New Strategy on Southern End of Ship Channel
 

Before we finally scored big at the restored beach on the bull reds Tue PM, we spent a few days working a bit harder due to weather and conditions. After striking out on Holly Beach proper and managing one bull red on Rutherford Beach, I noticed how the seagulls always chased the ferry picking up bait in the prop wash and it hit me that there must be a lot more bait getting killed or disoriented under the water, and therefore, there must be a pretty sizable bunch of fish laying in wait.

We tested the theory by setting up (incoming tide) just N of the ferry and casting out into the channel from the dock by the boat ramp. Due to the plethora of underwater snags, we only managed to land five bull reds in about 6 hours of fishing, but we had many more hook ups that broke off. I suspect that a boat could sit right at the channel edge and do very well by working better angles relative to all the underwater snags. I also suspect that most of the year there's a wide variety of fish chasing the bait disoriented by the ferry because when that thing hits the gas, there is a huge flow of water, faster than any natural tide I've seen down there and over a very big area.

excellent report as always mathgeek

Thanks. I was hoping others might chime in with their thoughts and observations.

The idea seems logical. I've never tried it myself, but my 10yo boy likes catching "big" anything. I might give this program a shot this week

why not just troll off the back of the ferry? Just keep going back and forth all day! bound to catch a mess!

:work::work::work:

Hey MathGeek, great post. Were you fishing on bottom? How deep to you think you were fishing? What kind of bait were you using? Could you see any of the bait churned up by the ferry? I'm thinking a fast sinking tungsten coated line on my fly rod with a injured menhaden fly could make for some fun out there.

We were using cut mullet on the bottom with a 2-4 oz sinker (depending on tide). We were reaching the slope of the main channel 20-40 ft down. Never got a good enough look at the bait to identify what it was at this location, just knew it was bait because of the birds. Lots of menhaden around though, as we got a good look at a bunch a day or two later at the beach.

Water may not be clear enough for a fly to work, especially with the ferry constantly stirring up the water. In deeper, muddy water redfish are keying on scent rather than sight.

Fresh cut mullet on the bottom just about anywhere south of Big Lake in the Ship Channel will catch bull reds. I'm thinking if you're getting snags there by the ferry, perhaps a little bit further south of the ferry crossing might not give you as many headaches. Both sides of the east jetty have been very productive for me. I can't tell you how many I've caught on cut mullet (caught fresh in my cast net) this time of year; but I use 30 lb test with a 60 lb leader with a big wide mouth long shank hook and I haven't missed any since upgrading due to too many breaking my line in the ship channel.

Thanks for the tip. Never had fresh cut mullet, always bought frozen. Our experience has been some spots in the southern ship channel are definitely a lot better than others.