Crystal River - Saltwater Fishing Report

August 12th, 2008

Topwater Redfishing!!!!!

What makes inshore light tackle fishing so special? Is it the variety of species an angler can pursue? Is it the awesome scenery? Is it the anticipation of the one-on-one battle that every angler looks forward to?

In my opinion what makes inshore light tackle fishing so awesome is the combination of all of the above mentioned factors plus every once in a while a little spice can be thrown in for an added bonus. Inshore fishing is always very consistent when live bait is used. Most inshore game fish love a piece of shrimp, crab, pinfish, pigfish, mullet, ladyfish or whitebait. But what I like to do from time to time is make a fish do something they normally would not do.

For instance on a few of my recent charters we have been stalking large Redfish using only TopWater lures. Now, when someone hears that a Redfish has been caught on a Topwater they usually don't think much about it. But if you take a second and think about feeding patterns of Redfish you would understand that they are primarily scavengers or bottom feeders. To get a Redfish to hit a Topwater is a challenge in its self mainly because you take a predatory fish whose primary mission when searching for food is to find easy things to eat on the bottom and you turn him into a leaping and hard charging feeding machine when a Topwater approaches his territory. For those of you who have never experienced a Redfish explode on a Topwater it can only be compared to a Bass inhalation on steroids. The explosion of the bite is so furious that many of my clients fish for the strikes and not the actual fish.

On my last few Topwater trips my clients and I have left the dock before daylight. I like to try and get out just about 30 minutes before sunrise if possible because I have found that most fish aren't nearly as shy about hitting a Topwater when the sun is low compared to when the sun is directly overhead. My favorite lures to throw early in the morning are large Walk-the-Dog style lures including Rapala SkitterWalks and Heddon ZaraSpooks. On July 29th I had the opportunity to take out a 12 year old up and coming fishermen Brandon Branch. This kid was amazing and could literally throw and retrieve every lure in my tackle box. He and I spent the early part of our morning targeting Reds and were rewarded with 12 explosions with 7 Reds landed. All of our fish were keepers between 22 and 26 inches with one being a bruiser at 29". I am 100% sure that if an early morning thunderstorm didn't roll in on top of us he and I could have caught another dozen, but that's summertime fishing.

So if awesome explosions and hard charging fights is what gets your blood boiling, give Red Hot Fishing Charters a call today we are in t he fishing memories business.