By: John “JD” Donohue
Early last month I was invited by 13 Fishing’s marketing manager, Jose Chavez, to put their new line of ENVY saltwater spinning rods to the test. Our goal was to land a monster creek snook. We launched before first light and headed toward the creek as the tide was quickly dumping out. It seemed like a no brainer. Flushing tide, a creek filled with mullet and the linesiders in their fall transition had me hoping that my 3000 class reels had enough stopping power to pull a jumbo snook away from the mangroves. We worked the creek hard concentrating on points and eddies, but all we had to show for our effort were a couple of small trout.
Jose suggested that we should head back to the bay to change our luck. He suggested a series of oyster bars that usually hold fish on the outgoing tide. I was all in. Oyster bars range all through redfish and seatrout territory from the Chesapeake Bay up in Virginia all the way down the east coast and wrapping around the Gulf coast all the way to Texas. Oysters provide the reds and trout with a bountiful food source as small baitfish and crustaceans feed off the sediment caused by water flowing over them. The bars also serve as great structure for the gamefish to set up ambush points as they look to feed on the neighboring bait. Like most other fishy scenarios, the best oyster bars are those that have a mess of frolicking mullet around them and good water flow.
On this day, we drifted the edges of the bars throwing Saltwater Assassin and DOA shad tails on light 1/8-ounce jigheads. We started by pounded the edges were we spotted clouds of glass minnows. This area treated us to some nice snook action, as they we lying in wait under the millions of tiny baitfish. Not the monsters we originally set out for, but very nice fish.
As the tide rapidly dropped, we observed that the mullet were schooling just off the oyster bar. We continued by peppering our jigs into the thick mullet schools. We were armed with 13 Fishing’s 7’7” medium light ENVY rods that allowed us to bomb the light jigs into the mullet while keeping a comfortable distance as to not spook our quarry. Being able to stand in the Hobie Pro Angler14 gave a two-fold advantage of being high enough to spot small sand holes, as well as getting a little extra distance on our casts. Our efforts were rewarded with a nice redfish flurry at the tail end of the outgoing tide.
As the winter low tides take effect, remember that this is a great time to grab a friend and head to the bar.
Pedal On!
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