This week on the Matanzas River has been nothing short of a rollercoaster in the world of fishing. I started on Monday with an epic morning, one of those rare moments that anglers dream about. On a solo trip, I managed to hook and land six solid slot reds in just under two hours, all on topwater lures. In this age of “pictures or it didn’t happen,” I made sure to capture the entire adventure on video. You can catch all the action on my new YouTube channel, “Take a Bow with Capt. Adam Morley.” That morning was a high I was riding for a while.

However, as the week went on, things took a turn. I kept my expectations high, always thinking, “My next trip will be better,” but unfortunately, it didn’t pan out that way. Tuesday, I had the pleasure of fishing with Chris and Bobby from Skinnywater Lures. Despite spending six hours on the water, we only managed to reel in three slot reds, two undersized reds, and a baby tarpon. Thankfully, the company was excellent, and we reminded ourselves that it’s called “fishing” for a reason, not “catching.”

Tuesday evening, my buddy Jake and I embarked on a spontaneous trip, hoping for some redemption. Conditions seemed ideal, but the fish remained stubborn. Jake had some success, landing a nice Bluefish, a legal trout, and a Jack all on topwater lures. My own excitement came when I landed a 23″ trout using the topwater bait from Skinnywater Lures, a little gem I affectionately call “the Peanut” due to its profile. You can catch that video drop on my channel next week, September 20th.

Thursday morning, I covered nearly two miles of grass lines in perfect conditions, only to land one 23″ redfish. I had a few sluggish strikes, and that got me thinking. We’re over a week into the mullet run, and the New Moon was on Thursday. These factors likely played a role in the downturn of the bite. However, my confidence took a hit when a group of high schoolers in kayaks paddled by me and landed three slot reds, a Black Drum, and six undersized reds on dead shrimp. They passed by while I was humbled on the bow of my boat.

Despite the challenges, I’m hopeful that the bite will improve now that we’re on the other side of the New Moon. Perhaps next week, I’ll have regained enough of my confidence to provide you with a more upbeat fishing report. Until then, tight lines and stay tuned for more angling adventures! ?? #MatanzasRiverFishing #FishingAdventures #ChallengingWeek

Chris from Skinny Water Lures mentioned the rain fall has been plentiful this week, making for higher high tides. These higher tides are allowing the redfish to push up into grass flats where they normally can’t get too. As the tides start to drop these redfish will follow the receding tide and push back out of the grass into the open water. As your fishing areas with excess water and can hear those fish busting the water back up in the grass flats, target those areas as the tide starts to drop and you will catch these fish leaving those grass flats back into open water. This week the early morning top water bite has been going off. We caught multiple redfish, snook and trout on topwater from High Bridge area to matanzas Inlet.
     On high tide we targeted the oyster bars with covered water, allowing us to work topwater lures across those oyster bars.
     We found most strikes happened as the topwater lure passed over the oyster bar and the fish were waiting to ambush them. Also target thinned out grass areas. These areas will be holding bait fish, allowing the predatory fish to circle these areas waiting for those bait fish to swim out.
    On low tide we found targeting deep channels or drop offs were holding good numbers of fish. The fish were found grouped up in these deep holes on low tide. As the tide became low we switched to a paddle tail or a swim bait style lure, allowing us to fish closer to the bottom.

 

Capt. Adam Morley

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