This month offers great freshwater fishing and excellent marsh redfish action. Which will you choose?
In favor of freshwater, the bream will be on the beds. Early in the day, a jitterbee, fluff butt or cap spider fished 2 to 3 feet under a tiny float will get the most action. Cast and twitch the float an inch or 2, and then pause. Most strikes come after the pause.
Later in the day, as insect activity reaches its peak, switch to popping bugs and enjoy the surface strikes. This time of year, I prefer chartreuse- and orange-bodied poppers on hook sizes 8 and 10.
Bass will be eating Dahlberg Divers and Boogle Bugs on the surface before fronts. After a front, switch to subsurface patterns such as Magnum Woolybuggers, Bass Bullies and Wiggle Flies.
In favor of saltwater, one of my most-memorable fishing trips occurred in April. Working a labyrinth of grass-edged ponds, I found pods of reds feeding on juvenile crabs and shrimp. Early in the day, they were pushing the crabs to the surface. A size 2 Pete’s Perch Float Popper was inhaled time and again.
Later the reds rooted the bottom. Here’s where a Prince of Tides or Pink Charlie did damage. By the end of the day, 51 poisson rouge had eaten one of my flies.
So which will you choose — bass and bream on light tackle, or sight-casting to numerous reds in the marsh? I’ll choose both.
