A SPECIAL REPORT by Captain John Kumiski ©2013
Nothing in angling compares to being out just before first light on a summer morning that’s so dark, warm, and humid you almost feel like you’re back in the womb. Scorpius and Sagittarius begin to fade as fiery streaks of light appear in the east. The gentlest movement of air comes out of the west. The annoying whine of a mosquito or two caresses your eardrums. And if you picked the proper placement for your boat, big redfish tails appear all around you as soon as it’s light enough to see them.
As I get older it gets harder and harder to climb out of bed for those dawn patrol trips. They just don’t seem to be necessary most of the time. Come summertime in central Florida though, the dawn patrol is perhaps the most vital component in a successful redfishing trip.
Redfish prefer water temperatures in a range that runs from 70 to 75 degreesFahrenheit. During a typical summer here, water temperatures in local Indian River Lagoon system bottom out in the low 80s and could run into the 90s depending on where on the flat you are and the time of day. When will that water be coolest, and therefore most comfortable for our copper-clad friends? At first light, of course.
There are other considerations concerning time of day as well. One is your own comfort. By noon time on a July day the sun blazes mercilessly, beating down on the angler with the force of hammer strokes. If you start at 4 AM you’re ready to wrap it up by noon.
Convection starts over land as the sun gets higher in the sky, heating the land mass and the air above it. That air rises and forms puffy white cumulus clouds. As these clouds get larger and more numerous, sight fishing becomes more difficult. Every time a cloud passes between you and the sun the lights go out. Even when the sun shines, seeing through the reflection of the clouds on the surface of the water is tough.
Somewhere between 9 and 10 AM that gentlest of breezes out of the west stops. The water surface becomes mirror-like for 20 to 60 minutes or so. That air rising above the land mass must be replaced, and so the sea breeze starts.
This breeze generally runs from 10 to 15 mph, always from the east or southeast.
On numerous occasions I have witnessed a flat that was covered with tailing redfish becomes vacant within five minutes as those fish schooled up and dropped off the edge of the flat as soon as the sea breeze started. Many times the start of the sea breeze signals the end of the day’s redfish bite.
Finally, those clouds tend to get larger and higher until they start casually tossing huge sparks around the angler who just didn’t take the hint. Painfully large raindrops pour from them, too. It doesn’t matter how good the fishing is. No fish is worth a million volt jolt.
Redfish seem to enjoy the same kind of weather that we do. Those lovely summer mornings agree with the fish, and many times you’ll find them tailing, or schooled up, finning at the surface of the water, sunning themselves. Happy fish are such a treasure to find!
Those warm water temperatures translate to high metabolism for our finny targets. The finned-out fish may not be aggressively feeding but they will certainly take a well placed lure or bait.
My favorite summertime lures include five inch long jerk baits and the shallow running DOA Bait Buster. For finned out fish I prefer an unweighted minnow pattern as far as fly fishing goes. Bait choice concerning natural baits is somewhat dictated by the swarms of pinfish, blowfish, and other such critters found in the lagoon at this time of year. A soft, delicate shrimp hardly stands a chance. A small, live blue crab or a juicy mullet chunk is favored now.
Tailing fish need a weighted fly. A Clouser Minnow or one of its many variations often works. Carry some crab patterns in case the fish get fussy. The same spinning lures mentioned above still work, although you may need to weight that jerk worm slightly. If the grass is not too thick (it usually is) a jig will also work. The weedless spoon is always in fashion.
Where do you look for the fish come summer? Where don’t you look? They usually won’t be high on the flat. Looking for crawlers along the shoreline is most likely a wasteof time. Look on deeper parts of the flat. Look at the edges of bars and along drop-offs. Look in the shade underneath docks. Summer fish generally prefer deeper water than winter fish do, and although that is a generalization it usually holds true.
During the winter I take the trolling motor off my boat. The extra weight of the motor and battery sometimes keep me from accessing the shallows where winter redfish like to congregate. This is not an issue during the summer, and the trolling motor can actually raise the tally of fish boated. Let me give an example.
Gracing my boat one day were a father-son team of fly fishers from South Carolina. Let’s call them Joe and Jim. We found a large school of big redfish on a flat in the Indian River Lagoon. The water was slick calm and the fish were happy, high in the water and finned out. Joe and Jim took turns tossing flies at them. One would cast while the other would change flies. Nothing was working. Finally, one of us got a little too aggressive and the fish spooked. They headed off down the flat, pushing a large wake as they went.
Jim asked me, “Aren’t you going to chase them?” “Yes,” I said. “I’m giving them a head start.” You can’t stay with these fish with a pushpole when they get to cruising, and the sound of a trolling motor cranking behind them does little to calm them. I let them get a 100 yard head start and then dropped the trolling motor into the water to pursue. The wake they pushed on that very calm day would be visible from much farther than 100 yards.
We chased those fish for about a half mile before they slowed down. Finally though, they did slow. Some fins popped up. They apparently forgot what spooked them and returned to the relaxed mode. I pulled up the trolling motor and poled in on them again.
Joe and Jim literally tried every fly pattern they had with no success. I finally asked them, “Do you have any crab patterns?” They didn’t. I had two Merkin crabs. Joe’s fish weighed 24 pounds. Jim’s weighed 21. Jim had been trying for 20 years to catch a 20 pound redfish and was thrilled that both he and his son accomplished the feat on the same day.
I think summer is the best time of year to fish for the big redfish because you need good weather to be successful. Summer mornings provide one good weather day after another. I’ve often wondered if, after a thunderstorm, the fishing picked up near sunset. I must admit to never having tried this, though. If anyone would like to share their experiences with this I would love to hear them.
So now you're ready to go try for some hot summer redfish!
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Copyright © John A. Kumiski 2012. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute this work in any manner or medium without written permission from the author, John A. Kumiski, 284 Clearview Road, Chuluota, FL 32766 (407) 977-5207, spottedtail@spottedtail.com.
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