Gone Fishin`

An Hour Before and an Hour After

I think the best fishing around the Cedar Keys is one hour before high tide and the hour after high tide. You get the highest water in and around the oyster bars where a multitude of fishes are swimming.

Jeannette and I left the Island Hopper deck last Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. and motored straight over to Seahorse Key. On the inside of the key there is a grassy spot surrounded by oysters that has produced a few redfish in the past.

Jeannette was fishing with a float and I was snatching a root beer colored jig over the oysters. With a small bait rod, I caught a fat pinfish. I then filleted a strip for Jeannette's floating rig.

High tide was at 5 p.m. and at 5:05 p.m., Jeannette started dancing around on the bow and yelling and pulling back on her rod. She was fishing with a medium spinning rod combo, and the fish was giving her and the rig quite a testing.

I grabbed the landing net and stood at the ready for whatever it was. It hadn't broken the surface yet and shown itself. With a flurry of flipping and splashing, we could see it was a beautiful redfish. A few more tugs and more splashing and running; we netted a fine 23-1/2" redfish.

We had all day to go fishing, but we waited until we knew the water was the highest. That's the best opportunity for landing a keeper redfish. We rushed home and ate half of the fish and 2 dozen leftover bait shrimp. "There ain't nothin' better."

Capt. Dan
Email: shanadan50@hotmail.com