Not all mullet run against the beach, and not all reds come to the beach to feed. During the fall, mullet will form large schools in nearshore waters, and bull reds take advantage of the smörgåsbord. Anglers who venture off a little often find themselves in the middle of a bull red feeding frenzy!
Guide Josh Boyles, who owns Southern Drawl Outfitters in Hilton Head, regularly cruises the waters just off Lowcountry beaches in search of big bull action.
“We will look for loons and gannets hitting the water, indicating feeding action just underneath, which is a good sign there are bull reds feeding,” he said.
Schools of reds feeding off the beach are often huge and can be easily found on the sonar.
“You can look at your fish finder, and it will look like you are floating aver a Russian submarine — the school is so big — and at times, the fish are so concentrated it will actually fool your sonar and change the depth reading,” he said.
Live bait will work on schooling bulls, but Boyles prefers to use something he can cast fast into the frenzy.
“Three-ounce bucktails with any kind of screw tails will work, and they really aren’t that picky, but I have had a lot of success with a SPRO jig in magic bus,” he said.
Sometimes, anglers may find feeding fish before the birds do. Another thing Boyles looks for is an oil slick. But instead of crude, this is a slick made up of fish oil.
“When these big schools of reds start feeding hard, they will actually eat until they start regurgitating and still continue to feed, causing the surface of the water to become shiny like an oil slick. It is visible from a good distance off.”
Besides spinning gear, Boyles will also cast large baitfish flies with stout fly rods that allow him to really put fly gear through its paces. Boyles will cast a fly to reds feeding at the surface the way he would with a jig, but when fish are a little deeper and he still wants to catch them on a fly he changes tactics.
“One angler will take a jig and hook up with a bull red and bring it to the surface and hold it there until other fish come up with it, allowing fly anglers a chance to sight cast to bull reds” Boyles said.
Boyles likes to use beefed-up gear to keep from beating reds up too much so they can be released healthy. When he fishes live bait for bulls, he actually uses a 10/0 circle hook, which greatly reduces the chances of gut hooking a monster red.
“After you land your fish, get your picture and get him back in the water,” he said.
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