The plan was to get some whitebait and head back to some areas around the south side and try to live chum the redfish. This is an easy way to find them. Since the tide was very low my first stop, while I waited for the tide was the well known rock bar on the north side.

When I got there I could see some fish moving around near the rocks. So I eased up to the south west side of the bar. About 50 feet away. I had a stiff wind to my back so I could easily reach the bar. The first cast took about a minute before a redfish start chasing the whitebait. Finally the fish nailed the bait and the fight was on. The water was close to 100 degrees so the fish could really fight. After a few minutes I had the first redfish in the boat and it was in the slot, Yeah dinner! As I was measuring the fish (24 inch) I saw two more reds cruising the along the bar. In the box that fish went and I cast another bait out to the other fish. The first redfish hit the whitebait as soon as it hit the water. This one I could tell was big, due to the line peeling off the reel. This was not a slot fish, it measured out at 31 inches.

Oversized 31 inch Redfish.

So you would think with two fish on the first two cast of the day it would be a pretty good day. The tide was moving in and the mangrove snappers started to school and stealing my bait. So I started to heading to the back of the bay. I did see a little trout on the way back, which also readily took a small whitebait. When I got it to the boat I was not sure if the whitebait was bigger than the trout. Luckily it flipped off at the boat.

My next stop was a place where I do not fish often so I thought I would live chum and see if I draw the fish to me. A few minutes after anchoring I noticed there was a big school of small whitebait around my boat... So much for live chumming. Needless to say I did not get a single hit there. I moved to a couple of other places only to the find no fish.

On the way back in the marine patrol stopped my and checked my fish. When I told them that I caught the redfish in Centipede Bay they seemed surprised and reply they had not stop anyone who had caught redfish in the bay. Most of the redfish where coming from minnow creek. For some reason I really do not like to fish minnow creek, but after that talk I may give it a shot next time I go out.

Good Luck... If anyone is finding the redfish let me know.

After looking on the north side of Centipede Bay and only finding hit and miss fish, I started looking on the south side. Years ago I always fished the south side and did very well. And the fish are still on the south side. But it's a harder place to fish and the fish spoke easily. Taking my time through some of the smaller creeks it was not long before I found a few fish.

Redfish about 2 inches too big!

The only downside is that everyone of them appeared too big to keep. I only landing one and it was 29 inches.

The upside is that the whitebait is here and I can now start using the live chum tactics which makes finding the redfish much easier. Once the weather gets back to normal I plan revisit some of the other areas of Centipede Bay and continue the search. But this time with whitebait.

Good Luck

The whitebait has not really been around. I've checked all the usual places, marker 48 on the Hernando Beach channel, the Bayport Tri-pod, around the turn marker and between the to poles just outside of the channel. Not a single school.

Fortunately the mud minnows have been around the island and some very big one at that. So we picked up a dozen big mud minnows and started looking. We ended up finding one fish on the north side of the bay. And luckily it was hungry and 26 inches. We fished the north side for another hour and did not see any redfish.

The tide was pretty high so we started looking in the creeks on the south side. We went through just about every nook and cranny. This type of fishing is very time consuming but most reliable when the redfish are scarce. I did not spook any fish until the last 100 feet. There where two fish about 20 feet apart in along the edge of the bay in the back of the bay. At low tide I have run across 20-30 redfish in this area, but really have not seen any when the tide was high.

This leads me to believe that the redfish or the bait fish have changed and are now in different location. After many many reports of redfish being scarce, it's time to go back to the basics. The way I found all the locations I fish is with shrimp. I came up with an idea to cross lure fishing with live shrimp. Instead of casting lures to the points, creeks and edges I use a big jumbo shrimp. Let it sink then reel it in and repeat. If you lose a shrimp to a bait thief then you are leaving the shrimp in the water too long. Typically are redfish will hit the shrimp as it sinks or just as it hits the bottom. Over time I noticed that the redfish tend to be in the same sports where I had caught them before. Not to mention if you have a casting platform you can watch the fish hit the shrimp. That's almost as good as catching them on top water lures.

Good Luck

Zippyjr

The first stop just a few bait stealer, we tried a few more spots and never saw a redfish. We stitched to lures and started to hunt for the fish, fished top water and chatter baits. Due to the strong east wind the tide went out very quick, so we decided to hit the cuts.

We started out at marker 25 and worked our way west. While fishing the cut we would could take our time to check for whitebait at each cut. The first cast at marker 25 we picked up a trout and decided to anchor. Using only jigs we caught 4 or 5 more trout. Then moved to the next cut and had the same results. The trout where small and we ended up with 4 16-18 in trout and caught around 10-15 short trout.

We spent an hour or so in the cuts going from marker 25 out to marker 15 and never saw the first whitebait. The report I got from another angler was that there where only small baits in Aripeka. As far as I can tell the whitebait has not found a place to settle in out area. Next trip out will be north, so I will check smith rock and north Bayport.

Tide : 3.2ft falling
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 28% full
Temp: 88 F
Water Temp : 84F
Wind: var 5 mph - E 10-15 mph
Bait: Lures
Results: Trout and no redfish