Chrissy met me before dawn to launch the kayaks into lower Tampa Bay to see if we could get on the redfish action. Armed with just artificials we paddled out shortly after sunrise and started looking. With a stiff east wind it made finding them a little difficult at first, but after checking a few areas we found one that was fairly protected with lots of mullet working.
We hopped out of the kayaks to start wading and it wasn’t long before we were hook up to quality redfish. We caught a handful of redfish and Chrissy picked up a nice flounder at the first area. As the tide came in we moved up the flat and found a school of redfish working, we got a topwater in front of them before they were out of range that resulted in an instant hook up. Unfortunately the plug literally broke and the fish was able to get off. It happens.
By now it was mid day so we decided to make a pit stop at a local restaurant on the water for lunch. After refueling and relaxing on the beach for a little we started working our way back to the launch. On the way we ran into a very cooperative school of fish tailing. Chrissy caught fish out of the school on every cast we made into them until it was too dark to see anymore.
The next evening I headed back out solo with my fly rod to try and get one… After staring at the water for a few hours and a little bit of patience I had one on fly.
Enjoy the pics.
By Spencer Goodwin
