According to a publication of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, when big, mature redfish congregate along the barrier-island beaches to spawn in August and September, redfish hatch and somehow work their way far up into small inshore creeks in a month, by which time they are a half-inch long.
After a winter and spring of rapidly growing, they begin moving out of those small creeks into larger creeks and form sub-adult schools. They are about eight inches long by June when they begin arriving and grow to about 14 inches by October. By the end of the summer of their second year, they reach about 21 ½ inches and weigh almost 3 1/2 pounds. So, all the fish that fall in South Carolina’s 15- to 23-inch slot limit are between 1 1/4 and 2 ½ years old.
Redfish stay in shallow estuaries until they are sexually mature, then they leave to join the breeding population in the ocean proper. The males mature in slightly more than three years, but it can females up to five years. The research shows that an average 37-month-old red is 27 inches long and weighs almost 6 3/4 pounds. A year later, at 49 months, the average is 31 inches long, and a ounce short of 10 1/2 pounds.
Plenty of giant redfish are caught from oceanside spots, but it is rare that a fish longer than 33 inches is caught in our shallow estuaries, and those fish are probably late-blooming females around five years of age.
Be the first to comment