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Fishing Louisiana’s vast array of bays, marshes and other inshore waters is something every shallow-water saltwater and freshwater angler must experience. Redfish are the most popular inshore fish in the country, and the state shaped like a boot is a mecca for this coveted gamefish species.

With what seems like endless creeks, ponds, bays, marsh and grass to explore, southern Louisiana is one of the last remaining coastal areas that’s still relatively undeveloped. That means there’s plenty of untouched water full of fish that haven’t seen a lure in months. The most intriguing part of this sight fishery is the best local techniques pull from bass fishing, not traditional saltwater flats fishing. Unsurprising, you’re likely to catch largemouth bass while fishing for species such as redfish or speckled trout.

After a recent Salt Water Sportsman Adventures trip to the Redfish Lodge in Venice, Louisiana, I quickly learned that a bass fisherman might excel at targeting Louisiana reds more so than a traditional saltwater flats angler like myself. I enjoy casting big, noisy topwater lures to species such as snook, tarpon and jacks — those plugs would have been laughed out of the marsh.

Not only is the landscape similar to something you might find on the banks of Lake Okeechobee, but the catching methods are comparable to techniques that bass anglers have used for decades. The three primary lures we used to catch redfish and black drum were spinnerbaits, creature baits and topwater frogs.

We used Strike King baits on this trip, as Capt. Mike Frenette (owner operator of the lodge) has a strong relationship with the lure company. In particular, we used the Strike King Redfish Magic spinnerbait, and swimbaits such as the Strike King Flood Minnow. These exact waters also beg for a creature bait, such as the Rage Craw, pinned to a jig. Lastly, although I didn’t personally use this method on the trip, topwater frogs like the KVD Sexy Frog produce quality reds and black drum.

Saltwater Spinnerbaits

Picture this waterscape: Scattered grass, Roseau cane and piles of vegetation everywhere you look, all held in place by muddy bottom. That’s where these bronze Louisiana redfish hide and that’s why tried-and-true bass fishing methods translate so well to catching them. 

The guides at the Redfish Lodge have a combined 50-plus years of experience in these waters. They explained that the spinnerbait is the best way to catch both redfish and black drum. These saltwater spinnerbaits pair a soft plastic (not a skirt) with a blade. The captains are convinced the fish eat it because it imitates the movements of a crab. Black drum are notorious for eating only crustaceans — not baitfish — so the theory has strong merit.  

Redfish use their lateral line like a sixth sense. They can feel the vibrations around them as they navigate the often-murky waters. The spinnerbaits not only have visual appeal, they also create a substantial amount of subsurface vibration. That’s why drum can’t resist — it triggers a reaction bite. Whether sight casting or blind casting, the spinnerbait is an extremely effective method for catching both redfish and black drum. Make sure this lure is always tied to one of your rods when exploring the marsh.

Creature Baits Catch Redfish

Creature baits also work extremely well, in particular, something that resembles a small minnow, crab or crawfish. Anything that can bounce the bottom with a jig when you spot a fish. With how dense the weeds and grass are in the marshes, creature baits work best when sight fishing as opposed to blind casting. Even after you’re able to spot a tail or fish movement, you still need to execute a well-placed cast to get them to eat. Cast your bait on their nose and make sure it’s able to fall quickly.

Something like a Strike King Flood Minnow does wonders when targeting these fish. That exact bait also does well for largemouth bass. You don’t have much time in the strike zone before your lure is snotted-up from vegetation, so make those presentations count. If you can place a soft-plastic creature bait near a redfish or black drum’s face, chances are they’ll hit it before spooking. 

Topwater Frogs in the Louisiana Marsh

Topwater frogs are one of the most prolific largemouth bass baits in the history of the sport. Although I personally wasn’t able to get one on the topwater frog during this trip, the guides I fished with assured me it’s one of the most effective ways to catch redfish. These fish are foraging in such dense vegetation that it’s not uncommon for them to eat just about anything at the surface. Sure, they might not know exactly what it is, but a baitfish, crab, shrimp or even a frog is a tasty treat.

Just like a bass angler peppers grass beds, weeds, and lily pads with a frog, redfish anglers should do the same. Louisiana anglers often have the benefit of seeing the drum’s fins or wake before having to make a cast. The most crucial attribute of the topwater frog is that it’s weedless. Traditional topwater baits like poppers and spooks might work, but you wouldn’t be able to work them more than a couple of feet before the trebles snagged grass.

Louisiana redfish are not shy like their Florida cousins. If they hear something, they’ll head toward it. Is it a meal? Is it another redfish eating something? That’s why Louisiana captains tell anglers not to lead fish with a lure — just cast that bait right at their mouth.

Sight fishing for redfish and black drum in the Louisiana marsh is an incredible experience that’s sure to exhilarate any angler. Bass anglers will feel right at home, and their baitcasters might actually get a drag work out too! I’d recommend visitors hire guides that know the waters well. Channels and creeks range from deep to mud bars, and the topography is ever changing. Don’t get your boat stuck in a bad spot.

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A Florida International University (FIU) and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) study, lasting 12 months and covering nine wide-ranging regions of Florida, has shown that the state’s redfish have a harmful level of pharmaceutical contaminants. This study follows a similar one by BTT that showed pharmaceuticals were prevalent in Florida bonefish.

“These studies of bonefish and redfish are the first to document the concerning presence of pharmaceuticals in species that are important to Florida’s recreational fisheries,” said Dr. Jennifer Rehage, FIU professor and lead researcher in the study. “Given the types of pharmaceuticals found, we are concerned about the role pharmaceuticals play in the health of our fisheries.”

The Drugs Found in Florida Redfish

Opioid pain relievers, psychoactive and cardiovascular medications were the most common drugs detected. The opioid pain reliever tramadol and the anti-arrhythmic medication flecainide were found in over half of the redfish sampled statewide. The antipsychotic medication flupentixol was found in quantities above safe levels in 20% of the reds tested.

A dozen pharmaceuticals accounted for over 97 percent of medication detection. Harmful effects on fish have been documented for seven of the pharmaceuticals. These include: tramadol, caffeine, donezepil, dicolfenac, diphenhydramine, sertraline, and ranitidine. The effects of the remaining 5 pharmaceutical drugs — felodipine, flecainide, flutamide, flupentixol, and clotrimazole — remain unknown.

Scientists, fishing guides and anglers sampled redfish in nine of Florida’s most important marine estuaries: Pensacola, Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Florida Bay, Northern Indian River Lagoon (IRL), St. Augustine and Jacksonville.

Pharmaceuticals were found in every estuary, with an average of 2.1 drugs per fish and a maximum of five drugs discovered in one red drum. The pharmaceutical drug averages were: Apalachicola 3.3, Tampa Bay 3, St. Augustine 2.5, Cedar Key 2.2, Jacksonville 2.1, Charlotte Harbor 1.8, Pensacola 1.8, Florida Bay 0.9, and Indian River Lagoon 0.9. About six percent of the 113 sampled redfish had no drugs in their tissues or blood systems while 25% of the fish exceeded safe pharmaceuticals levels.

Prescription Drug Disposal is Unregulated

Approximately 5 billion prescriptions are filled each year in the US, yet there are no environmental regulations for the production nor disposal of pharmaceuticals worldwide, according to a BTT press statement.

Pharmaceutical contaminants originate most often from human wastewater and are not sufficiently removed by conventional water treatment. They remain active at low doses, can be released constantly, and exposure can affect all aspects of fish behavior, with negative consequences for their reproduction and survival. Pharmaceutical contaminants have been shown to affect all aspects of fish life, including feeding and migratory behavior.

Florida Must Upgrade Wastewater Treatment Systems

The study shows the urgent need to modernize Florida’s wastewater treatment systems, says BTT President Jim McDuffie. Florida’s $13.9 billion annual recreational fisheries business is at risk if nothing is done.

According to BTT, European research has shown that most pharmaceuticals can be removed by applying ozone treatment to wastewater. Florida’s efforts to upgrade wastewater infrastructure to remove nutrients (which contribute to algal blooms like red tide) also should include retrofitting existing wastewater treatment plants with additional ozone treatments. All new wastewater treatment facilities should include this, says BTT. And converting septic systems to residential wastewater treatment is essential to improving water quality.

“Florida is a leader in addressing water quality issues and wastewater infrastructure, including converting septic systems to sewage treatment,” said Kellie Ralston, BTT’s Vice President for Conservation and Public Policy. “There are opportunities for improvement by retrofitting existing wastewater treatment plants with innovative technologies, like ozone treatment, to remove pharmaceuticals and requiring such technology on new wastewater facilities.”

The post Florida Redfish Have a Drug Problem appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

More than 50 onlookers gathered an at nondescript boat ramp in Cocoa Beach, Florida, to watch the release of approximately 15,000 juvenile redfish into the Indian River Lagoon. The initiative, titled “Release the East,” is part of a broader effort by Coastal Conservation Association Florida (CCA Florida) to revitalize the state’s dwindling redfish population, done in partnership with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) and Duke Energy.

Multiple trailers carrying custom-made tanks pulled into Ramp Road Park shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday, November 4. After a quick photo op and ceremonial first releases, a long yellow tube was attached to the tanks, which a volunteer carried into the Banana River, wading in up to his waist. A valve was opened, and a deluge of four-inch juvenile redfish darted into the water, many of them quickly diving and taking cover in the nearby mangroves. A local TV news crew captured the moment, as did a hovering crowd holding up iPhones and GoPros.  

“East Coast anglers have seen the drastic decline of the local redfish population,” said CCA Florida executive director Brian Gorski, “and we knew it was our responsibility to help revitalize this iconic fishery.”

The 15,000 juveniles were raised at Duke Energy’s Crystal River Mariculture Center in Citrus County. To date, CCA Florida and Duke Energy have released more than 150,000 redfish and spotted sea trout across the state, as well as 5 million fish and crustaceans in the Gulf of Mexico. The facility has also grown 8 million native plants for various lake and spring restoration projects.

Release the East was seeded three years ago, and made possible by $100,000 in investment in feed, supplies and equipment. The Cocoa Beach event marks the launch of this initiative, with more scheduled for Florida’s East Coast next year.

“Ensuring our redfish population is sustainable is crucial for the conservation of this important species and allows us to continue to be able to enjoy the resources Florida has to offer,” said Eric Sutton, FWC executive director.

As the last juveniles were being released, an onlooker in mirrored Costas asked a CCA Florida volunteer if their work was going to be a successful considering the compromised health of the Indian River Lagoon.

“It’s better than not doing anything,” the volunteer responded.

The post 15,000 Redfish Released into Florida’s Indian River Lagoon appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Perhaps the single feature most associated with the red drum is its spot. That is, the one spot (on each side), on its tail. That spot is what’s called ocellated: a black circle, usually surrounded by a white ring, located at the beginning of the tail fin, on the upper side. That iconic mark accounts for the species’ scientific name: Sciaenops ocellatus.

Besides serving the function of helping anglers make a positive identification, scientists figure this spot does serve a purpose, particularly when redfish are smaller. The ocellated spot resembles an eye. Predators typically key on the eyes of prey, both to spot their food and to orient their attack to the anterior part of the prey. So if the spot on a redfish can fool a predator into attacking its tail, the redfish has a better chance of escaping that attack. This strategy, by the way, is not unique to redfish. Mimicry eyespots are found in other fishes, as well as many birds, reptiles and insects. Some are quite intricate and realistic enough to make a person look twice to understand just what they’re seeing.

The Spot Tail of a Redfish

Is it fair to say that most reds have the single spot per side? More than fair, according to Joel Anderson, geneticist and facility manager at the Perry R. Bass Marine Fisheries Research Station and Hatchery in Palacios, Texas. Anderson has seen scores of reds over the years and says, “I would say that 75 percent or more of redfish have that single spot.”

However, it’s not impossible for redfish to have another spot or two on the tail or side of the body, usually toward the back. Most anglers take note of such a catch, often enjoying the uncommon pattern. Anything more than a few spots is more unusual, but what of redfish which are essentially covered in spots? What is the significance of that?

One theory sometimes heard suggests these “leopard redfish” are redfish-trout hybrids. In fact, such cross-genera hybridization in fish is almost unheard of. The odds of a redfish/trout hybrid are virtually nil. So even redfish completely covered in spots are simply redfish. Some anglers theorize a link with the number of spots to size of the fish, the color/clarity of water it lives in, or being hatchery raised.

In fact, Anderson says the basis for many spots on a redfish is probably determined before it’s born. “Multiple spotting is probably caused by a short-circuiting of the genetic architecture that underlies the spot character,” he explains. “This might be caused by simple genetic variation; in other words, it could be analogous to human eye color or hair color. Alternatively, the variation might be caused by a disruption of cellular chemistry early on in the fish’s life; so single-spot and multi-spot redfish could be genetically identical for the genes that control spotting, but multi-spotted individuals might experience acute stressors early on in life that cause an alternative expression of those genes.”

Multiple Spots on a Redfish

Turns out that when they’re very small, reds typically sport an abundance of body spotting, but as they get to be two or three inches, those spots fade and the prominent tail spot starts to form.

Could there be any advantage to having multiple spots versus the single caudal eyespot? Perhaps, says Anderson. “Multiple spots might be advantageous in turbid water.” He suggests multiple spots might give the fish more camouflage in turbid, darker water.

Can a redfish, unlike a leopard, change its spots? Indeed, as they grow, reds’ spots may fade or change in size or shape as pigmentation is absorbed.

So how many spots is many? At least one of the more impressive examples is a seven-pound red taken near Flamingo, Florida, in 1997. The spot count, confirmed by marine biologists, totaled more than 500. In recent years, Capt. Eddie Berthelot, Jr. caught a redfish in Louisiana on which he counted 670 spots. And just this year, a Texas angler caught a red drum that definitely qualifies as a “leopard” redfish — they counted 311 spots on one side of the fish before giving up on counting the other side.

Then again, there’s the flip side: the no-spot redfish. These might be as unusual as “leopard redfish.”

The post Fish Facts: A Redfish and its Black Spot(s) appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Recent news from Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Florida caught my attention: The non-profit organization released 30,000 speckled seatrout this past September in Sarasota and Citrus county waters. Any efforts to help the gamefish populations in Florida are a great thing for Sunshine State anglers.

But the stocked specks ranged in sizes from 4 to 6 inches, and those lengths caught me by surprise. States with robust fish hatcheries, such as Texas, tend to release much higher numbers of fingerlings, about an inch in length, understanding that many of those fingerlings will perish. In fact, some studies show that just one in 1,000 fingerlings survive. The recent CCA seatrout release was not any run-of-the-mill saltwater restocking effort. Because the fish were substantially larger than average-size fingerlings, they have a much better chance of surviving the plentiful hazards that come with being a tiny fish in a Florida bay.

I learned quickly that CCA Florida, partnered with Duke Energy’s Crystal River Mariculture Center, do things a bit differently, especially after I was able to tour their facility. Eric Latimer, principal environmental professional and manager of the mariculture center, and Brian Gorski, executive director of CCA Florida, gave me full access. With the ever-present struggles of Florida’s marine habitat destruction, water quality degradation, fish kills, and red tides, learning about the center’s restocking efforts was a breath of fresh air.

Helping Florida’s Inshore Fisheries

CCA Florida doesn’t own the mariculture (marine farming) facility; it’s owned and operated by Duke Energy. So how does the partnership work?

The center started as an environmental compliance requirement for Duke Energy to operate its nearby power plants. But as different plants closed, it was no longer needed. Still, the facility was a very successful hatchery, one that’s been operating for more than three decades now. Latimer reached out to non-profits, universities, and state agencies to partner with to improve Florida’s estuarine and freshwater environments. CCA Florida was quick to join his efforts.

At the center, redfish and seatrout are the two current species being raised, said Latimer. He’s also grown blue and stone crabs, mullet, pinfish and pigfish in the past, and there’s chatter species such as pompano, tripletail, red snapper or snook might be grown at the facility in the future.

Latimer’s facility and team have been releasing redfish into Florida waters since 1992. To date, Latimer and crew have totaled more than 5 million fish and crustaceans released in the Gulf of Mexico. More recently, he’s centered red drum efforts in areas affected by fish kills and red tides on the west coast, including stocking more than 150,000 redfish (4 to 30 inches long) since 2018.

Now, the non-profit organization is focused on Florida’s Atlantic side, as part of its east coast redfish restocking initiative: Release the East. Any angler who fishes from Jacksonville to the Florida Keys can tell you declining water quality and loss of habit have hurt seatrout and redfish populations.

“We’ve had members voicing concern for the lack of redfish across the state and it’s our duty to address the issue,” said Gorski. “Redfish are an iconic species to our state and we need to work together to conserve this fishery for the next generation.”

Latimer and CCA Florida first had to go catch broodstock redfish from the Atlantic Ocean, 10 individuals total, and bring them back to the facility. The crew fished out of Port Canaveral to catch the bull reds offshore, with help from guides Capt. Jamie Glasner, Capt. Troy Perez and Capt. Jim Ross. Latimer couldn’t use the mature redfish he already had at the facility because they were caught from the Gulf, and Florida’s east and west coast redfish have genetic differences.

Exploring A Fish Hatchery

Latimer and Gorski walked me and two colleagues through the entire indoor and outdoor portions of the facility.

First, Latimer showed us a tank filled with slot redfish tagged for CCA STAR tournaments. (Learn more about the unique CCA Florida STAR Tournament.) The fish were feisty and gobbled down the baitfish chunks he threw into the tank. Nearby, he also had a tank filled with 3- to 6-inch redfish, and scooped a couple in a net to show me.

“These are the perfect-size fish, ready to be released on the east coast,” he said.

“We think the best spot will be the Thousand Islands area, near Cocoa Beach,” said Gorski, nodding at Latimer. “There’s good habitat there where these fish can hide as they continue to grow.”

Next, Latimer walked us around different tanks filled with fat mature redfish, each tank adorned with extra covers so we didn’t scare the drum from above.

“The west coast redfish I let spawn naturally,” said Latimer. “They’ll spawn in the fall, every day for a period of 7 to 10 days, and produce millions of eggs. We’ll collect the eggs from the strainer and move them over to an [indoor] tank. Next, we’ll get the fry out to one of our grow-out ponds.”

Latimer can also manipulate the photothermal conditions to trick his captive drum into believing it is spawning season. And that’s what he did for his east coast broodstock that are kept in a giant rounded tank inside the facility.

“I can get them to spawn a couple times a year,” said Latimer. “Each spawning event doesn’t make as many eggs as natural spawning, but the female reds still produce millions of eggs.”

Latimer emphasized that they try to get their redfish fry into grow-out ponds quickly, so that the fry can start learning to hunt for their own food. The center will “fertilize” a pond before adding fry so that there’s plenty of copepods for the small redfish to eat. The end goal is to grow the reds large enough to give them a higher chance of survival once released into the wild.

Inside, we maneuvered around complex filtering and ultraviolet gear, used to keep the many different tanks clean and healthy. Lastly, we walked over to the mature seatrout tank.

“Seatrout are much harder to spawn and keep alive than redfish,” said Latimer. “They’re a much more delicate fish — if you even look at them wrong, they can die. Also, sometimes they’ll eat each other. We’ve found trout sticking out of other trout’s mouths.”

Hatchery Grow-Out Ponds

The center has eight, 1-acre ponds that are filled with redfish and seatrout. The ponds are set up to receive freshwater or saltwater from different pipes and hoses, plus they all have aeration systems and the ability to be drained when the fish need to be removed.

One pond is full of mature west coast bull redfish. Latimer nets males and females from the pond, and transfers them to oversize tanks when he needs them to spawn and produce eggs. Another pond is full of redfish fry up to about 1-inch in length. These are prime examples of redfish that will grow quickly and eventually be stocked into the wild. The center feeds food pellets of different sizes to fish of different sizes. Also, Latimer fed the redfish cut baitfish and shrimp while we were there.

The last pond we visited was full of hungry slot redfish. Gorski threw a bucket of food into the pond and the drum went wild. The healthy fish were jumping all over each other for a snack.

“These are the reds that we use for the CCA STAR tournament,” said Latimer. “These fish will eat anything — pellets, shrimp, baitfish, flies, lures, topwaters. We have more fish than we need, so we have a bit of a problem. We’re not sure what we’re going to do with all of them right now.”

Regrowing Florida Fish Habitat

The mariculture center does more than grow redfish and spotted seatrout for release, they’re also growing the habitat these fish rely on. In fact, one of their outdoor ponds is filled entirely with Spartina grass, grown to help restore living shorelines across Florida.

“We have black, white and red mangroves that we grow for habitat restoration projects,” said Latimer. “We’re also pretty good at growing a couple varieties of eelgrass, mostly for fresh water.”

Latimer’s facility grew eelgrass in facility ponds that was then planted successfully in places such as Kings Bay, Silver Glen Springs, Lake Apopka and Lake George. One way they planted the grass was something Latimer called an “eelgrass burrito.” Basically, a self-contained growing unit with sediment, fertilizer and eelgrass held together with biodegradable material that can be dropped into a restoration area instead of having to be planted by divers.

The facility wants to grow saltwater seagrasses next. Chris Holland and Justin Branch, Duke Energy employees who work at the center, explained their next goal in more detail.

“We recognize there is a huge need for seagrass restoration efforts,” said Holland. “We currently grow mangroves and Spartina grass, but seagrass loss on the east coast is a huge deal now. The first step we took was to find floating seagrass and tried planting it here outside at the mariculture center. Other organizations told us it was vital to maintain consistent temperatures with seagrass. And although the grass didn’t die outside, it didn’t really thrive.

“So now we are looking at growing seagrass inside. Halodule (shoal grass) is an important one. Thalassia (turtle grass) and Syringodium (manatee grass) are the other big ones that we want to work hard to grow. The literature says Halodule is the first grass colonizer. It sets the standard, and it’s a great recruiter for other grasses.”

Inside the facility, Holland showed me eelgrass that they were able to grow in lengths of PVC pipe without using substrate of any kind. Nearby were tanks full of gamefish ready for release, seemingly able to be farmed on demand. The productivity and efficiency of entire center was obvious, plus the well-run fish farm wasn’t shy to try innovative new things. If their track record was any indication of future results, it’s only a matter of time until the Duke Energy Mariculture Center starts growing and CCA Florida starts planting vital saltwater seagrasses into Florida’s estuaries.

The post Behind the Scenes of a Florida Fish Hatchery appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

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A redfish is like a bull in a Texas rodeo. They are rough and rowdy, and they’ll eat just about anything that won’t eat them first. They can be caught in mere inches of gin-clear water, and if that doesn’t work, they can be found around offshore oil and gas platforms in 30 to 50 feet of water. Anglers can target them with a tiny fly-fished popping bug in the morning calm and then toss big topwater lures later the same day along shorelines. 

Depending on the day, redfish can act like a carp, bonefish or another fish entirely. Soaking dead bait on the bottom is a proven tactic, but so is sight-fishing with artificials. Redfish are strong, tough and a hoot to catch, which explains why they are so popular among anglers in Texas.

Wade-Fishing Is a Texas Tradition

Three of us bailed out of Capt. Charlie Paradoski’s center-console boat along a flat called Green’s Bayou located off Matagorda Island in the middle Texas coast.

“We probably need to spread out and cover some water, look for bait, and be on point for tailing or waking reds,” Paradoski said. “If you get into a school of reds, wave everybody into the action.”

The water was as clear as mountain air, and the sun was just beginning to shine as I glanced over my shoulder. Just like clockwork, there was Paradoski hooked up, rod bowed over and waving us into a pod of reds he had waded into. We were all slinging topwater lures. One of the best and most productive over the decades has been a chrome-and-blue Super Spook Jr. It looks exactly like a finger mullet on the surface and has a side-to-side movement that drives reds crazy. Paradoski reached over and latched on to about a 25-inch red, and sure enough, I could clearly see the chrome-and-blue lure dangling from the mouth of the satisfying catch.

Diverse Feeders

Redfish will eat just about anything. While cleaning a bull red years ago, I found a spent shotgun shell in its stomach. That’s why fishing specifically for reds is so much fun along the Texas coast, which spans more than 350 miles. Along all that shoreline are wide-open bays, lagoons, islands and estuarine lakes. The thousands of sand pockets and grassy flats are perfect habitat.

During late fall, there is a strong migration of reds from the bays and into the Gulf of Mexico. Conversely, there’s also the spring run of reds. Red drum dependably make a pit stop along the jetties and gorge on shrimp, crabs and mullet riding the spring tides into the bays. Guides will take their customers out to the mouths of the jetties to tap into some excellent topwater action on bull reds.

 “Some of the best fishing is during the spring at the mouth of the Port O’Connor jetties. As the water flows into West Matagorda Bay, the bull reds will be churning up the surface and feeding heavily on a variety of baits. When everything is right, the gulls, frigate birds and pelicans will be right on top of the surface-busting reds. It’s a wild day of sight-casting to big reds. It’s mostly catch-photo-and-release fishing.”

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

The great thing about chasing reds is they are user-friendly fish. Throughout the summer and fall they can be caught on the flats in shallow water. Some of the best action takes place on the Laguna Madre down in South Texas. It’s a shallow, hypersaline lagoon roughly 120 miles long. The lagoon’s many grassy flats and clear-water shorelines provide legendary sight-fishing for reds.

One of the favored tactics on the Laguna is to ease over the flats in a poling skiff. One angler is on the poling platform and another is on the bow. Typically, the person on the elevated platform will push the boat along and look for reds feeding on shad, shrimp, worms and crabs. The tactic is classic spot-and-stalk fishing. Anglers might get 25 to 30 shots at reds during a day on the flats. It’s the perfect fly-fishing adventure. You see the target fish, get the line in the air and, when everything is right, drop a fly within a few feet of the red. Sight-fishing is an addictive way of fishing, and can be done with spinning or baitcasting gear as well.

The Land Cut

Guide Steve Ellis has been fishing on the Laguna Madre for decades. One of his best tactics is to make the run from Port Mansfield to the land cut, which is about 25 miles long. It’s around 100 to 150 feet wide, with a shoreline covered with aquatic vegetation and sand and mud potholes.

“I especially like fishing the land cut because it’s some of the best clear-water fishing on the Laguna Madre,” Ellis says. “I’ve got two towers on my boat, which allows the anglers to see fish like tailing reds in the clear water. It’s classic topwater-fishing. But tying on a weedless 1/4-ounce gold spoon is a proven tactic.”

Reds are definitely not shy about pouncing on a topwater lure. And they will do it with gusto. When you set the hook, they don’t lollygag around either. They head out like a freight train. One of the newest topwater lures to come along in years is the D.O.A. PT-7. This soft-plastic lure comes rigged with a double hook pinned up against the side of the lure. Reds love to ambush mullet in grassy areas, and that is where the PT-7 works like a charm. It can be fished over or in the grass and will draw some pretty flashy blowups.

Not-So-Secret Hotspots

One of the best areas to consistently find redfish is along the Intracoastal Waterway, which goes from one end of the Texas coast to the other. When I was working as a fishing guide, it was at the top of my go-to list for finding and catching reds. Quite often, the reds would be tailing while feeding on worms and crabs in about a foot of water.

The most consistent place to find reds just about year-round is along the jetties. Two of the best are in Sabine and Port O’Connor. When a moving tide comes in or goes out, slot and bull reds will stack up and feed heavily on mullet, shrimp and crabs. Here, what a lot of anglers do is bait up with a fresh dead mullet chunk. Mullet are easily caught in a cast net. The mullet chunks are fished on 3/0 Kahle hooks on a Carolina rig. When the red picks up the bait, it doesn’t feel the tug of the weight.

At the Port O’Connor jetties, the trick is to hold in place with a trolling motor and chum the water with diced Spanish sardines. The best water depths are anywhere from 15 to 30 feet deep.

Rockport, located between Port O’Connor and the upper end of the Laguna Madre, is where the guides will fish channels and flats adjacent to the many islands. A captain will usually have a good supply of pinfish and mullet. Once the guide positions the boat on a likely location, he chops up small chunks of fresh dead chum and fan-casts them out. Next, about six to seven rods are baited up, cast out, and placed in rod holders. It doesn’t take long to start getting bites.

Drift-Fishing the Flats

One of the more popular options on the Laguna Madre is to set up drifts over the miles of grass flats. A drift sock slows the boat’s progress and helps it stay on a specific area. The best lures are soft baits from makers such as MirrOlure, D.O.A., Berkley Gulp! and Z-Man. Rig them on a 1/8- or 1/16-ounce jig head.

One thing is certain: There is definitely no shortage of reds along the Texas coast. These hard-fighting and tasty fish can be caught just about anywhere you find salt water. 

Read Next: Targeting Redfish in Louisiana

Hot Spot: The Land Cut

The “land cut” waterway, which connects the Upper and Lower Laguna Madre, can best be described as remote. The cut is roughly 25 miles long and located in the middle of nowhere, but it has some of the best fishing along the lower Texas coast. 

Laguna Madre is really two bays divided by miles of mud and sand flats. The northern bay, about 40 miles long, is known as the Upper Laguna Madre, and the area south is the Lower Laguna Madre. Upon completion of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in 1949, the upper and lower portions were permanently joined by what is known today as the land cut.

In addition to serving as a navigable channel for boat and barge traffic, the area is fantastic for redfish and speckled trout. The big advantage to fishing the cut is that you’re protected from the wind—it offers clear-water flats along the shoreline, and sight-casting to reds and plugging for trout are favorite tactics. 

To reach the south end of the cut, you have to launch your boat at Port Mansfield, followed by a 20-mile run. From the north end, put in at Bluff’s Landing Marina in Corpus Christi. From there, it’s about 33 miles to the cut.

SWS Planner: Texas Gulf Coast Redfish Action

• When: Summer and fall
• Who: The following guides specialize in Texas redfishing:
  • Middle Texas Coast: Capt. Charlie Paradoski, charlieparadoski.com, 713-725-2401
  • Lower Laguna Madre: Capt. Eric Glass, @captainericg, 956-434-1422
  • Galveston Bay: Capt. Jim West, 409-996-3054
  • Sabine Lake: Capt. Jerry Norris, 409-718-8782, sabinefishing.com

SWS Tackle Box

• Rod: Sarge Custom Rods, such as Ma Deuce, Smooth Dog and Boss
• Reel: Lew’s Speed Spool
• Line: 8- to 20-pound Fins Windtamer braided line
• Leader: 5-foot section of 17-pound-test Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon leader 
• Topwaters: Super Spook Jr., D.O.A. PT-7, MirrOlure C-Eye Skin Series twitchbait
• Soft Baits: D.O.A. C.A.L. Shad Tail, Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ, MirrOlure Soft Shad

The post Targeting Redfish in Texas appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Capt. Danny Alvarez has been fishing since he returned home from military service about a half a century ago. He has spent much of that time guiding charter anglers to flounder, black drum, speckled trout and redfish (red drum) in the productive coastal waters around Corpus Christi, Texas. But in all those years he’s never once laid eyes on a rare leopard redfish outside the pages of a fishing magazine—until Aug. 27, when Alvarez hosted his son, Eric, and several of their in-laws on an outing on Laguna Madre near Baffin Bay.

After helping them catch their fill of trout, Alvarez took the extended family to an area where he’d been having good luck with that iconic quarry of Gulf Coast angling: big redfish.

“This time of year usually the big bull reds are starting to run a little bit more,” Alvarez told Salt Water Sportsman. “They gather up in schools and I’ve been doing real well catching good-size keepers and oversized reds,” he says. The slot limit on that stretch of coast allows anglers to keep redfish from 20 to 28 inches long.

The captain had everyone throwing bottom rigs baited with ladyfish chunks into sand pockets along grass lines in 2 to 3 feet of water. A young angler named Ryan Hernandez, the boyfriend of one of Alvarez’s in-laws, was fishing with a brand-new Waterloo Phantom spinning rod he’d just bought. Hernandez hooked a good fish, but after taking one glance at it Alvarez gave him some tough news.

A Redfish With as Many Spots as a Seatrout

“When I first saw it, from 15 or 20 yards out, I saw all the specks and it looked like a big trout,” Alvarez recounts. “I said, ‘Man, that’s a good trout. But we’re probably going to end up releasing it, because it’s probably over 23 inches,’” the upper end of the trout slot.

“He kept on fighting it, and he kept on taking line,” Alvarez says, “and once it got closer I said, ‘Aw, that ain’t no trout: That’s a redfish.’”

When they netted the fish and brought it into the boat, “everybody was excited to see it,” he says. “When we first got it out of the water, it had a real shiny color to the skin, like a turquoise shell all over its top half. It was beautiful.”

Red drum, of course, are known for the characteristic large black spot on either side of the caudal peduncle, just before the tail fin. Sometimes there are two spots on each side, and occasionally there may be a few spots scattered elsewhere on the body. But to find one with so many spots it can be mistaken for a speckled trout is a true rarity.

Alvarez explained that to everyone and said he’d let them keep the unusual specimen only if they agreed to mount it. “I said, ‘I’ve been fishing a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this except in a fishing magazine.’ I’ve caught redfish with 17, 18 spots on them. But one that looks like a leopard redfish? No, sir.”

Hernandez, who’s 21, has been angling for only a few months, and this was his first time fishing on a boat. Like everyone else, he initially thought he’d hooked a big trout.

“It was a pretty intense fight,” he told Salt Water Sportsman. “It was stronger than most reds. When Danny got it with the net and said, ‘Dude, that’s a redfish,’ we were all blown away by how many spots were on it. It was pretty crazy. It was a redfish, but it had a full leopard cat-print all over it. Along the top fins there was an amazing amount of blue and green that kind of reflected off it, like it was pearlescent. It was just really, really beautiful.”

Hernandez and Mike Hutton, Eric Alvarez’s father-in-law, would later count 311 spots on one side of the fish before giving up on counting the other side.

Rare Redfish Genetic Mutation

In a 2016 article in Texas Fish & Game Magazine, Kyle Piller, a fish geneticist at Southeastern University in Hammond, Texas, explained that such heavily spotted redfish are “extremely rare” and likely result from both of its parents having a recessive pigmentation trait.

“There’s natural variation in the number of spots redfish have. Most have one, some have a few, some have none—that’s really rare,” Piller said. But a redfish with hundreds of spots is essentially a variant or mutant based on the expression of a recessive gene from its parents. “You don’t see this happen very often,” he noted, “because perhaps this makes them more vulnerable to predators when they’re in the juvenile state.”

Hernandez’s catch made quite a splash around the marina when the party returned with a good haul of keeper trout and redfish.

“We had two game wardens come up to us, and when they saw that redfish with all the spots, they said, ‘Oh, my God, can I get permission to take pictures? The whole time I was filleting fish, we had people walking up asking to take pictures,” Alvarez said. “They just couldn’t believe a redfish could look like that. Even the owner of the bait stand was excited. He said, ‘Danny, when you told me you had a redfish with lots of spots, I didn’t know it was a leopard redfish.’ He had never seen one close at hand like that. They are extremely rare, one-in-a-lifetime. I’ll probably never see another one like it.”

Hernandez, who is having a replica made to commemorate the rare feat, sounded a similar note. Lightning may have struck early in his angling life, but that doesn’t mean he’s expecting it to strike again.

“I have people call me, wanting to go fish with me, because they think I’m a good luck charm or whatever,” he says. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to pull anything like that up again. It’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime moment, and I’ll never forget about it.”

Editor’s Note: Got an interesting catch? We’d love to hear about it! Drop us a line with all the details at catches@saltwatersportsman.com.

The post Angler Catches Rare Leopard Redfish appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Artificial Intelligence is frighteningly smart, and it may eventually take over the world. But on its best day, AI could never draw up a more perfect nursery ground for redfish (red drum) than the one Mother Nature created over millennia of spewing sediment at the mouth of North America’s largest river.

The frayed, tattered sole of the boot that would eventually be known as Louisiana was like a factory that churned out reds faster than the local inhabitants could harvest them. For most of the 20th century, limits didn’t exist, and even when they were first enforced, they were laughingly liberal.

Louisiana Redfish Enter the Spotlight

That all changed with the blackened-redfish craze of the 1980s, when Louisiana first got serious about conservation, imposing a 5-fish limit per angler. It seemed a bit draconian at the time, but along with other protections for breeding-sized fish, it helped Louisiana’s redfish population explode. In fact, stocks got so strong, area crabbers began complaining that all the redfish were devouring their primary source of income.

Since the dramatic comeback of redfish populations in the 1990s, however, Louisiana has lost 10 to 32 square miles of marsh every year to coastal subsidence and ravaging winds and storm surges from hurricanes and other significant storms. It’s a trend that continues to this very day.

Even in its compromised state, the nursery ground still churns out the fish, but at nowhere near the rate it once did, and anglers have begun to notice. From the Sabine River to the Pearl, Louisiana anglers are reporting a dramatic decline in redfish battles.

I’ve seen it in my own catches. Redfish have become an incidental catch on speckled trout and largemouth bass trips rather than a species I actually target. There simply aren’t enough of them anymore to consistently fish for them.

I’ve spent three decades covering the outdoors in Louisiana, and because of that, I have a vast network of anglers I share information with on a daily or weekly basis. To a man, they all agree that — by orders of magnitude — Louisiana’s redfish population is worse than it’s ever been.

I published a video decrying the sorry state of the fishery last month, and most of the comments were in full agreement that there’s a problem. Many viewers blamed unfettered harvest of menhaden along Louisiana’s coast as the primary cause, while others pointed to nighttime bow-fishing, which is permitted in the Bayou State.

Obviously, any activity that takes redfish, or their forage base, out of the system is a contributing factor, and Louisiana certainly needs better data on impacts from the menhaden and bow-fishing industries, but an easy change to begin addressing the problem is a reduction in the recreational harvest.

Currently, Louisiana anglers may harvest five reds per angler per day, with a size minimum of 16 inches and a maximum of 27 inches (one fish may be over).

Catch-and-Release Fishing Can Help Louisiana

Louisiana has a rich culinary history, particularly when it comes to seafood. It was birthed out of our abundance. When nature keeps giving you a specific protein, you’d better come up with creative ways to prepare it.

In the local culture, eating fish is as significant a part of the fun as catching them. That means most anglers put every single legal redfish they catch in the box. They view catch and release as a type of sacrilege, like slapping the face of a god trying to bless you with bounty.

So, an angler who catches five reds is going home with five reds.

That was all fine when a redfish removed today simply made room in the ecosystem for the next one. Louisiana’s abundant marsh was literally that productive.

But those days are gone, and they’re never coming back. It’s time for the state’s fisheries managers to acknowledge the decline that has become so obvious to anglers, and tighten the harvest limits.

Louisiana’s other favorite fish, speckled trout, can almost be viewed as an annual crop, since the fish are bumping against the legal-size minimum at their first birthdays, but that’s not true with redfish. It’s a much slower-growing species that lives longer and, thus, takes many more flips of the calendar to recover.

Any changes made today will take years to provide real results, and that means time is something Louisiana can’t afford to waste.

The post Drum Decline Has Louisiana Anglers Seeing Red appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

There are 78 species of mullet and each one has a unique appearance and behavior. Imitating them, some of the most common backwater baitfish, is key to fooling the wariest inshore sport fish.

Anglers who chase the annual mullet run, when huge schools of the small cigar-shaped fish migrate along the coast, learn to track the arrival and movements and recognize the many different sizes, colors and behaviors of the little fish. Mullet colors vary from region to region, matching the purple, black, browns, green, yellow, gray and silver is the first step in pulling off the deception.

Mullet also have characteristic behaviors. Sometimes mullet swim on the surface creating a small wake on calm water. Other times, the fish root around the bottom kicking up mud. Mullet also hover at mid depths, hanging in the water almost motionless. Then, an injured mullet will spasm, dart and pause until a predator finishes it off. The best mullet lures imitate the fish’s many shades and moods. Since there isn’t room in the tackle box for a hundred lures, our picks cover the bases when the mullet run arrives.

Top Mullet Hard Bait: MirrOlure 52MR

One of the most iconic inshore lures perfectly imitates mullet. The MirrOlure 52 MR sinking twitchbait can be worked several ways. To cover water and find fish, cast out the 52 MR and retrieve at a steady pace. To entice finicky fish, use a pause and twitch return: give the rod tip two sharp twitches followed by a pause to let the lure sink slowly. Crank in the slack line and repeat the twitch and pause. This tactic leaves the lure in the strike zone longer, so redfish, speckled trout and striped bass can zero in for the kill. To seal the deal, the 52MR comes in a dozen colors and patterns. Each lure uses a shiny foil insert to imitate the mullet’s flash and sparkle. Three super-sharp treble hooks snare any fish that smacks, strikes or sniffs the 52MR.

Top Mullet Topwater Bait: Heddon Saltwater Super Spook

One of the mullet’s favorite moves is swimming just under the surface creating a tiny V-wake on the water. The Heddon Zara Spook was designed to imitate this behavior. In fact, the Zara Spook pretty much invented the walk-the-dog topwater retrieve. Cast out the lure, point the rod tip at the water, slowly crank the reel while twitching the rod tip left, right to make the lure zig-zag across the top of the water. The five-inch Super Spook’s cigar shape presents a life-like profile of a mullet swimming on the surface. The saltwater version has three corrosion-resistant treble hooks to nab short-striking predators. Heddon expanded the color choices to include three-dimensional flash and dozens of mullet-imitating patterns.

Top Mullet Soft Bait: Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ with Trout Eye Jighead

A soft plastic paddle tail on a lead-head jig is a classic mullet imitation in every inshore angler’s tackle box. Z-Man took the classic to the next level with the DieZel MinnowZ. First, a slot between the dorsal fins fits a weedless or jighead hook without interfering with the hook point. Then, the soft plastic floats to keep the tail suspended when the lure is resting on the bottom. Captain Dave Lusk, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, likes the DieZel MinnowZ for durability and versatility. “The Diezel MinnowZ comes in 46 color combinations to match the conditions,” he says.

When the water is clear, he goes with a natural color like Wright Stuff or Green Pumpkin. If the water is dirty or stained, he chooses a brighter color like sexy mullet or lime pearl. The best feature of the DieZel MinnowZ is the soft, stretchy Elaztech plastic, which is 10 times tougher than comparable materials. Lusk says, “The DieZel MinnowZ will catch dozens of fish and stand up against bluefish and pinfish.”

Top Mullet Swimbait: LiveTarget Mullet Swimbait

The LiveTarget Mullet Swimbait is an exact copy of an actual mullet. But making a lure look like a baitfish and getting it to act like a baitfish are two separate challenges. LiveTarget killed two birds with one lure. The Mullet Swimbait is designed to be a 100-percent anatomically correct copy of a real mullet. At 1 ounce, the lure swims shallow, which is perfect for skinny water. The stiff dorsal fin makes the lure weedless, so it can go deep into the grass without snagging. But looks aren’t everything. The Mullet Swimbait has a unique hard-plastic tail that produces a tight wobble like a fleeing baitfish. The LiveTarget Mullet Swimbait is easy to use. The best way to entice a bite is with a steady retrieve, the realistic look and action will draw fish to the mullet imitation.

Top Mullet Surface Swimmer: Strike King Saltwater Sexy Dawg Hard Knock

Captain Mike Frenette has been a guide and tournament angler in Louisiana’s backwater for decades. Last year, he invested all of his experience into the Strike King Saltwater Sexy Dawg Hard Knock. Using a walk-the-dog, zig-zagging retrieve, the Sexy Dawg imitates a wounded mullet trying to escape. “The hard knock rattle adds the sound dimension to excite gamefish,” Frenette says.

To survive the rigors of salt water fishing, the new lure uses Mustad hooks connected with split rings. “I’m most partial of the colors,” Frenette adds. “Bait fish colors vary greatly and the color contrast will fit in anywhere around the world.”

Top Mullet Darter Bait: Tactical Anglers Hot Mullet SubDarter

“Mullet come in a million different colors, but they all share one color in common,” says pro angler Alberto Knie. After observing mullet for years, Knie noticed the baitfish turn a bright purple and green when they are being chased by a predator. “I call the color hot mullet,” he says. Knie matched the look with his Hot Mullet color for Tactical Anglers lures. His favorite model is the SubDarter, a wide-body plug with a slanted head.

“I can work the SubDarter straight, pause and crank, twitch, work it across the surface or deep dive,” he says. “Big fish eat big baits.” The SubDarter’s internal sound chamber and deep gill ridges create vibration to attract fish in dark and dirty water. The bait comes in 7 and 5.5 inches.

Top Soft Plastic Mullet: D.O.A. Bait Buster

“It isn’t pretty, but this is a fish-catching machine,” is how D.O.A. Lures describes its Bait Buster, a soft plastic swimbait and jighead hybrid. The soft plastic body has a large pocket to hold the jig head and hook shank. This allows the angler to change the hook size and weight to adjust how the lure works.

To target tarpon off coastal Georgia, Captain Greg Hildreth uses a D.O.A. Bait Buster with the ⅞-ounce trolling hook. Hildreth explains, “The trolling model has a beefier hook and it sinks fast.” To tempt Georgia tarpon, Hildreth uses a slow and steady retrieve. The 4.5-inch lure is a perfect match for a mullet and the double curly tail creates vibration and gives the lure a tight swimming action. Hildreth’s favorite colors are green back and silver body or black back and silver body.

Top Lipped Hard Bait Mullet: Bomber Saltwater Grade Long Shot

To imitate a large mullet fleeing for its life, Captain Greg Hildreth relies on the Bomber Long Shot. “I use the Long Shot more than any other lure,” he says. To match the size of a large mullet, the Long Shot comes in 5- to 7-inch models. When he’s targeting feeding tarpon, Hildreth uses a slow and steady retrieve and lets the Long Shot do the work. The lure dives down to four feet and swims with an exaggerated side-to-side wobble. To mimic regional variations of bait color and pattern, the Long Shot comes in 10 color combinations. Hildreth favorite colors are black and green mackerel.

Top Mullet Fly: Popovics Bulkhead Deceiver

The bulkhead deceiver fly, popularized by legendary fly designer Bob Popvics, uses bucktail saddle hackles to create a long and full profile. The fly is a popular mullet imitation all over the world and a favorite of Chesapeake Bay fly fishing guide Capt. Chris Newsome. “The bulkhead deceiver is a breeze to cast and it has a round mullet profile with a lot of movement,” he says. When tying the bulkhead deceiver, Newsome suggests using less material so it spins evenly and is easier to trim. He uses the deceiver for a variety of species including sight casting to cobia. “I like a bright color I can see on the surface,” he says. When he’s enticing a cobia, he uses a sharp strip followed by a long pause. “The change in speed elicits a reaction strike,” he says.

Top Scented Mullet Lure: Gulp! Alive! Swimming Mullet

No list of mullet lures would be complete without the Gulp! Alive! Swimming Mullet. Almost 20 years ago, Berkley introduced the scent infused soft plastic and it became an instant classic. Starting with a 3 ½-inch curly tail soft plastic, the Swimming Mullet has a heavy body with molded fins and scales for a natural, textured look. Berkley worked for years to develop the absorbent soft plastic material and optimized fish attractant. Use the Gulp! Alive! Swimming Mullet with an ⅛ to ½ ounce jig head to imitate a mullet bouncing along the bottom or swimming through the water. The Swimming Mullet is so effective at attracting fish, many anglers rig it on a Carolina rig or bottom rig and fish the soft plastic like a live mullet.

Bonus Bait: A Largemouth Bass Swimbait for Salt Water

The Shimano ARMAJOINT 190SF Flash Boost swimbait is a big bass catcher that’s also perfect for the mullet run. The new bait is intended for mega freshwater largemouth bass. Mullet-run anglers will like it because it casts plenty far. That means anglers fishing with their feet in the sand can reach fish beyond the breakers. With help from its ArmaBoost technology, the plug uses internal magnets to force a compact shape during the cast. In the water, the bait swims in an S-pattern because of its ArmaJoint design. With seemingly endless amounts of flash, this swimbait is definitely worth a try.

The post The Best Lures to Throw During the Mullet Run appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.

Captain Billy Rotne, of Ponce Inlet Charters, positioned his friend within range of a school of black drum and redfish mixed together in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. In front of the canoe, angler Kieran Hoffman was ready with his 6-weight fly rod and a black-and-purple Caloosa Flat’s Crab fly.

The pair had fished together many times before, and caught plenty of drum on their adventures. But this trip was different.

Hoffman fought and tired another drum successfully, bringing it close to the canoe for release. The fish fought like a typical redfish, said Hoffman. But when the two anglers got eyes on the catch, they were thrown off. They instantly knew this fish was different.

“It had the pectoral fins of a black drum, a wider body profile than a redfish, and yet a slimmer profile than a black drum,” said Rotne. “The teeth, scales, tail and slime were those of a redfish. It had a bronze-like color that was darker than a redfish, but lighter than a black drum. There were no barbels or markings of any kind, including stripes or spots.”

The two anglers suspected Hoffman had landed a redfish-black drum hybrid. Although redfish and black drum are both in the Sciaenidae family, they spawn in distinctive areas and at different times of the year. To see a hybrid of the two species in the wild is very rare.

“The likelihood of hybridity in wild populations is low given the temporal and spatial differences with spawning in these species,” says Sarah Walters Burnsed, a marine fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “Reds are fall spawners in nearshore waters while black drum spawn in spring, closer to shore and within the estuaries.”

But black drum and redfish can reproduce together. Both produce distinct sounds associated with reproduction, vibrating specialized sonic muscles against their swim bladders, says Burnsed. Aquaculture studies found that crossing female black drum with male red drum produced offspring that grew faster than their parents and still tasted about the same.

“The lagoon is something of a special case,” says Michael D. Tringali, a senior research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “Fish life histories and behaviors often differ in that system. Whereas red drum typically spawn in nearshore waters elsewhere, they may spawn inside the lagoon. This would conceivably remove the spatial constraint to cross-species fertilization. The catch is tantalizing. The hints of vertical striping are hard to explain.”

External indicators such as ray counts and clear morphometric differences can help identify fish species, but the best option is to conduct a diagnostic test on a fin clip, says Burnsed. A genetic test of this nature would have given a definitive answer. Rotne and Hoffman took a couple photos of the fish and released it back into the lagoon without getting a fin clip.

Still, Rotne, who has caught thousands of redfish and black drum in the Indian River lagoon, is confident in Hoffman’s catch.

“That’s the only hybrid I’ve seen in my 25 years fishing the lagoon,” said Rotne. “I have not seen or heard of an angler ever catching a fish like this. It could be the first true wild hybrid ever caught.”

Editor’s Note: Got an interesting catch? We’d love to hear about it! Drop us a line with all the details at catches@saltwatersportsman.com.

The post Rare Redfish Hybrid Caught in Florida appeared first on Salt Water Sportsman.