by Mark Dennis
Jan 19, 2008

When cold weather moves in, many kayak anglers choose to stay indoors and wait for balmier weather.  However, that cold northeast wind can actually make for some productive fishing.  You just have to understand your quarry and change up your game a bit to boat some fish.  Layer up with some warm clothes, break out your breathable  waders & boots, and go catch some fish.

Like people, fish often become sluggish and move slower when the temperatures drop.  Redfish in particular are prone to bunching up in schools and seeking deeper water after the temperature takes a dip.  During these times, they may be reluctant to feed, no matter how enticing you make the offering.  Once the sun comes back out and begins to warm up the shallow water over dark mud flats or along deep water dropoffs, this behavior changes.  

Redfish will often flock to these warm spots faster than a New York snowbird flies to Miami Beach.  Both species have the same goal in mind -- warming their cold bones.  As the reds locate warmer water, their appetites come back and they may suck down just about anything you dangle under their noses.  Look for the same types of structure you normally would when fishing for reds.   The perimeter of oyster bars during lower water, the edges of marsh grass along mud flats at high tide, and the mouths of small feeder creeks can all be productive haunts of the wintertime redfish.  Toss a live shrimp or a mud minnow hooked on a lead jighead into one of these spots, and you likely will be rewarded with a nice sized redfish.  If live bait is hard to come by, use a Berkley Gulp! shrimp as an effective alternative.  If you prefer to fish with artificial lures altogether (e.g., soft plastics or spoons), slow your retrieve waaaaaaaaaaay down to give these cold numbed fish a chance to strike your lure.

If the reds aren't cooperating, consider targeting other species that are more tolerant of cold water, such as spotted seatrout, sheepshead, or black drum.  Trout will often bite the same baits and lures that you use to target redfish.  Just remember to return your trout to the water if you catch them during the month of February.  Spotted seatrout season closes in northeast Florida for the entire month.  Sheepshead and black drum, on the other hand, usually require a different approach, and there is not a closed season for these fish.
 


If live shrimp are available at the bait shops, these may be the most flexible choice for catching fish in cold weather.  All of the aforementioned species, plus flounder, will eagerly devour a live shrimp.  If no live shrimp are available, you can use pieces of frozen shrimp on a jig head or circle hook to go after drum and sheepies.   Perhaps the ultimate live bait for these two species, though, is live fiddler crabs.  

Sheepshead are famous bait stealers, and they can easily crush a single fiddler crab and suck the remains off the hook without so much as a tap on your rod.  To help make their bite more obvious, put 3 or even 4 fiddler crabs on your hook at the same time.  The "bouquet" of wiggling crab legs is too much for most fish to resist, and the extra mouthful entices them to linger at your hook longer, which increases your chances of detecting a strike.  Black drum are less delicate in their dining habits, and their presence on the hook will be more obvious to you as they attempt to swim away with the bait. 

When fishing for these species, I like to use two rods.   One is equipped with a circle hook on a dropshot rig and baited with peeled, dead shrimp.  The other is actively fished using a leadhead jig baited with fiddler crabs.  The circle hook on the dropshot will automatically set itself as the fish attempts to swim away, leaving me free to cast the baited jig head with the other rod.  On a really good day, I've been treated to a simultaneous hook-up, reeling in a nice redfish on the active line, while the dropshot rig hooks up a sheepshead on the passive one.



Speaking of sheepshead and black drum, anglers who are unfamiliar with these similar looking species sometimes mistake one for the other.  This can be an expensive mistake, as the size and possession limits in Florida differ for the two fish.  The sheepshead also has a mouthful of teeth that almost appear human like.  They use these teeth to nibble on barnacles and other crusteaceans, along with a set of "crushers" in the mouth to grind up crab shells.  These toothy critters can cause a nasty wound for the angler unwary enough to stick his fingers in this fish's mouth.  A black drum does not have a similar set of teeth.

Another way to tell a sheepshead from a black drum is to look at the dorsal fin.  If the fin is one long, connected fin on the fish's back, then you most likely have a sheepshead (again, look for the teeth).  If the dorsal fin is split into a front fin and a rear fin, then you probably have caught a black drum.  My fishing buddy, John Stewart, recently caught one of each of these fantastic fish.  Take a look at the photos below to see how you can tell the difference:

       

Sheepshead - single, continuous dorsal fin.                            Black Drum - two dorsal fins.

Both of these fish make excellent table fare, either filleted or baked whole.  Be sure to double check the Florida fishing regulations before you toss these into the cooler.  At the time of this post, the minimum size for a keeper sheepshead is 12 inches (no maximum size), with a bag limit of 15.  To keep black drum, the fish must be between 14 - 24 inches, and the bag limit is only 5.

Know before you go!