By: Capt. Blane Garrett
When I think of winter time here in South West Florida. The first thing that comes to my mind is gin clear water and extra low tides. If you play the weather right it can be a sight fisherman’s dream come true in the backwaters. Add a negative tide and some healthy turtle grass and you may just witness one of the greatest spectacles of inshore fishing. A tailing redfish. I’ll start my preparations days ahead checking the weather and tides. The calm winds coincide with a negative tide one morning and I got excited for another memorable morning on the flats. Waking up early before there’s even a hint of light, I get the Hewes Redfisher flats boat ready with all the light tackle gear I’ll need. The 20ft push pole gets secured onto the gunnel and I’m ready to go!
Arriving at the Marina, the sun is just about to start peaking. Looking out over the water, I can see a mirror of the sky. It’s time to get the boat in the water and get to the promise land heading straight to my favorite flat filled with luscious turtle grass. I cut my engine off and I’m now floating in about a foot to a foot and a half of water. Perfect! It’s time to hop on the poling platform and scan around for anything that creates a disturbance on the surface. Covering some ground quietly using the push pole, silence is definitely golden in this game. The sun is now starting to rise off the horizon and out of the corner of my eye I see something orange glimmer a few inches out of the water. There it is! At my Three O’ Clock about a hundred feet away. A brightly colored orange tail waving at me as if it’s saying “here I am”, my eyes light up with determination!
I begin to pole the boat towards the fish and I’m just about in casting range. Suddenly the tail sinks down and I lost sight of it. About a minute passes and I begin to think the fish left when suddenly the tail rises about 20ft to the port side of my boat. I can see the entire fish clear as day. My heart begins to pound as I’m extremely close and I know I’ve got one shot at this fish. I flip my Wyze Guyz Tackle paddle tail a few feet from the orange submarine. Thinking I might have casted too close. The tail dropped and its mouth instantly inhaled the lure and my line starts to shoot across the flat and the reel starts screaming! “Hooked up!”.
