Seadrift Bay Fishing Reports

The rough weather over the weekend brought us the first decent cool down of the season and a bunch of ducks. First let's get to the fishing. Capt. Chris Cady had nailed down a solid topwater scouting on Friday and his words were "go with a topwater and don't take it off". Saturday's trips with bait found Chris and Capt. Kolten Braun hammering back lakes Redfish

Heavier winds with a lot of North and East have penned the fish up over mud/grass lately and guests have been enjoying some hot action on Redfish. Trout have been sporadic and hanging over shell which has been a rough go.

Back lake grass growth has exploded with the freshwater runoff over recent months. This is an under discussed positive bolstering a strengthening in the outlook of the health of the bays. From waterfowl hunting to fishing, the curve from hyper salination to more normal salinity levels is returning. This is the cyclical nature of conditions in the outdoors and the "trend is definitely our friend".

Wade fishing produced Trout to 24" on live bait with artificial approaches not generating much success. Live shrimp has been available.

High tides continue to be a theme through the Super Moon cycle and that continues to take the Capt's of Castaway Lodge ultra shallow. Solid schools of bruising Redfish and Black Drum have been foraging on freshly flooded flats with comfy water levels leading to explosive action for our guests.

September's whirlwind of outdoor activity continues at a frenzied pace with Dove, Alligator, early Teal, and great fishing all coincides. Teal action has slowed a bit with wing-shooters taking less than full limits the last couple of days. The South Zone dove season kicked off with a bang with lots of limits falling to the guns with mixed White-Wing; Euro; and Mourning dove.

Redfish action continues strong as Capt. Chris Cady noted over the big holiday with full limits for guests. Mud/grass venues remain the go to with elevated tides opening up some hot spots. September is a month of transitions in terms of approach and bait choices will begin to vary with artificial approaches moving on the upswing in effectiveness.

A welcome visit from Northerly winds last week have made for some great Trout fishing in the surf with limits on solid fish coming to the boards. The direction shift has also led to better action on the flats for Redfish despite very calm conditions which are typically counterproductive. Wade fishing has waned somewhat over what had been really hot shorelines.

We've been cooling things off with some hot wade fishing of late taking solid stringers to full limits on Trout and Redfish of late. Broader mid-bay structure remains buried in turbid freshwater with the back lakes and shoreines remaining the go to locations. Historically, we've cleared the worst flooding within 4 weeks and we're starting to see some minor circulation and saltwater mixing.

We've been catching nice stringers of Trout and decent Redfish numbers when we get a little wind blowing. It's way past starting to get hot out there but big Trout have been really pushing up the temperature levels as they start staging for the August spawn. We're running into these fish over mud/grass right now.