beach redfish

Zev and his crew kicked the new year off right with a few giants!

It’s that time of the year! Throughout the entire region, from Sebastian to Cape Canaveral, the beach is finally turning on. Weather permitting, typically on northern or westerly winds this time of the year, the beach usually provides lots of opportunities from tripletail, pompano, whiting, to one of the common favorites: the bull redfish.

This week the redfish seem to be holding around the baitpods in 10-20 feet of water and are hungry for just about anything you can get to the bottom. Use a little larger setup — typically a 6000 to 8000 size reel with 50lb braid and an 80lb leader with a 6/0 circle hook and large dead bait. Bonito chunks, mullet, and croakers are producing large breeder redfish. These fish really need to be handled with care, so small tackle and holding these fish vertical are two things I would highly avoid! Get the fish in quick, snap a cool photo holding the fish horizontal and a good revival is the proper method. This ensures for a good release and will bring us many more for future generations. Happy new year and tight lines!