While regulations allow anglers up to three redfish (15 to 23 inches long) per day, most sportsmen practice catch and release, handling the fish with care and fully reviving them before releasing back in the water. Each fish is too valuable to our culture and economy to be caught only once.
Once hooked, this beauty ripped line from the reel while heading for the horizon
A tailing redfish
The clearing water of late fall and winter makes it easier to spot gathering schools of redfish at various tides.
Poling through low tide
Fiddler crabs, a favorite snack of redfish, scurry across the mud at low tide.
American oystercatchers and many other crustacean-eating wading birds can be seen on the same flats and oyster basins where redfish live.
Cruising a creek in route to the flats
Tailing flats—hard bottomed grass flats that flood when high tides exceed six feet—can be seen easily from the air. Google Earth works well enough when a helicopter isn’t available.
Captain Jeremy Mehlhaff admires a good-size redfish caught during an October tailing tide.
Poling the skiff and casting at low tide
