Red fishing with Capt. Jim Ross

Go Fish for 8/30/09 by Capt. Bill Miller

I went over to Titusville this week to film the world famous Space Coast red fishing with Capt. Jim Ross.

We started at daylight, with the space shuttle launch pad behind us, throwing top waters into the mullet schools. Using She Dogs and Skitterwalks, Ross and I caught trout and slot sized redfish on almost every cast.

While we were drifting, we thought we saw a tailing redfish. Ross threw his lure to the tailer and it exploded on the lure. When he landed it, it was a five pound trout. I don't know that in all of my fishing experiences I have ever seen a trout tailing.

When the mullet schools moved off the flat the reds and trout stopped biting, so Ross decided it was time to look for the big spawning schools of monster redfish that prowl the flats of the Indian River, Mosquito Lagoon, and the Banana River. We looked at two places where Ross had found them earlier in the week and the reds were not there. The third place we looked proved to be the charm. When we eased up on an Indian River flat and the water raised up, turned a copper color and started to move away, we knew we were in business.

Capt. Jim used his electric motor, on low power, to sneak up on the school of giant reds. Our first long casts into the school, with 1 1/2 ounce jig heads and 6 inch rubber tail jigs, produced a double header of reds weighing 28 and 32 pounds each. We followed the school, along with a couple of other boats, for another hour and released four more of the big bull reds in the high 20 and low 30 pound range. Although we used jigs, for their long casting ability, the East Coast reds will also bite top water lures and flys if the conditions are right.