How To Keep Up With Schooling Reds

Redfish are on the menu of Gulf great whites.

Schooling reds can move super fast during fall months and keeping up with them can be challenging.

Here are some tips to put more fast-moving schooling reds in the box.

Preparation for this kind of fishing begins at home. Make up a tackle box or bag with some key lures for targeting fast-moving reds.

Start with spoons. A gold or bronze spoon is arguable the best overall redfish lure and they offer the advantage of being easy to cast accurately at long distances. For most settings a 1/2-ounce is perfect.

Next, go to topwaters. There is nothing more exciting than watching big reds attack a topwater and when they are feeding on the surface, they are suckers for surface lures. Walking lures are great but do not overlook chuggers. They can extremely effective on reds.

Rig these up on a spinning rod rigged with braided line and keep them handy. The spinning rod is to save you from frustrating backlashes, which can occur when you are trying to hit fish at long distances in a very short time window. If you for example are working a plastic, put down that stick, grab your spinning rod, and chunk the spoon or topwater right where you saw the action. If the fish already under, then throw it as far as you can down-current of the spot and work it back up. The reds usually follow the tidal flow.

If you keep missing the time window and want to make blind casts, consider using one of the numerous redfish ready spinnerbaits on the market.

Also, consider anticipating the school’s moves. If you see can’t catch them with the trolling motor, troll back the opposite direction a bit and then gently motor down past where you think they will be.

You might just luck and have them pop up within casting distance.

TF&G Staff

https://tpwd.texas.gov/