The other day, I was looking through a box of old photos. At the bottom of the box was a picture of my father with two smiling grandchildren and one unlucky fish. The image is a bit blurry and the lighting is bad but the memories are picture perfect.

Last week, I fished with Walt Thorn and his grandchildren Haley and Lawson. When we met at the boat landing, I was immediately impressed with the children. They were very polite and listened intently to the safety briefing and tackle orientation. Our plan for the day was to target redfish on the flats using mud minnows on lead head jigs. Unfortunately, a strong wind made fishing on the flats extremely difficult. With the flats blown out, we switched to fishing docks in deeper water that were sheltered from the wind. Fishing was tough. On several occasions we could see redfish under the docks but we could not get them to bite. Walt, Haley and Lawson did everything very well. It was just one of those days.

After hitting a couple of docks without a single bite, I was beginning to get worried. So when Haley hooked a redfish, I was more excited than she was! Haley calmly and smoothly fought the fish and soon it was in the skiff. Shortly thereafter, Walt released a redfish. Not to be outdone, Lawson added one for good measure. We picked at the fish the rest of the day and were able to release 3 or 4 more redfish. Given the challenging conditions and uncooperative fish Walt, Haley and Lawson did amazingly well. The next day, I received a picture via email of Walt, Haley, and Lawson with one unlucky fish. The image is a bit blurry and the lighting is bad (over the years my photography skills have not improved) but the memories are picture perfect.

Given the recent cold snap, the redfish and trout have settled into their typical winter patterns. Large schools of redfish are now consistently on the flats. There are even a few schools of trout hanging around with them. This time of year, many anglers focus exclusively on shallow water. While the flats can be very productive, there are still good numbers of fish holding on submerged ledges and docks. If the flats are blown out or the fish in the shallows are simply not biting, moving into deeper water will pay dividends.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at captaingreg@shallowwatercharters.com or (843) 224-0099.