Winter is finally here and the waterways are no longer full of jet skis cutting you off at every turn and snowbirds taking their yachts back down to Florida- time to take advantage of all the open water! The months of January, February, and March are not known for their stellar inshore fishing, but that doesn't mean you can't get into some nice fish inshore.
Reds are about as hearty as fish come, able to survive those occasional freezes that wipe out the trout here. When that water temp dips below 48 degrees, we like to focus our inshore efforts on these guys. Winter reds love to school up in large numbers, so most of the time you are going to find at least 50 of them, or none at all.
Those docks you like to hit with live bait in the summer could still be holding red and black drum. Because water is often so much clearer in the winter, you no longer have to guess if the school is there. Just ease up to some docks and keep looking for a school of fish hanging in the pilings. If they spook off, just sit there for at least 10 minutes and wait for them to return. We like to use cut shrimp or Gulp! in these situations, letting the fish move onto the bait and giving them plenty of time to make their move. Go explore new docks in creeks and larger bays, as you never know which dock could be holding the motherlode this winter.
When the sun is out and the wind is down, those reds are going to move in shallow more often than not. This provides us with some of the best sight fishing opportunities of the year. The dark mud on the flats gets baked in the sun and holds that heat, bringing in the surrounding bait and predators. Get a good pair of polarized glasses and your favorite light inshore rod or 6-8 wt. fly rod and head up onto those flats. These fish won't be moving around quickly like they often do in the summer. We like to go with a soft plastic that requires as little movement as possible so that we can leave it right in front of the fish's face. Gulp! is always an effective option for this style of fishing, but we have had success with Z-Man and Fathom baits as well. Don't forget to downsize that fluoro leader, too. Water is clear enough in the winter to warrant 15/20lb test on your leader, especially when trying to coax a bite out of a school everyone knows about!
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