Bull Redfish Running Late!

We fished HARD all weekend for Bull Redfish... I mean HARD. St. Simons and Jekyll are normally covered with these heavy hitters by now... However, everything is a month behind this season, it seems...
My bad thoughts were early on this as I told Bob Rowell while we struck out across the ocean on Saturday morning crossing the St. Simons Island shipping channel.. "The water is green, I said to Bob.. That's a problem. If it's too clear, we aint got a chance"

That is one thing about the Bull Redfish I can tell you from the last 20 years of fishing for them... THEY DO NOT LIKE CLEAR WATER in the breakers off the Georgia Coast. The nastier, the better it seems. Northeast Wind, big tides, crashing waves across the bars and horrible conditions prove best when hunting for large beach side redfish. Quite the opposite of what most people look for and for most other species as well.

We managed a couple of fish on Sunday on an un-planned excursion.. I had to re-deem after Saturday and I noticed late Saturday night a frontal boundry was pushing through causing a stiff W-NW wind on the water. I knew that water would be nastier on Sunday... So, last minute, we rounded it up at about 11 PM to go out Sunday morning.

I worked hard again on Sunday to catch Reds. These were off St. Simons in the dirtiest water I could find, and It still wasn't like I would have liked to see, but we caught Redfish. NOTICE HOW SILVER THESE GIRLS ARE. THEY ARE JUST GETTING HERE. The beachside water will change their color to a much, much darker shade as it stains their scales after the fish are on the beach for a couple of weeks. These fish just came in from offshore... THEY ARE ONLY A MONTH LATE!! But, we're thankful they're showing up.

Good Fishing to All!

Capt. TJ Cheek
Costa Del Mar Pro Guide
St. Simons Fishing Guide