eat, after seeing the fly.

We usually associate fish on the flats as feeding fish, but obviously this isn't always true. First off, I bet the north wind moved the bait. This is what happens when there is a wind shift. Second is that when that happens, several species that I have noticed, do not respond well when a prey species "attacks" them. This just ain't normal.

I first noticed this with barracuda on the flats. People who cast out their fly/lure and retrieved it right at the fish's head, often spooked the fish. If we cast _behind_ the fish, oftentimes it would wheel around and at least stalk the offering when it came into view. I don't suggest doing that with a redfish....their eyesight just isn't that good (certainly nowhere near as good as a barracuda's) But what you might try, is a noisy popper cast further out in front of the fish and trying to entice him closer with noise. Just one "pop," and then don't move the fly.....see what happens.

If that doesn't work, then I start looking at outside factors, such as a drop in water temperature, due to the north wind/cool front. I confess to not knowing about redfish, but some fish won't even show up on the flats if the water temperature suddenly drops 4 (or so) degrees, even though that lower temperature might still be well above the species' lower limit of tolerance. I have a lot to learn about redfish, myself. Never fished for them in Winter conditions before.


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Permit Rat said:


> Wish I had been there to see the reaction of the fish to your fly...like if they spooked or simply refused to eat, after seeing the fly.
> 
> We usually associate fish on the flats as feeding fish, but obviously this isn't always true. First off, I bet the north wind moved the bait. This is what happens when there is a wind shift. Second is that when that happens, several species that I have noticed, do not respond well when a prey species "attacks" them. This just ain't normal.
> 
> I first noticed this with barracuda on the flats. People who cast out their fly/lure and retrieved it right at the fish's head, often spooked the fish. If we cast _behind_ the fish, oftentimes it would wheel around and at least stalk the offering when it came into view. I don't suggest doing that with a redfish....their eyesight just isn't that good (certainly nowhere near as good as a barracuda's) But what you might try, is a noisy popper cast further out in front of the fish and trying to entice him closer with noise. Just one "pop," and then don't move the fly.....see what happens.


Thanks for the input, always good to hear some different insight. I didn't try tying on a popper, that could've been the ticket. I never casted from behind them and brought it towards their face. If I'm in that situation I'll usually try to poll into a different position. Most of the shots I had were perpendicular to the fish so I was casting past them then bringing in across it's face out in front at least that's how I'd start. They were ignoring that. Then I'd pick up my cast and drop it closer and closer to its face and just let it fall in front with maybe a little flick or tick before picking it back up. For the most part they'd ignore that too until I'd cast so close that they'd spook.



> If that doesn't work, then I start looking at outside factors, such as a drop in water temperature, due to the north wind/cool front. I confess to not knowing about redfish, but some fish won't even show up on the flats if the water temperature suddenly drops 4 (or so) degrees, even though that lower temperature might still be well above the species' lower limit of tolerance. I have a lot to learn about redfish, myself. Never fished for them in Winter conditions before.


I'm not really sure what it was. The temp had dropped overnight pretty good, but I didn't think it would be enough to move them too much. I mean generally I hate fishing after a front, but from my past experience these first few fronts usually don't mess the fish up too much.

There was also plenty of bait in the area as well, in terms of mullet. The one thing I did notice though was that the shrimp weren't nearly as active as they had been. The last few times I'd been out the reds had really been keying in on shrimp. Friday I'd see shrimp flick every now and then but it wasn't nearly as active as I've been seeing. Part of that could be bc of how high the tide was, but I figured once the tide started dropping out, the shrimp would get pulled out of the spartina grass and the reds would start hammering them. Honestly, I've never seen reds that picky, especially in the fall. Oh well, I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.


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## Top_Dog (Aug 1, 2007)

Like you may have mentioned about post-frontal conditions...the barometric pressure might have been doing something they don't like...clear blue skies, high pressure..


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## Finn Maccumhail (Feb 16, 2009)

Hmmm, I hit the north shoreline of West Bay that same day and found some active reds, the only problem was I couldn't get to them. I don't have a push pole yet for the panga and even though I had plenty of water to float I couldn't run the trolling motor to get to them as they were way up against the grass.


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Finn Maccumhail said:


> Hmmm, I hit the north shoreline of West Bay that same day and found some active reds, the only problem was I couldn't get to them. I don't have a push pole yet for the panga and even though I had plenty of water to float I couldn't run the trolling motor to get to them as they were way up against the grass.


That's the pattern I've been seeing on the south shoreline of west bay since the beginning of september or so don't know why surfside would be much different, but oh well. I'll probably be poking around somewhere in West Bay tomorrow morning. See if I can't shake off this skunk


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