Here in Southeastern North Carolina we have a pretty exciting fishery that gets little if any press, ‘tailing’ Redfish. Some anglers and, even guides, may find this hard to believe, but when the wind, tides, and fish all cooperate due to some cosmic event, butterfly effect or other rare and mysterious phenomena, our reds will ‘tail’  enthusiastically in shallow water. Not swim around with their backs out of the water, or push wakes in pods, but actually ‘tail’ at a forty five degree angle or more, nose in the bottom- tail in the air, frantically searching for crabs, shrimp or any other tasty bottom dwelling critter. Now the most exciting way to fish for Reds when they are tailing, in my opinion, is to slowly and carefully stalk them, by foot or skinny water skiff, and get close enough to throw a fly and then watch them eat it. But the statement I am about to make will no doubt raise a lot of eyebrows. Most of the time the best fly to throw at a tailing Red is a topwater popper,  more precisely a Matt Martin custom crease fly.

         My experience shows that, when Reds are tailing and keyed in on their prey, they tend to stay focused on what they are doing at the moment, rooting around in the bottom and will, more often than not, ignore a fly presented right in front of them. Even a pod of a dozen or more ‘tailers’ feeding together in an area the size of a manhole cover will oftentimes not even notice a “rattle shrimp” or a spoon fly, but will turn, rise and savagely attack a properly presented crease fly on the outskirts of the pod. The reason being, from my own eyewitness accounts, is that a shrimp or crab attempting to escape the hungry Redfish will push to the surface and skip or pop away and one or more Reds will react to the sound and/or vibrations of the fleeing shrimp or crab and spin and explode upon its prey. I have seen this happen numerous times and am convinced that the sound and vibration of a crease fly effectively mimics the sound and motion of a fleeing shrimp or crab and therefore will allow you shots at fish that otherwise would never have noticed a less noisy or “ attention getting” fly.

            I always keep a 9 or 10wt rigged and ready to go under my gunwales for when the opportunity arises to throw at some tailers and hopefully witness some of the most aggresive surface strikes you can get out of a Redfish. Sometimes you just have to experiment and try some unorthodox methods and you never know what may catch you a few more fish. So next time you are going fly fishing for reds, bring along some crease flys or gurglers and see how they work for you. I think that you might be pleasantly surprised.

           Thanks for reading and hope to see you on the water.

Capt. Jon Huff

www.circlehcharters.com

910-617-2619