These are 3- to 4-inch minnows that seem irresistible to the tasty flatfish, as well as to redfish. If you’d like to take home some flounder-and who wouldn’t?-opt for live killifish, aka “bull minnows,” which are often available at area baitshops at this time of year. Shrimp imitations like the DOA Shrimp, LIVETARGET Shrimp and the Egret Lures Vudu Shrimp can also be very effective-fish them dead slow, just like a live shrimp, for best results. Fishing a piece of cut shrimp straight down in this chum, with enough weight to keep the bait close to the piling, often results in heavy catches. It’s also possible to attract sheepshead to pilings of bridges and large docks by knocking the barnacles off the pilings, creating a chum line of busted shell and meat. You go through a lot of shrimp, but you also catch a lot of sheepshead. However, some anglers who target sheepshead do well by dispensing of the soft plastic jig tail completely, and replacing it with the tail section of a fresh shrimp threaded all the way onto the hook. The scent also makes the artificial much more attractive to sheepshead and flounder.Īvoid big chunks of shrimp-they ruin the action of the lure. It can also be very helpful to put a tiny bit of “sweetener” on the jig hook-a sliver of fresh-cut shrimp about the size of a pencil eraser adds scent, and that sometimes doubles the number of bites. Sometimes all it takes is a change in tail colors, going from the shrimp colors to shad or sardine colors of pearl, white or pale gray. While you can put a lot of fish in the boat with nothing more than a basic quarter-ounce jig with a 3- to 4-inch grub tail in shrimp-brown color hopped slowly across bottom at this time of year, offering them some variety may bring better results after you’ve caught several out of a school. These fish are very spooky and a slow, silent approach by wading or on push pole or trolling motor is a must, but if you can get within casting range and toss a streamer fly, shrimp imitation or a small jig, they’ll often bite.
Any sort of little bayou or slough letting off the main bays can attract fish, particularly on calm, sunny afternoons, when reds and trout sometimes move into water just a couple feet deep for a bit of sunning. Some shallow areas also have dark mud bottoms, multiplying the heating effect. The warmer water attracts bait, which in turn attracts fish.
The water in Panhandle bays stays warmer than that along the beaches in winter because the fresh water coming in from the rivers is stained with tannin from cypress and other vegetation, and that black water acts as a heat sink anytime the sun hits it. As this is written, water temperature is around 68 degrees along the beaches, but with the forecast for some nights with air temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s within the next week, the water will be chilling off fast, moving lots of fish to their winter homes. Both trout and reds tend to crowd into the back country when it gets chilly, settling into deeper holes in the creeks, canals, channels, marinas, around the bridges and in prop dredges around larger docks.
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