Redfish behavior

[State82]

Went to south LA this past weekend for some redfishing. Really good water movement but the results were very disappointing. I was told it was because of the full moon. I had not heard that before but a guy told me his worst trips over the years have been on full moon cycles. Any of you guys experienced this?

[SpeckleDawg]

Not sure where you were, but we fished Hopedale a few weeks ago and couldn't buy a redfish. We had to work hard for the trout, but caught a decent mess. The west winds down this way had been brutal for several weeks, resulting in some very dirty water. I keep a spreadsheet of tides/moon/weather/etc for each trip and I've never noticed any ugly patterns based on a full moon. I'm no professional, so take that with a grain of salt. Sometimes they just don't want to cooperate...

[BeastMan]

I've heard mixed things regarding the moon but what I know for fact is that we are in the dog days of summer and nothing wants to cooperate in this hot water. For anything inshore it's a day break bite and that's basically it for shallow water. The sharks are owning this hot salty water right now

[MSUDawg4Life]

It depends on who you ask.

Some people say fishing is best three days before or three days after a new or full moon..

The tide and moon phase chart I use (LINK) always has the best days for fishing around a new or full moon. Including the day of a new or full moon.

One thing I can almost guarantee about south Louisiana is that there was somebody catching redfish close to where you were on the very day you were there. And they probably posted the pictures on the internet. The fish were eating. Sometimes they are just tough to find.

[BrunswickDawg]

Any of y'all have any luck fishing for Reds with live fiddler crabs? My Dad has started catching them in the marsh behind his house to use for bait. Supposed to be better for getting Reds at low tide.

[BeastMan]

Any of y'all have any luck fishing for Reds with live fiddler crabs? My Dad has started catching them in the marsh behind his house to use for bait. Supposed to be better for getting Reds at low tide.

I've never used fiddler crab but I hear they are crack for sheepshead. I've caught more redfish with bull minnows and bait shrimp under a polling cork than any other bait. Also catch them on vudu and swimbaits. I know people tear the Bulls up on cracked crab but I never target Bulls purposely.

[FISHDAWG]

Not sure where you were, but we fished Hopedale a few weeks ago and couldn't buy a redfish. We had to work hard for the trout, but caught a decent mess. The west winds down this way had been brutal for several weeks, resulting in some very dirty water. I keep a spreadsheet of tides/moon/weather/etc for each trip and I've never noticed any ugly patterns based on a full moon. I'm no professional, so take that with a grain of salt. Sometimes they just don't want to cooperate...

I know the flounder giging sucked last weekend and before ... mostly cause it was hard to find some clean water (don't know if the moon had anything to do with it or not)

[SpeckleDawg]

I've never used fiddler crab but I hear they are crack for sheepshead. I've caught more redfish with bull minnows and bait shrimp under a polling cork than any other bait. Also catch them on vudu and swimbaits. I know people tear the Bulls up on cracked crab but I never target Bulls purposely.

I've also only used fiddlers for sheepshead, but after learning a new way to cook sheepshead, I may target them a lot more. Also as Beast mentioned, cracked blue crab is great for redfish.

[State82]

I've also only used fiddlers for sheepshead, but after learning a new way to cook sheepshead, I may target them a lot more. Also as Beast mentioned, cracked blue crab is great for redfish.

What's your recipe for the sheepshead?

[SpeckleDawg]

What's your recipe for the sheepshead?

Guess I should have included that... It's very simple and I can't believe I had never heard of this method.

Get a pot of water seasoned and boiling just like you would for shrimp/crawfish/crabs (I prefer Pro-Boil), tie up the sheepshead filets in a piece of cheesecloth, drop it in the boiling water and cut the heat, cover the pot and let it sit for ~10 minutes. When you pull it out, the texture is just like crab meat and tastes great with that seasoning.

Again this is nothing new (just new to me), but my goodness it was delicious. It would make a great topping in the place of crab meat, but it was just as good by itself.

[BeastMan]

To kind of get back to the op, I think speck really hit on something with clean water. Regardless off all the orther conditions, finding clean water is the key for trout and also important for reds but not as important. I've fished no tide days where the water was fairly clean and a light wind pushed water around a point and that little bit of moving water was the key for the Reds.

[Uncle Ruckus]

Apparently they're not biting anywhere. Did a charter down in the Bahamas and caught kings and barracuda. I told them I could do that any day here. The wife did catch an enormous barracuda though that wore her ass out. She has some battle scars from the fight. Probably close to 50lbs.