This morning myself and Vince a great friend and client set out with one goal in mind to find schools of redfish in clean water to sight fish. But… apparently the wind had other plans for the day. Starting out the morning with a high in coming tide we raced to our first spot a nice oyster coved flat that had some fish on it but it was a little to breezy making it hard to see the fish before they seen us. So we clearly need to find a wind protected bank to fish. We fired up the skiff and started through the maze of flats and creeks, I think myself and Vince were having just as much fun racing around in my skiff as we were having fishing. But then it was back to business up on the platform for me and on the bow for Vince with a nice wind protected area we were able to find a few groups of nice redfish and put a few in the boat. Throwing artificial lure and spinning gear we use very small crustacean and baitfish patterns so we would not spook these redfish because they can be skittish in very clean water. Another great day on the water with a handful of great fish!

With cold weather comes a hot bite in Palm Coast over the past of couple trips. Redfish, flounder, and spotted sea trout being the main target species this week. The low tide bite has been very productive for my anglers. Utilizing the extremely shallow draft of my Hells Bay Professional we can pole our way through very shallow creeks to target the creek holes through-out them. And on todays trip that’s exactly what we did. My angler Scott and myself launched from bings landing park and made the chilly run just north of Matanzas inlet. Targeting redfish we pushed up into some very skinny water bouncing around from hole to hole we tossed live shrimp to these hungry reds. Scott made a lot of great cast and caught a lot of great fish today.

North winds and cold air only mean one thing to anglers in north Florida. Clean water and schooling fish. As temps drop we are seeing the water clearing up around palm coast and Flagler Beach. This provides a great venue for anglers to sight fish redfish with spinning gear or fly rods. As the tide drops these fish can be found around the oyster bars and mud flats, a small shrimp or mud minnow presentation is the perfect way to fool a hungry redfish. These cold fronts also bring with them lots of aggressive sea trout. Fishing the edges of the ICW can be a productive way to get some numbers in the skiff. Paddle tail soft plastics and mirror-lure twitch baits are my favorite ways to target schools of trout.

This morning myself and client John headed out of Bings Landing boat launch in search of redfish, flounder, and sea trout. picking away at the backwater flats and creeks of palm coast and crescent beach that’s exactly what we found. With a well full of live shrimp and mud minnows we fished creeks many different ways caught all of our targeted species redfish, flounder, and trout, bingo John got himself a grand slam!

Fishing has been anything but slow here in palm coast over the past few weeks. With a great variety of fish hiding in creek holes on the lower stages of the tide, this a great time to take advantage of what I like to call “fish in a barrel”. Free lining jumbo live shrimp, head hooked with a size one thin wire circle hook can produce strikes from trout and redfish. After free lining some shrimp I like to tail hook live shrimp on a 1/4 oz jig head and see if any fish are hanging low in the holes, this is a great way to catch redfish flounder black drum and the occasional sheepshead. Also colder temps mean clean water here in palm coast and with that being said open flats can be a great place to target schooling redfish. A three inch paddle tail rigged on a 1/8oz jig head is a great bait to target schooling reds with, also a live shrimp on a 1/4oz jig will work great. And for the fly anglers a olive colored shrimp pattern or natural baitfish patterns are sure to fool a hungry redfish.