I have been getting out a good bit this summer early before it gets too hot, fishing various tides. The only thing I have not done is any flood tide fishing. Recently, there has been a lot of bait with very active Redfish feeding on all tide cycles, cruising in the grass and belly crawling in almost no water. I have been a little surprised that with all the rain it never shut them down, I think the rain/cloud cover kept the water temps down and helped fishing. As others have said, in some areas they seem to be very stubborn and unwilling to eat fly or soft plastic even though they are actively feeding. The fish I have been catching are all way over slot, the biggest being around 35” which has been a lot of fun on light tackle.
They have all caught in a foot of water or less on open flats, I have been getting eats on anything fished slow in natural/darg colors. I gave the Zman prawnstar a shot recently and have really good success on it with stubborn fish, fishing it very slow across the bottom.
I have also been spending more time tarpon fishing and have a pretty good year throwing only throwing artificials, after loosing a few I have had some success on fish in the 100-150lb class. No pictures of them as I do most my fishing alone and too much going on to try and get pictures while also fighting them.
Lastly, my old net finally gave out and I threw one together with an old tennis request and as you can see in the picture it’s not quite big enough. If any one has an y recommendations on a landing net let me know, I’m looking for a new one.
Nice report. I’ve been using a couple of the EGO rubber nets over the past 5 years and really like them. They have a very durable rubber net that doesn’t get fouled up with hooks and such, even when Mirrolure’s/Spooks with treble hooks are involved.
On the skiff I use an S1 with a medium rubber net, and it has a detachable 25” handle. I prefer this setup to the S2, which has a sliding extension handle.
On the kayak I use the wade series with a medium rubber net, it has a short 11” handle. I wish the handle screwed off on this one so I could interchange them depending how I’m fishing, but unfortunately it’s fixed on the wade series.
The medium size net will handle 35” reds just fine, I’ve had a few instances of needing to get bigger bulls in them, and it’s pretty much get their head in and grab their tail at that point.
I like it a lot, I’ve had a few center consoles and I prefer the side. The Side console opens up the boat allows you to walk on the center line keeping the boat more steady. The space never feels congested, like you will get on a center console and I really don’t mind the driving position. I think overall it makes it a better fishing platform.
Ive been using this net for the past 5 or 6 years. Folds down easy and fits in a hatch. I have broken the handle loose lifting a big fish. I just re glued it with a 2 part epoxy and it’s been rock solid ever since.
