Red Fish?

[masterbass]

I'm going to murrells inlet in south carolina.  I'm taking my kayak and a boat.  What baits should I use?  I've never caught a redfish on an artificial.  I've only had luck with live shrimp, but the pinfish are a pain so I want to try some soft plastics.  I had success catching flounder on gulp jerk shads, but no reds.  Any advice?

[Big C]

4" Berkely Gulp Shrimp (New Penny) on chart. lead head.  Use that and you should smoke any and all inshore game fish. 

Another thing you can do, is use some old bass lures on them.  Things like spinnerbaits, buzz baits, and top-water plugs would be fun. 

[SirSnookalot]

The short answer is anything you presently use for bass.  Redfish are not a difficult fish to catch, providing they are in the area and feeding.  That is pretty much the key to any inshore species.

As a daily inshore fisherman I carry a small arsenal of lures with me.  At all times I have soft jerk shad on a jig head, bucktails, spoons, topwater and a hard jerkbait.  If the fish are there one of those 5 (probably all of them) are going to work well.  A typical rotation for me is a jerk shad on a jig head pre dawn, sunrise a topwater, then a spoon.

[masterbass]

Has anyone ever used senkos for reds?

[Big C]

Has anyone ever used senkos for reds?

 

No, but it would most likely work. 

 

One more thing.  If the reels you plan to use aren't spooled with braid (25-65# Power Pro) I highly suggest you switch before you go.

You can never have line that's too strong while Inshore fishing.

One time while fishing cut-bait on a 10' Okuma surf rod/reel with 50# braid (drag set all the way down).  I got spooled by something, probably a big shark/ray.  But I never even turned it's head.  It was like tying my line to a truck going 5mph, didn't retreive hardly any line. 

[heyitskirby]

Interesting thought on the Senkos.

 

I haven't fished much for Reds outside of charters, but my parents vacation near Murrell's on Pawley's Island and my dad has had some luck avoiding the pinfish by using a float when fishing cut bait.  I would assume when he's on the creek with the current that runs through there that the bait is definitely sitting on top of the water at that point and possibly using no weight would produce the same effect.  Not sure though, as I have not been down there with him in years.

[SirSnookalot]

No, but it would most likely work. 

 

One more thing.  If the reels you plan to use aren't spooled with braid (25-65# Power Pro) I highly suggest you switch before you go.

You can never have line that's too strong while Inshore fishing.

One time while fishing cut-bait on a 10' Okuma surf rod/reel with 50# braid (drag set all the way down).  I got spooled by something, probably a big shark/ray.  But I never even turned it's head.  It was like tying my line to a truck going 5mph, didn't retreive hardly any line. 

I've been spooled myself a few times, compared to the hundreds of inshore outings I've had getting spooled is a pretty rare event.

True redfish can get pretty big but the average is probably no more in the 5-7# range.  I wouldn't fish much different than I would for bass in open water.  Grassy flats are no where near as difficult to pull fish out of than heavy freshwater vegetation.  For the most part your dealing with a fish that has the capability of stripping out some serious line, but don't need 50# braid.  You can throw out numbers all day long, but pace out 150 yds and you'll see that's long way for a fish to run.  Unless you're fishing for tuna, wahoo, 150# tarpon etc, not likely to hook a fish to run any where near that distance.

I personally prefer braid, my reels on average hold some where around 200 yds of 15 or 20#, more than ample.  I target juvenile and mid size tarpon up to about 60-70#, I use 20# braid, getting spooled or having my line break isn't a concern.  My reels' max drag doesn't match the breaking strength of 20# braid, but I wouldn't set it that tight any way.