Early Mornings in the Late Summer

The Summers in south Louisiana can be brutally hot especially in august. The key to catching fish is to get out early before 11 O'clock that means launching before the sun is up to allow for the paddle time to your fishing area. When launching at in the dark especially At busy marinas and waterways make sure you have a 360 degree light. I also like to carry a headlamp or small handheld flashlight for navigation and to be able to signal oncoming boats. My brother and I launched around 5:30 in the dark and set out for our destination the sun took its time rising a signal that fall is not far away. When we made it to our spot the sun was peeking over the horizon and there was bait everywhere. I began throwing a matrix shad on a 3/8 jig head a couple casts in I foul hooked a small shark luckily he got off the line before I had to deal with those teeth. as the sun got above the horizon i began tossing a skitterwalk the topwater bite started off slow but it took off right around 7. It started with a 29 inch bull red. I cast into a large school of nervous bait and had a fish strike the lure three times before giving up on the next cast I walked it then bam a huge explosion and this fish didn't miss it took off stripping drag. After a tense fight I was able to grip it and pull it into the boat.

This was the fish I fished all day for during the IFA tournament and I had caught it before 7 o'clock this day. I continued working these rocks and was able to pick up another redfish on the skitter walk . This time a more manageable size 25 inches that had 12 spots. After catching this red I decided to move to another spot to try and catch some specks. I situated myself on a point where current was pushing around I could see bait flicking on the surface I cast my topwater in and immediately missed three hits on one cast. I grabbed my popping cork rod and cast to the same spot my cork quickly went under and I reeled in a solid 18 inch speck. This continued for the next 15 or twenty minutes alternating from cork to topwater.As yo can see from the picture below my topwater got a ton of action today the paint started to flake off.

After that spot dried up I drifted the backside of that point and found the bite again including a 21 inch speck that rounded out my IFA redemption stringer. I continued drifting this stretch steadily picking up specks until  10:30 when we called it a day. This is the only way to stay cool during these warm days.