10 Best Redfishing Spots
Redfish are the most popular fly-rod targets in the Southeast because they range from North Carolina to Texas; they’re found in beautiful places; they’re relatively easy to catch; they grow to impressive sizes in some areas; and they mostly inhabit quiet shallow water where they can be sight-fished.
This reporter fished from Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, to South Padre Island, Texas, in wind, rain, fog, and sunshine, to bring you information on the best places to fly fish for redfish (drum) in North America.
My favorites are listed below, from one to ten in my order of importance. My choices are subjective. (They may differ from yours, depending on your fishing preferences: boat or wade fishing; clear-water flats or spartina grass flats, low tide or high.) Any endeavor like this suffers from the so-many-fish, so-little-time syndrome.
For those who have not fished for them, a little information about redfish may help. They inhabit the marshy tidal-flood margins around the Southeast coastal region of the U.S. and particularly inside barrier islands that create their ideal habitat.
Why are red and black drum called “drum”? During their spawning season, they make deeply resonant drumming, or thrumming, sounds that can be heard above the water.
The fishing is from boats: flats skiffs, kayaks, and canoes. Wade fishing is rare due to often soft bottoms, and requires care—or sometimes wearing shin guards or boots—since redfish flats are also prime habitat for stingrays. [For more information on this topic, see “Avoiding and Treating Stingray Injuries” by Tom Earnhardt at flyfisher man.com/florida/stingray. The Editor.]
Fly fishers’ biggest challenge is hunting and sight-casting to tailing reds in the flooded flats. Guides are critically important. The flats and redfish are their workplace and their passion. They have the right boats, flies, hunting and fishing techniques, and they know when and where to find the fish.
Due to space constraints, I could not list all the redfish guides working these hotspots but I tried to find the best in their regions. Guides who specialize in fly fishing for reds are few in number, but they are highly skilled and worth their prices, which range from $500 to $600 for a six- to eight-hour day. [To see maps of all the areas mentioned in this article, see flyfisherman.com/10bestredfish. The Editor.]
Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana.
I’m convinced that God favored the Cajuns: The Delta has it all. You can fish in the Barataria Estuary and have 30- and 40-fish days, with reds that range from 4 to 12 pounds. Or you can fish out at the edge of the Gulf and target 20-pound and larger reds.
There are many fish—tailing, crawling, cruising—and there are few fishers. Other species you might catch on your trip include: cobia, spotted seatrout, and jacks. Most of the fishing is within an hour’s drive and short boat rides from downtown New Orleans.
I fished the Delta with Capt. Bryan Carter, who launches his Hells Bay skiff in Port Sulfur or wherever the fishing happens to be the best at the time. He’s bright, witty, skillful, and a talented guide.
Capt. Gary Taylor (Louisiana’s only Orvis-endorsed redfish guide) operates out of Slidell and also fishes the vast wetlands around Cocodrie, two hours west of Slidell. Taylor fishes both a Hells Bay flats skiff and a kayak. He partners with other fly-fishing guides to take large parties.
Virtually all the fishing in the Delta is from boats. The average fish size year-round is 4 to 12 pounds, but a number of potential IGFA and state-record reds have been caught in this area. Seasonally—especially in fall—“bull” (large, sexually mature) reds ranging from 20 to 40 pounds gather in schools, preparing to enter the shallows to fatten for winter.
The Delta has some of America’s best flats for large reds. It provides year-round fishing, but November through January, and May and June, are the best months. February through April is often windy.
Rockport, Texas.
Just north of Corpus Christi is a lovely, friendly little town at the edge of a sprawling, 80-mile-long system of barrier islands, saltwater flats, and bays, stretching as far south as Brownsville. It is populated by redfish, seatrout, and flounder. Many of the system’s salt marsh shorelines lie within the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Matagorda Island State Park. These wilderness areas enclose miles of shallow, grass flats with clear water—a sight fisher’s playground. Whooping cranes fly and call while you double-haul. This has been the guiding world of Capt. Chuck Naiser since 1992. Naiser’s specialty is redfishing on remote tidal lakes and flats that are reached by his airboat.
If you visit Rockport, you won’t get shots at world-record redfish, but, weather permitting, you’ll have at least 30 or 40 shots a day at reds averaging 4 to 12 pounds. Moderately competent casters can enjoy excellent fishing including wade sight-fishing to tailing reds in ankle to mid-calf water. Tides range from 4 to 6 inches, which makes for a quiet environment, careful approaches, (poling, kayaking, or wading) and all-day fishing.
Best seasons include October through November 15, and May through June. March and April are often windy.
St. Simons Island, Georgia.
St. Simons is a special place, one of only four barrier islands (nearby Jekyll, Sea, and Tybee islands are the other three) that are publicly accessible out of 13 on the Georgia coast. Have you ever fished in a hayfield? That’s what high-tide redfishing on the Atlantic seaboard is like. The “hay” is spartina (cordgrass), and when the water gets high enough (tides run as high as 8 to 11 feet) 7- to 14-pound redfish work their way into the grass and feast on fiddler crabs.
In spring, small reds school by the hundreds in the shallows, and tripletails (from 3 to 20 pounds) can be fished from the beaches. In summer, you can sight-fish for tarpon on the flats around the nearby Golden Isles.
St. Simons has both incoming-tide and low-tide fishing, with the fish changing locations as they follow the advancing tide into the spartina flats, then back to the outside flats as the tide falls. After the fiddler crabs burrow into the mud for winter, the flats water is often dirty, but the fish, typically in schools, can be seen when they wake and flash, providing good boat fishing through the winter.
There are bull reds along the beaches in fall, but the most fulfilling challenge is—with the help of a guide—spotting and casting from a 15-foot skiff to tailing reds in the spartina or quietly wade fishing for them. Capt. Greg Hildreth advises his clients to cast about 5 feet in front of a tailing red, allowing the fish to find the twitched fly.
Best times to fish include spring and fall. On an average day, you can expect shots at from 15 to 20 reds.
Morehead City, North Carolina.
Beaufort Inlet supplies the Newport and North rivers with plenty of tidal water, and redfish prowl the marshes along the Morehead City rivers and flats. The reds—and there are many—take Clousers, Dahlberg Divers, Crease Flies, and weedless crab imitations, and on a good day with a guide and boat, an experienced caster can expect to hook from six to ten reds in the 4- to 10-pound range.
Capt. Joe Shute also fishes Bogue and Card sounds, Shackleford Bank, and occasionally as far away as the town of Oriental for drum up to 60 pounds in the August to September spawning period.
The Cape Lookout area seasonally has big gamefish including sharks (caught behind commercial fish trawlers) and offers exceptional fishing for false albacore (October to November), amberjack (spring and fall), dorado (spring), and bluefin tuna (fall and winter). Flounder, seatrout, and black drum are side shots while you fish for reds. The fly fishing is from a 16-foot flats skiff or (offshore) 23-foot Parker.
South Padre Island/Port Mansfield, Texas.
While fishing at the extreme south end of the Laguna Madre, you can wade for reds on vast white-sand flats extending from the south end of South Padre Island to beyond Port Mansfield. There are lots of redfish, trout, flounder, snook, and tarpon. There is a 4- to 5-inch tide, and you wade in 12 inches of water or less—wearing stingray-proof boots—and fish spoon flies from East Cut Saltwater Flies (eastcut.com), which are favorites with Texas coast fly fishers. A sinking deer-hair Slider is another favorite redfish fly here.
On good days, experienced fly fishers can average 20 shots at reds and land from five to six fish weighing between 3 and 8 pounds. Best fishing conditions occur from July through October. The shallow, clear waters call for fluorocarbon tippets.
Biloxi, Mississippi.
Mississippi has salt marshes similar to those in Louisiana. There are many grassy, shallow ponds connected by a series of cuts and bayous around Big Lake. Inland ponds that get heavy fishing pressure have redfish averaging 3 to 8 pounds, but some ponds get less pressure and can produce fish that weigh more than 30 pounds. During the winter (November through January) 20-pound-plus reds are the prime targets, and these large bull reds provide good skiff fishing in the shallows through January and February. Boat rides can be chilly.
In November the water clears, and sight-fishing while wading or from a flats skiff is excellent on white-sand flats around the Gulf Islands, 12 miles offshore. Schools of reds averaging 6 to 8 pounds make for exciting visual fishing. The islands are popular with guides, and the fish get hit hard.
Best seasons here are late fall (November and December), winter (January and February), and spring (May and June). March and April are windy, and in summer the water is often cloudy with algae and the days are hot. Tides are 1 to 3 feet and determine fish movements.
Capt. Rick Lauman prefers fishing on falling tides, especially in clear autumn water, because falling water forces the reds from the grassy shallows into slightly deeper water where they can still be spotted easily. Large black drum provide added fishing, but these freight trains can take a long time to land.
Biloxi is a casino gambling hotspot for nonfishing companions.
Indian River Lagoon, Titusville, Florida.
Researching this article made me realize how much fishing pressure is impacting the red-drum in my Indian River Lagoon home water. We have the fish, but they are fished heavily. [See “Fishing Florida’s Space Coast” by John Kumiski, Feb. 2004 issue. The Editor.]
In addition to redfishing by skiff, hand-powered boat, or by wading, several other species are available in season, including trout, black drum, jacks, snook, and tarpon. Redfish that average 5 to 10 pounds, but occasionally top 30 pounds, are the most popular gamefish.
Beaufort, South Carolina.
Beaufort is somewhat like Rockport, Texas: a lovely small town with visual and performing arts venues, and nearby salt marshes full of redfish. Capt. Tuck Scott says, “Fifty percent of the inshore marshes in South Carolina are in Beaufort County, so there’s an enormous area in which these redfish thrive.”
The tides average around 7 feet, so your success revolves around the tide chart. Fortunately there are both high-water and low-water hotspots, so fishing is possible all day.
Pine Island Sound, Florida.
Pine Island Sound has miles of shallow grass flats. There are oyster bars and mangrove shorelines, but the main concentrations of fly-fishable redfish are on grass flats surrounded by deeper water.
Snook, seatrout, tarpon, and several other species are also available for most of the year, and if the low tide is a foot or less, and it’s not too windy, any unmolested flat should hold tailing redfish. If the mullet are jumping, the herons are wading, and the water is moving, they will be there.
Most fish average from 3 to 8 pounds. Redfish tail throughout the year but late fall, winter, and early spring have the best tides (a foot or less) for shots at these fish.
Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana.
I’m not a fan of blind casting with a fly rod, but I’ll make an exception for Big Lake (the local nickname for Lake Calcasieu). During my last visit there in December, two of us caught 34 redfish and trout in one day by blind casting various streamers.
Lake Calcasieu (south of Lake Charles) offers three distinctly different kinds of redfishing. There is shallow-water marsh fishing—in 2 feet of water or less—in ponds, cuts, and bayous, or back in the marsh. There is bay fishing in Big Lake, along shorelines and over oyster reefs in 6 to 7 feet of water. Then, from the end of August to the end of October, there is fishing for bull reds along the beach in the Gulf, a mixture of sight and blind fishing.
Honorable Mentions
Several other places deserve honorable mention, and perhaps this article should have been called “The Best 14 Places for Redfish.” Here are some great places that didn’t make the top 10:
Oriental, North Carolina, at the junction of the Neuse River and Pamlico Sound. Capt. Gary Dubiel, (252) 249-1520, specfever.com.
Everglades National Park, Florida. Capt. Eric Herstedt, (954) 592-1228, flori dalighttacklecharters.com.
Appalachicola Bay, Florida. Robinson Brothers Guide Service, (850) 653-8896, flaredfish.com.
Wilmington, North Carolina. Capt. Seth Vernon, (910) 256-4545, intracoastal angler.com.
Gearing Up
Most redfish guides prefer 8-weight rods with weight-forward saltwater floating lines, although 7- and 9-weights also work, depending on what you own, the weather, and the size of the fish you expect to catch.
Leaders. Where fishing pressure is light, guides like short leaders, about 7 feet, but where reds are pressured, leader lengths of 14 feet may be required on calm days.
Tippet strength depends on local conditions. When fishing in heavy grass, or around oysters, use 18- to 20-pound fluorocarbon, but on clearwater flats with no obstructions, 10- or 12-pound-test is right.
Flies. Redfish have simple dietary preferences—crabs, shrimp, and baitfish—and your fly box should reflect this. You will cover the water column from top to bottom, with both attractor and imitator patterns. Attractors include poppers, spoon flies, flash flies, and rattle flies. Imitators include crab, shrimp, and minnow imitations.
With the exception of patterns for big bull reds, most flies should be in the #4-1/0 range. Weighted flies should be just heavy enough to get them down. Many, if not all, flies should have weed guards, because reds feed around grass and shells, and getting hung up can seriously limit your fishing time and the number of fish you catch.
On my research trips, I carried just one box of flies. Only in Louisiana did I need something I didn’t have—a big crab pattern that sank like an anvil. Fortunately, my guide, Bryan Carter, had what we needed. We got the fish.
John Kumiski is a redfish guide in the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast (spottedtail.com). His latest book is Redfish on the Fly (Argonaut Publishing, 2007).
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