Captain Joe Vinson and I had planned on fishing the deep rigs in Breton Sound this past Tuesday, but the line of thunderstorms that moved through early that morning forced our hand. We wound up fishing the marsh around Lake Ameda and had a blast catching redfish and bass.
Along with us for the ride was Eric Bachnik with MirrOlure, and he was happy that we were switching from throwing live croakers for trout to topwaters for redfish. The calm after the storm looked like it would be perfect conditions for throwing topwaters, and we quickly figured out that the fish thought the same.
“This southwest side of Lake Ameda has been holding lots of good reds,” said Vinson as we began walking a combination of Top Dogs, She Dogs and the smaller MirrOmullets to every wake we saw pushing off the banks. “There are some fish in Little Lake, too, but we’ll stay on these a while to see how we do.”
As it turns out, we never had to move very far from Lake Ameda. Whether it was the super-calm conditions or the funky mood of the fish, the MirrOmullet got twice the action as the larger lures.
“This small bait is a little harder to cast and to make walk,” said Bachnik, “but once you get it dialed in, the fish just seem to go crazy for it. It has a lot more subtle action in the water, and the rattle is a lot more subdued. I think it’s going to be a great option for fish that seem to be turned off for whatever reason.”
Bachnik started off throwing a white model with a red head, and he would get a swipe ever now and then, but the fish seemed to just be pushing it out of the way. It wasn’t until I tied on the chartreuse version that we saw just how hard redfish will crush this thing.
What kind of surprised us all was just how many bass fell for the smaller walking bait. Nearly every point we walked it by produced a bass, and sometimes even two or three. While most of them were not much more than a pound, there were a few that would have pushed the scales to 2 or even 3 pounds.
“You can tell there’s a lot of fresh water in the area because of all the grass,” said Vinson as we explored farther away from Lake Ameda. “That’s definitely made the bass population happy. If somebody was just looking to come out here to have a lot of fun, I would tell them to bring these topwaters, a gold spoon, and maybe a spinnerbait.”
So if the wind and weather are keeping you from heading out for the big trout on the deep rigs, give the interior marsh around Hopedale a try. You can catch a lot of redfish, and don’t be surprised if you reel in a green fish, too.
