Fishing an ICW Ledge
I began early in the day at my first location. This was a ledge along the channel edge in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Seatrout and flounder seem to love this ledge. The trout work along the edge feeding on schools of baitfish. The flounder will position themselves sometimes on the top side of the ledge and sometimes deep in the channel - but always right next to the ledge.I have located this ledge many times in the past, using a depth finder. The ledge runs almost a quarter mile in the ICW, with shallow water to the west and the channel to the east. I really don't need to "locate" it any longer; I have fished it so many times that I can almost position the boat without watching the finder for the drop-off.
I used a tail hooked live shrimp to begin with. I began by working the jig along and just off the bottom on the top side of the ledge. After working the top part, I moved the boat with the trolling motor and began to work the jig from the shallow top edge of the ledge to the channel depths. I allowed the jig to work its way down and then worked it off the channel bottom back to the boat. And following that I simply worked the bottom of the channel close to the edge of the ledge. I covered the whole area of the ledge from shallow to deep.
I caught a couple of flounder on the top edge of the ledge. In the past I had caught seatrout working the edge a little deeper, but they were not there today.
Fishing a Creek Mouth on an Incoming Tide
My next stop was going to be a favorite creek mouth, but another boat had beaten me to the spot. So I went to plan B which was one of several other creek mouths. I passed up two of them because there was no bait working the area. On the third one, I saw glass minnows spray the surface as I approached - this is what I was looking for.The creek had a small channel at the entrance. At low tide that channel is all that held water. The mud and oyster flat around the mouth was out of water. But now on the incoming tide close to high, there was plenty of water.
I used the same jig head. But, this time I put on a Saltwater Assassin grub tail. I like the chartreuse and pink color they call "electric chicken". I worked the jig very similar to how I worked the ledge. I began shallow and then progressed to deeper water. There were a few redfish in the area, and I managed to hook up to two of them. One was too short - 15 inches - and one was inside the slot at 23 inches. Surprisingly I did not find any flounder here. They usually like to sit facing the incoming tide right in the mouth of the creek waiting for a passing meal coming in on the tide. But, today they were not there. I even switched back to a live shrimp on that jig head but did not get a hit.
Fishing the Inlet for Bluefish
The bluefish have been tearing everything in sight up for the last month, so to finish the day out, I ran to the inlet mouth - where it opens to the Atlantic. It was high tide, slack water, and the birds were going crazy overhead.The birds were floating on the air currents above schools of baitfish, and the bluefish and ladyfish were feasting. The birds were diving and fighting over pieces of baitfish that the blues had left for them. Hundreds of birds filled the sky and thousands of bluefish filled the water.
This time I wired a six-inch wire leader to the jig head. I used a swim-tail grub on the jig head for these fish. They are the cheap ones that I buy by the hundred- pack. You are lucky to be able to catch more than two blues on one tail.
I caught bluefish one after another. They were all about 12 to 14 inches long - nothing huge, but a lot of fun on light tackle. And, I caught them until the tide began to move out of the inlet. These fish had followed the baitfish schools into the inlet on the incoming tide. When the tide changed, it moved the baitfish back out into the Atlantic, and the blues and ladyfish went right with them.
