Despite a drastic improvement in the weather the last few days, the fishing remains slow. Fresh water has filled the Intracoastal Waterway due to the recent major rain. Time and better tides are needed to get inshore fishing back on track. Full moon tides last week combined with west winds and lots of fresh water all made for big afternoon high tides. Redfish were stacked up around every oyster mound we fished. Most fish were small, in the 16-inch class with the occasional mid-slot fish mixed in. We have been using live pilchards fished under a small float, but live shrimp or small pinfish will also work. Bait has been tricky — there is so much sardine fry along the bridges as well as the grass flats that you can really have a mess on your hands. Even with a quarter-inch mesh cat net you will gill these little sardines. The pilchards mixed in are decent sized so it’s been worth the effort. As the new moon approaches expect fishing to really pick up. Tarpon were biting well along the beaches before the rain started a couple weeks ago and with all the small bait around they should really start to feed when conditions improve.
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