FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Even though the northeastern coast of Florida produced some excellent redfish catches on day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series event – seven limits over 12 pounds – veterans of the game still say the weights will come down Friday.
Unlike other venues on the Redfish Series Eastern route, such as Titusville or Englewood, Fla., where the tide and water conditions remain fairly stable over two or three days, the turbulent East Coast tides of up to 6 feet keep the playing field in constant motion.
Much like a sporting clay shooter, redfish anglers fishing this part of the world have to lead their targets – and not just in terms of single casts, either.
Timing schools of fish “falling” out of tidal creeks with the outgoing tide is the name of the game.
Yesterday the team of Daniel Benson and Steven Howie had perfect timing in intercepting a school of fish coming out of a creek on the rapidly falling water.
Their catch of 12 pounds, 9 ounces put them in fourth place.
“We were set up and ready when they came by the boat, and we both hooked up when they got in range,” Howie recalled. “When a school comes by like that here, you literally have about a 30-minute window to catch them. If you miss them by just 15 minutes, you’ll never see them.”
Since the tide cycle shifts about 45 minutes later each day, and a small shift in wind direction or speed can greatly impact the tide levels, intercepting redfish on a consistent basis can be a tricky game.
“If your fish don’t show up when they’re supposed to, you start second-guessing yourself,” Benson added. “Well, are we too early? Are we too late? Did they already go past us? Should we stay and wait? Should we move? And when you’re dealing with a small school of only 15 fish, if you blink you might miss them.
“But when you time them perfect and it works out like it did for us yesterday, it’s pretty cool.”
Some anglers in the Fernandina field are timing high water, some are timing low water, and some are timing both.
But to say that the fishing is best here on just a high tide or just a low tide is too general.
“The trick here is to time the tide with the spot you’re fishing,” advised local pro John Henninger. “There are not very many places where you can go fish all day, because each place only has a certain amount of premium tide window. One spot may be good at dead high, another spot may be good at medium tide, and another spot may only be good at low tide.”
And while some redfish pros timed their water right yesterday, only those who can time it perfectly again today will advance to the top five this afternoon.
The day-two weigh-in begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Fernandina Harbor Marina.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:23 a.m.
Tides: high: 9:46 a.m. low: 3:28 p.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 74 degrees
Expected high temperature: 80 degrees
Water temperature: 70-75 degrees
Forecasted winds: E at 10 to 20 mph
Day’s outlook: warm and balmy