January 14th trip

Jason Barnes and I decided to brave the chilly weather, and go scout out some new spots for redfish.  By the time we had run a few miles down the intracoastal waterway, I was wishing I had put on a few more layers of clothes.  The temps were in the low 40's, and my fingers had gone from numb to burning as we approached our first creek of the morning. 

The first thing I noticed was that the water was the color of chocolate milk.  The SW wind over the last few days had turned the ocean to mud and the incoming tide was bringing it into the creeks.  We pushed along for a while before we found clear water.  After about an hour of searching small creeks and bays without the first sign of life, I decided to make a run to a few creeks that would hold some warmer water. 

The first creek we poled had several schools of black drum working in clear water, but no reds.  We made our way into the next creek and came into a school of reds hanging around an oyster bar.  The school was spread out and we could see single fish moving through the shallows in different directions.  Jason made a cast to an oyster bar and had his fly inhaled by a redfish.  The line came tight and it made a run under the boat and headed off in the opposite direction.  The fish came to the boat for a quick release, and I took my turn on the front of the boat.  We came around the corner and saw a half dozen fish cruising the bank in skinny water.  I put a cast in front of them and they spooked and turned up a ditch and litterally came out of the water climbing over oysters as they pushed up the ditch.  A few minutes later I saw a single fish working about 60ft away.  I put about 3 casts in front of him as he swam along, having him ignore each cast.  We called it a morning at that point and ran back to the dock.