There seems to be no end to the runoff from the past few weeks of rain, and that continues to push fish out of our backwaters. Evidence of all the fresh water in the Gulf is everywhere near shore, and the water is tea-brown from all the tannins being washed into the salt water.
That’s meant we still have lots of reds schooling around river and creek mouths, where we’ve been focusing our fishing in recent days.
Live sardines are the ticket, though shrimp, pinfish and cut bait also work on these fish. Among artificial bait that get it done are spoons, plugs, jigs and soft jerk-type baits.
While reds are a good bet now, we’re not forgetting about snook. The fish are at the end of the summer spawning period and returning to their usual haunts along the coast, hanging in channels and cuts, around mangrove overhangs and in and around the creek and river mouths. In fact, it’s not usual to find reds and snook in many of the same spots, which will be the case over the month or so before snook begin pushing up the rivers for winter.