VBay is a harsh mistress and there is no simple answer. If you are looking for redfish they are there for the taking but I am not a good enough fisherman to find any trout there until the salinity is up and has been there a week or so. The bay can get stirred up quick so its important to note what direction the prevailing winds have been out of for the previous 72 hours. A Southeast wind is a buzz kill and will wreck the entire bay but if its out of the South or Southwest for a few days you will notice the water south and west of redfish point start to clear up. Where I fish is usually dictated by what the tide is doing. Falling is generally the best but not always. Although most of the spots I catch on a rising tide are closer to the pass. If the wind has been out of the east or southeast Fearman is a good place to start as well as the leeshore of Mudpoint in the Little Bay. General rule for redfish is if the tide is falling fish drainages, points, cuts where the water is moving, when its rising get as far back in the marsh as your boat will allow you to go. If you can find a place that is a mud flat at low tide and has a foot of water at high, chances are you will find some fish. This time of year beating the banks for reds can be productive. But they don't stack up especially if there is an incoming or weak tide. I hardly ever catch more than 2 at a particular spot. I also don't catch many reds where the bank is bare. Meaning they are in areas where there is marsh grass or shells visible on the bank. Pipeline crossings, bulkheads, pilings, and places where there are limestone are your friend, if you can find one that is not taken fish it until you are convinced the fish are not there. Most of the time if reds are there you will see them. The swirl they make is very distinctive as well as when they pop a bait on the surface and of course the V in the water is hard to miss. Bait is a good indication as long as its agitated. A lot of times I have come across hundreds of mullet in a cove with reds on the periphery and could not get them to hit anything I threw at them. Either there was too much competition for my bait or there wasn't any tidal movement and the fish were not feeding. I hardly ever use a cork rigged with market or live bait but I cannot deny that it will outproduce artificial 8 out of 10 times. If I am fishing dirty or stained water I like dark baits that produce vibration. My bait of choice is a Jenny Jig Redfish spinner rigged with either a Black/Chart or Purple/Chart Matrix Shad or Wedge Tail Minnow. I know thats 4 different baits but something with lots of action. If the water clarity is decent you can't beat a 3" Usual Suspects swimbait. Decent water clarity means you can see your bait 3 to 4 inches below the surface. It doesn't take too much clarity for them to see it. I think a red would rather eat a bunch of little fish as where a speck would rather eat one big one. If I am going to use a cork an H&H baby bull minnow in previous mentioned colors tipped with a shrimp. They have to see your bait for them to hit it and using a cork will allow you to keep it where they can see it a lot longer. That being said, casting as close to whatever kind of structure you are fishing is really important. They are ambush preditors and need something to hide behind/blend in with. I cast and cast and cast some more and catch 80% of my fish within 10' of where my bait hits the water, most of the time within 5'. But structure (grass,bulkheads,rocks) and cuts, ditches, and canals that drain marsh are going to be the places to find and catch reds in the bay. As far as specks go, I am no great expert in finding them. There are spots where they hang out, if I get there and the water is decent I will start casting till I find them or get fed up. Most of the time I get fed up. A lot of what I said is somewhat common knowledge and I hope I don't sound like Captain Obvious. I don't mind sharing a little knowledge because there's nothing I am going to tell you that can't be read elsewhere. I catch fish because I am persistant and not much else. I have burned 80 gallons of gas trying to find them or sat in on spot for 10 hours till they got hungry. I generally just go with my intuition, if it feels fishy I fish.
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