Redfish and Trout Tactics/June issue Woods n Water
Capt. James Pic
July 17, 2009
Panama City - Saltwater Fishing Report
Got rained out this morning so I thought we could talk a little more about redfish and trout.
To continue about reds and topwater. Below is a photo from my archives that I caught last summer at Crooked Island Sound on my favorite topwater bait; Zara Spook Jr. There are several colors that I like, bone being one of my favorites. As for reds and topwater. Notice the way a reds mouth opens and closes. It is hinged so the bottom jaw is the only one that opens. Unlike a trouts mouth that opens both on the to and bottom much like a bass. The way the mouth opens on a red is why they are so hard to hook on topwater. Redfish in shallow water will hit a topwater in a heartbeat. The problem most people have is patience. You see, redfish have to roll over when they hit a topwater bait to get it into its mouth. In shallow water he cannot come up vertically from the bottom and take a topwater into his mouth. The patience part and the true secret to catching redfish on towater is to allow the fish to hit the lure as many times as he has to for a hook set. You may end up hooking him under the chin or on top of the head as much as the mouth, but in my book you don't deduct points just because he wasn't hooked square in the mouth. Picture this, it happened a few weeks ago; I was working my Zara walking the dog slowly back and forth....I watched a wake rise and come up behind the lure in about a foot and a half of water. My client, Bob Bain, was amazed that he hit it four times before I got a hook set. The secret is I never stopped working the lure through the first three hits until he took it the fourth time. Most of the people I know would have stopped the bait on the first hit or attempted to set the hook, pulling it away from the fish. The trick and real secret is to allow the fish to hook themselves because most of the time if you stop the bait forget it and of course if you attempt to set the hook and miss the fish he's looking for the bait while your pulling it out of your leg or ear. Patience is crucial when fishing for reds on topwater.
The real truth is that redfish are very easy to catch. Thus the redfish tour. Yes, they can be stubborn some days but mostly they are like anything else and can be caught on a regular basis. Don't let anyone fool you, anyone can catch them. The fact that they are easy to catch and fight like hell is why we have all of these redfish tournements everywhere.
As for that, when I was growing up we hardly ever caught redfish. Only after they were classified as a game fish and protected did the come back in big numbers. Now, the numbers are good but the fish get hammered by the tour people coming to our area. Not only to they hammer OUR fish for a week they tear up our flats with reckless disregaurd for a paycheck.
This winter I will be spending a lot of time becoming an advocate to prohibit redfish tournements in our bay or if they want to have them tax them to the point that it's so expensive they won't have them here. I think every person in our area that respects the redfish fishery should get behind this movement that is going to start in the near future.
Trout. Trout are the real booger. If big trout were easy to cathc there would be a trout tour out there. That is the fish I grew up catching. When I was a kid you could see me most summer days riding my bike up to the baily bridge with my red/white mirror lure to trout fish. We used to catch a lot of them. If there was one fish that is my specialty that would be it. When I say "nobody can do what I do" I'm talking about catching big trout on a regular basis. There are some locals that are as good as I and I have fished with and against them. One of the legendary names is Gary Messick. Gary's mother and my mother used to be very close frieds while I was growing up. Trout is what we did back in the 70's and 80's. Like I said there are locals that are as good as I at finding big trout but there is no one guiding around here that comes close. If you want to get some good info on trout tactics check out my article in the June issue of Woods and Water Magazine. I will have a follow up on how to find them in the September or October issue.
Heres a few pictures of trout, ALL CAUGHT THIS YEAR, to show you what kind of fish I'm talking about.
Last, I get emails non stop from people asking me questions. I don't mind helping people out with tips and such but I never talk about my spots. Thank you for respecting that.
Panama City Fishing Forecast:
Fishing is good.
Target Species:
All the players are here. All species are available.
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