This morning I hooked up the ole mud boat and trailered it down to Ozello Keys Marina to meet my clients for a day of shallow water fishing. Before heading out, I made sure my tackle bag was loaded down with 1/8oz pink Jim's Jigs, MirrOlure Lil John XL, and some live shrimp. When I target shallow water spots, I tend to make it a point to carry a few top waters with me, but I noticed the wind would be a tad bit sporty today, so I opted not to pack them in the bag. When I do throw top waters I tend to stick to more natural colors to closely mimic a mullet.
As I headed out onto the St. Martins River, I noticed some deep pockets along the way, and I decided those were pockets we needed to target first. I had my clients' free line shrimp out in the deep holes, which proved to be a very successful attack plan for this area. The redfish bite was on fire, so after dozens of catch and releases, we decided to move onward and try our luck in another area to target some trout, sheephead, and black drum.
Today, being in the mud boat allowed us to make our way back into a creek off the St. Martins River, where we got into a pile load of trout. I'm typically big into artificials and my clients today understood this concept, so I rigged up some Mirr O Lure Watermelon Red Lil Johns on some 1/8oz pink Jim's Jigs. The major key here is to make your artificial bait mimic a live shrimp.