Fishing continues to be strong for inshore redfish

Water temperatures continue to climb, bringing more species to the spring fishing table. That said, the action that continues to be the strongest is the inshore redfish bite, which has been amazing all year long. Meanwhile, more keeper flounder are being landed and black drum and sea mullet are also available.
The redfish continue to hit everywhere inshore: in the backs of creeks and the marsh grass, in the inlets and around all structures like docks, bridges and oyster beds. You have lots of options when fishing for red drum, but live and natural bait have been the best baits lately.
Mud minnows fished either on Carolina rigs with small (1-ounce and under) egg sinkers or impaled on jig heads and worked through the strike zone are good baits for redfish. Cut blue crab is also a terrific bait for them now and will also catch black drum.
Redfish will hit the scented soft baits, like Gulp lures, worked slowly off the bottom. Don’t fish your lure too quickly. Cast it toward structures (or even under it) and work the lure slowly. Times when the tide is moving well will be the best for redfish near pilings, while low tide will find them feeding in the back of the grass flats, where it is hard to reach them. Soft-bait crab imitation lures work well on low tide when retrieved slowly or not at all.
There are still a lot of throwback flounder but more keepers are being caught. Drifting or trolling will catch greater numbers but fishing structures will target bigger flounder. Mud minnows are the predominant bait but flounder will hit the scented soft baits as well if they are hopped slowly right at the bottom. If you can find finger mullet or small pinfish, these are great flounder baits right now.
Soon there will be more shrimp in the water and speckled trout fishing should pick up, but remember we are still in a closed season for trout and this is catch-and-release only fishing right now. Trout will hit the soft-baited lures and if you can find a school off of a point or bridge, MirrOlures will work great very early in the morning.
Black drum will hit cut crab and cut shrimp and are around structures inshore. The best black drum action will occur at night around the bridges and piers, if anyone is fishing for them. Surf and pier fishing remain fair to slow with sea mullet (whiting) hitting throughout the day and at night on fresh cut shrimp or Fishbites bloodworms.
There are a few bluefish roaming the surf and the ends of the piers, and this action should pick up soon. If you catch some snapper blues, they make a great cut bait for big sea mullet. Fish cut bluefish when the current is running well and move the bait a little bit; the sea mullet will hit it eagerly if they are around.