So I was out yesterday at the Texas City Dike, I was there for some 3 hours and on my last hour, some redfish were in front of my spot. The whole time I was there, I was using a Johnson sprite because of the sun( and cause of all the bait fish) and I had Gulp shrimp on jig-heads, I would cast close and neither choice seemed to interest them. I would prefer to catch it with lures, I don't like using dead shrimp( bait stealers will get it first), or live mullet, and the only fish caught was a small croaker with gulp. I live on the Texas coast, what would work for redfish?

I prefer a gold spoon when targeting reds. Maybe they just weren't hungry.

Did you have the red skirt attached? That makes a HUGE difference people have found.

I had that happen to me before with tailing reds when all I had was a fly rod. One method is just to try to foul hook one. Otherwise, you might consider throwing some other color of soft plastics or a live shrimp hooked with a jig head with the tail bitten off. I was fishing a few weeks ago with a friend from Florida who was doing that, and honestly, when I'm targeting reds, I'll probably always bring a quart of shrimp with me after that!

Redfish will get in a non feeding or not very aggressive mood. I try to change the size of what I'm throwing. One time I was using a paddle tail in pretty clear and calm water and I could see the Reds follow the lure then veer off at the last second. I downsized to a crack fly and that is what they wanted.

Another time I was wade fishing, again in pretty clear streaky water and waded up on a red basically sitting, hovering just above the bottom. I got lucky by not spooking him and proceeded to waving a crack fly back and forth closer on each pass. The red showed no interest and eventually swam off.

Sometimes really slowing down your retrieve or stopping it can help. Or jigging it in.

Very sporting.

Good way to ruin for other ethical anglers...lol

Chunk a live mullet or cut mullet/Shad. They can get finicky at times though.

Reds can just be finicky. I have caught them with dead shrimp on a Carolina rig, fish bites on a jig, white stickbaits, gold spoons, silver spoons, live mullet, dead mullet, live croakers, half a dead crab, etc... Always seems they will bite when I am fishing for something else, so I will throw the whole tackle box at them if I see them tailing, until they finally decide they wanna bite.

Fresh cut bait..mullet, croaker,shad, on bottom.

+1 on the red tab.

Live mullet and smaller live pinfish are killer on the flats. Live mullet on a three way swivel rig in the surf with a 2/0 kahle or 4/0 circle hook is another great way to go. Use flourcarbon leaders and 1 oz sinkers.

My top producing bait for redfish has been a chrome super spook jr. walked at a slow pace. I know they don't normally hit topwater plugs all day, but early in the morning and late in the evening I can almost call the shot. Another bait to try is cut mullet... Fishfinder rig with cut mullet on the bottom is a consistent producer of big redfish

I target trout mostly but I can say for certain that a soft plastic with a red or orange tail catches me more accidental redfish than any thing else. Something like a firetiger sand eel or texas avocado bass assassin has brought me many surprise reds.