Capt. David Iverson typically runs out of Red Pass and targets West Delta rigs in 40 to 50 feet for bull reds. However, when he’s up for a challenge and the weather permits, he’ll take South Pass out his favorite East Delta rigs, where close proximity to the Continental Shelf puts 300-foot water well within the reach of his bay boat.
But wherever he ends up, he said jigs are really efficient baits.
“I believe in covering territory, and you can cover a lot of territory with a jig,” Wells said. “The fish are very seldom just all over a (drilling) platform. Usually, they’re on area of the platform.
“Sometimes you’ll fish on the upstream side of the platform and fish back to the platform. A lot of times, you’ll have to throw into the legs and work it back out of the legs.”
A ¾- to 1-ounce Bomber Saltwater Grade jig with a large, glow curl tail is his favorite. The luminescent appearance is a real fish-getter in the depths, Iverson said, but it’s also a great sight-casting bait when the big, brown shadows appear.
“If you see a cobia out there, you just hurl that baby out there and they’ll eat it,” Iverson said. “Glow is just a deadly, deadly color.”
Iverson casts upcurrent and let his bait fall through the strike zone.
In a swift current, attempts at vertical presentations only end in frustration, as the water blows your bait off course. Similarly, casting downcurrent leaves you fighting the flow to gain any meaningful descent.
Throw upstream and work with the water, not against it.
“I don’t like fishing with anything heavier than a 1-ounce jig, and if you throw downcurrent it’s harder to get it to the bottom, unless you use a 2-ounce jig,” Iverson said. “I throw upcurrent, let it bounce underneath you, pick it up and do it again.”
Iverson said the jigging technique serves him well, because he usually finds the redfish suspended down near the bottom.
When he ventures out to those deeper East Delta rigs, his mix might include cobia, grouper, snapper and amberjack — all spread throughout the water column and all quickly reachable with a jig.
