CAPTAIN GREG HILDRETH ON CATCHING SPECKLED TROUT AND REDFISH

Editor's Note: Captain Greg Hildreth operates the charter boat the "Minner Skinner" out of Brunswick, Georgia, where he fishes for speckled trout, redfish, flounder, tripletail, king mackerel and tarpon. Hildreth is a long-time fan of Spike-It soft-plastic lures. This week he'll tell you how he catches a number of these fish, including the tactics he uses and the places he fishes.

Yesterday, I talked about shallow-water, wintertime, mud-flat reds. Toward the end of March until about October, on the Georgia coast, we have what we call flood tides. These big tides occur on a full moon. Our average tide may be about 7 foot, but on a full moon (a flood tide) the tide may come up 8 or 9 feet and dump redfish over into the spartana grass. When the redfish get over into that grass, they put their noses down and their tails up and literally stand on their heads to eat fiddler crabs. These high tides happen when fiddler crabs come out of hibernation. Those goofy redfish will get over the top of a fiddler crab hole and suck the fiddler crab out of its hole and eat it. I've seen these redfish standing on their heads with their entire tails out of the water before.

To catch these fish, I either use a push pole on a small skiff to get through the grass to find the redfish, or else I push my boat up to shallow water, climb out into the water and wade fish to locate the reds. When I see redfish tails up out of the water, I stalk in close and use the bait with the Daiichi Bleeding Bait Butt Dragger Hook and rig the bait weightless. There's a good trough in the center of the Spike-It Holograph Bait for the hook to lie down in, so I can throw that Boot Tail anywhere I want to cast it without its getting hung up. I'll cast a Boot Tail past the redfish that's standing on its head, swim the lure up to the fish and then begin to bounce the lure around on top of the grass near the redfish. I think that many times the redfish can feel the Boot Tail moving on the grass, or once he has eaten the grab he'll start looking toward the surface and see the disturbance on the water and strike the bait.

When the water's fairly clear and because these Spike-It jerkbaits reflect light so well, I think the redfish can really see them, even when the reds have their heads down. For whatever reason, when I twitch that bait next to a redfish, the redfish will turn right side up and attack that Boot Tail. When they spot that Spike-It Boot Tail, they'll eat it up and take off through the grass like a freight train coming downhill with no brakes going full steam ahead. This can be some great fishing, and a really-exciting way to catch redfish.

For more information about Captain Greg Hildreth, Call (912) 261-1763 or visit his Web site www.georgiacharterfishing.com. To learn more about Spike-It's top-quality lures and fishing products, click here.

To purchase the Spike-It Boot Tail Minnow, please click here for detail