Rumble with Redfish: Live Bait or Artificials?

The red drum, or simply a redfish, is one of the prized targets of inshore saltwater anglers across much of the United States. Their aggressive tendencies and hard-fighting nature keep them at the top of the list to target for countless anglers throughout the Gulf States and inshore on the Atlantic Ocean.

Noted Louisiana Captains Joe Ezell of Whiskey Bayou Charters and Mike Frenette of Redfish Lodge of Louisiana catch them throughout the year with a variety of different approaches, mixing in both live and dead bait as well as a host of artificial lures.

Each shared their insights, gleaned from decades spent on the water, on how they decide what to use given the situation, water conditions, and tides they are fishing.

When to Use Bait

The ferocious redfish is a top predator wherever they swim, and they are willing to eat many different things that even vaguely resemble their next meal, including both artificial lures and live or dead bait. Capt. Ezell targets redfish with artificials, but the real thing also comes into play.

"Where we fish the river, in Delacroix, Louisiana, all of the rivers and cuts that feed into our estuary are super rich with food for redfish," Ezell began. "They have access to shrimp, crabs, pogy, and some freshwater species, too. It's bountiful beyond measure, so sometimes when the bait is so plentiful, it can be hard to fool them with an artificial lure."

Most often, shrimp are the bait of choice, and he's learned over the years that fresh bait lasts longer than store-bought frozen bait. "These fish are not terribly concerned if the fish is alive or dead, but a lot of times we will buy live shrimp and put them on ice and use them when they are dead," he said. "It's more money to do this instead of buying frozen shrimp in a bag, but they hold onto the hook much better. That allows you to be more efficient and make more casts with one piece of bait."

Ezell and his clients will fish the shrimp without the head, threaded onto a ¼-ounce chartreuse Bass Assassin jighead. From there, he'll rig it 24 to 30 inches under a Four Horseman Tackle Pro Model popping cork. 

For his line, he prefers a 20 lb Seaguar TactX braid for the main line, paired with a 30 to 40 lb Seaguar Inshore fluorocarbon leader. "TactX works so well around heavy cover, it's like a weed-eater string that cuts through grass and clears itself," Ezell said. 

Fishing with a shrimp is also a surefire way to catch fish in tough conditions. "There are many times when we will still fish artificials, but if you have bluebird skies, no wind, and not a lot of tide movement, it can make fishing with lures tougher," he said. "The more negatives as far as tide and high pressure, the better the bait will work for you, and everything in the food chain will eat a shrimp."

Frenette's Top 3 Lures

There are instances when Frenette and his client use live or dead bait, but almost always, it's some type of artificial lure. Whereas Ezell fishes upstream from Frenette, which Ezell himself calls the "redfish nursery", Frenette most often targets giant bull reds around Venice, Louisiana. With the larger fish, you need to move to find them, making artificial lures a great choice.

"I'm mainly an artificial lure guy unless it's targeting smaller slot redfish or we have kids on the boat, so we don't use a lot of bait," said Frenette. "We prefer artificial lures because they work so well for the big ones, and instead of soaking a bait in one spot, we can cover a lot more territory and usually wind up catching more fish in a day."

The lure he chooses for himself or clients varies, but three general lures work for him in most situations: a Strike King Redfish Magic spinnerbait, a soft plastic on a jighead, or crankbaits from lipless versions to square bills and deep divers.

"What we use varies from place to place, but for rocks and oyster beds and flats, it's a lot of crankbaits," said Frenette. "We vary the diving depth based on how deep we are fishing, and one thing I do is tend to have a longer fluorocarbon leader for crankbaits, because we're banging into rocks and oysters. Having a longer leader that sinks will get that bait down deeper."

For his line setup, he prefers a combination of Seaguar TactX braid and Inshore fluorocarbon for the leader. "In normal conditions, it's 30 or 40 lb TactX with a 10- to 20-foot leader of Inshore fluorocarbon," he said. "We use anywhere from 25 to 40 lb leader, and Inshore is extremely tough and holds up so well when you are catching big fish around heavy cover."

A soft plastic on a jighead is also a major player in Frenette's lure rotation, whether it's a swimming bait on a jighead or a pre-rigged shrimp, such as the Strike King Tidal Shrimp. 

"Those baits are so versatile, and you can fish them on the bottom with slow little pumps or hops, but you can also fish them under a popping cork," he said. "Fishing those along the bottom looks like a distressed fish or possibly a shrimp or crab moving along in the mud, and does very well. Most of the time, we're fishing them with 15 to 25 lb Inshore leaders, but we adjust the braid we use based on the location. I really love the castability of 50 lb Threadlock hollow-core braid, but will use the TactX anytime we are fishing around vegetation."

Finally, a spinnerbait is another must-have for Frenette. "Those are best when you are fishing around grass, but not right in it," he said. "They are good for fishing the edges of grass, whether you are blind casting or casting to fish you see. They are great baits for fishing anywhere from a foot and a half to 3 feet of water, and we fish them on 30 lb Seaguar TactX with a 20 to 40 lb leader of Inshore fluorocarbon."

There are many ways to fool a redfish into biting, but choosing the right lure or bait can make a big difference. It comes down to the conditions and areas you are fishing, but both live bait and artificials have a time and place in the redfish world.

Seaguar TactX Camo Braid is available from 10 to 80lb test in 150- and 300-yard spools.

Seaguar Inshore Fluorocarbon leader is available on 100-yard spools from 12 to 80 lb tests.

Seaguar Threadlock 16-strand hollow-core braid is available from 50 to 200 lb tests in 600- and 2500-yard spools in blue and white.