We loaded the boat and headed out. By the time we got out the tide was too high to get mud minnows, so I knew it would be a day of casting lures. I saw a few redfish as I started patrolling the back waters. The tide was high enough that I could go anywhere, which means the redfish can be in many places they normally do not get a chance to get to.

After seeing 8 fish and not able to get close enough without spooking them I had all but given up. Then to my surprise a 31 inch snook hit the lure on the drop. It was really surprising, of course snook are out of season.

Next we trolled for copepods and found that Centipede Bay was loaded with them. Which is not surprise, since Centipede Bay is a fish nursery. Copepods are the first foods of most marine fish.

After the good news with the copepods I thought I would cast a few times out in the bay. The winds had picked up a lot and we could really cover some water. We caught a few lady fish and one nice trout.

Now that I had 2/3 of an inshore slam, I was off to get the redfish... The easy one. I looked a few places and flushed out a couple, but never landed one. I guess a slam was not in the cards for this day. ..

The first stop was the rock bar, since the tide as pretty low. Not much action there, but that gave us time to eat lunch.

The next stop was towards the back of the bay. As we eased passed the rock bar we came to a fairly rocky bay. I spotted two red fish  coming in with the tide. I anchor to investigate the area. From the platform I saw another pair, on the opposite side and three right in front of the boat. They saw the boat and took off, right back to where we where going to fish. The next group of fish I was ready for them with a frisky mud minnow. Made the cast an the fish ran towards the back.  At this point I had seen 9 redfish pass through the area and was headed to the back of the bay. I started thinking about what to have with my grilled redfish.  As we got closer to the area we wanted to fish I saw several other reds. Once the baits where in the water I knew it would only be a few minutes before the action started. Few minutes passed, nothing. Half hour passed, nothing. Hour passed nothing! The whole time I could see redfish cruising around our baits. After an hour and 1/2 I decided it's time to go find some hungry redfish.

The next couple of stops where uneventful. We did not even lose a bait. I had one more stop before calling it a day. By this time the wind was blowing about 10-15 mph out of the southwest. So I have a place where we need to cast far and it would be with the wind. There are lots of rocks and it requires a stealthy approach. We cast out our baits and waited 15 - 20 minutes. Still nothing, so we rapped it up and called it a day.

We had a good time fishing and I'm really looking forward to more days fishing.

We started the day looking for whitebait or green backs, none in the Hernando Beach channel, we did not see any in the Bayport channel. So we went to the reliable mud minnows. The schools where not huge 5-10 mud minnows in each school. We headed back to Centipede bay with 14 mud minnows. but they where big.

Lost two baits to catfish at the rock bar on the north side. Did not see much there.

We moved to back of the bay. Fished a little further off the grass line than normal in case there were fish cruising the outside of the grass line.  Seemed like a good plan on a raising tide. It took about 5 minutes for a first hit. It was a nice over sized redfish that auto released in the grass. The hook pulled which is pretty rare for circle hooks.

Ten minutes later we landed our first slot size redfish in two years. Yeah.... We moved back further so we could reach the shoreline and picked up another over slot redfish at 31 inches.

Overall not a bed couple of hours. I think will try again tomorrow, this time less time chasing bait and more time catching redfish.

I am certainly looking forward to getting back to the fishing!!

The last trip we hooked 4 redfish with the smallest coming at a solid 28 inch and the largest 32 inch. I hate to catch oversize fish, simply because I use light tackle and this puts a lot of stress on the larger fish.

31 Inch Redfish. Another over slot fish...

Many times I may spend 10 minutes reviving the fish, just to make sure it's alive and will survive. After all, the whole point of the slot limit is to allow the big females to reproduce.

The trip before this one had the same tone, 29, 28, 29, 30, 31, etc. If fact most of the trips this year was the same. The first few trip I did catch a few 27 and 26 inch fish. So I started hunting,  I searched every creek, cut and bay on all tide phases. The results where all about the same.  When I found redfish they where oversize.

So I started thinking, about 7 years ago fishing centipede bay I use to catch a lot of rat reds ( 10-12 inches ).  Sometimes catching as many as 40 fish a trip. Of course there were a some 21-22 inch fish in the mix, which made me happy. Then I started catching more and more 21 inch fish. Then the next year 21 to 23 inch fish. Then a few years ago almost every fish I caught was 24 inch.  Which turns out to be a perfect size fish. Dinner for two with a redfish sandwich for lunch. What more could you want. That was the year I fished almost every day that summer.  The following year the fish where a little big. Then last year I caught a few oversize fish and lots of 27 inch fish.

You can see where I am going with this. This year most of the fish are oversize. When you think about it, every year the fish grow and every year the fish I caught on average where bigger. This leads me to believe that about 6  years ago, there was a big redfish spawn in a place that would cause the  juvenile redfish ended up in centipede bay. Those juvenile fish hung around year after year eating and growing.

A brief overview of the redfish life cycle.

All large redfish are females (so much for the term bull red) and they spawn insore with the males from inshore. They can lay up to 2 million eggs per season. Once the eggs hatch the larva redfish drift with the current towards the inshore waters. For the larva that are lucky enough to find an estuary or bay, they will stay within 3 miles of that area and grow. If they change to females then they will move out to deeper and live the rest of the lives in the near shore waters. Except for the Aug-Oct when they come inshore to find some redfish love.

With that, I think what has happened, is that the area or breeding grounds that would cause the larva to end up in Centipede Bay changed about 6-8 years ago. This could mean several things:

1. The breeding grounds have been destroyed. Which would mean Centipede Bay, would have very few redfish in the future.
2. The area around the breeding grounds has changed such that the currents now push the larva elsewhere. Over time the spawn may occur when the currents are favorable to repopulate Centipede Bay.
3. The food source in the breeding grounds is no longer there, forcing the spawn to move elsewhere.

Whichever the case may be, the bottom line is that the redfish population in Centipede Bay is not being replenished with larva redfish. It has been many years since I have caught an under size fish. So this leads me to believe that Centipede Bay will no longer be a hot spot for redfish. If this is a natural cycle then I would think this must be close to the bottom of that cycle and it may be a few years before we see the population start to increase.

I guess it's time to start looking in different areas. Last year I had a few trips along fiddlers  point. To my surprise, I did run across a couple of big schools of redfish. Maybe that's where the larva are landing.  I guess I will be spending the fall fishing season around fiddlers point. The upside is I rarely see anyone one in that area. And best of all no power rangers, the water is too shallow. If you decide to head over to that area I would love here how you did. Also never go there on a falling tide, unless you plan on camping. And watch for rocks there are lots of them. If you have a GPS you can mark the areas that do not have rocks, that will keep you way points to a manageable level....

Good Luck

Zippyjr