Redfish

Habitat

Redfish are inshore predators of shallow saltwater: marsh grass edges, oyster reefs, grass flats, sand flats, beach surf, and brackish estuaries. Juveniles spend their first years in the nursery water of bays and creek mouths; large adults — 'bull reds' — leave the estuaries and stage along outer beaches and inlets to spawn. The species tolerates wide salinity and is occasionally found well into freshwater rivers.

Behavior

Redfish 'tail' on shallow flats — feeding head-down on crabs and shrimp with the tail breaking the water surface, fanning slowly in the air. It is the marquee sight-fishing event of inshore saltwater fly fishing. They also school in large groups along beaches in summer and fall and can be seen pushing water in big, slow wakes. The species was crashed in the 1980s by the blackened-redfish craze and the commercial purse-seine fishery that followed; recovery has been steady under tight state regulation.

Marginalia

• Named for the dark eyespot — usually one but sometimes multiple — near the base of the tail. The species name ocellatus is Latin for 'little eye'. The spot may function as a predator decoy, drawing strikes away from the head.
• A redfish can live over 40 years. Big bull reds in the Gulf are often older than the boats fishing for them.
• The 1980s 'blackened redfish' craze — popularized by chef Paul Prudhomme — drove the species to collapse in less than a decade. Texas, Florida, and other states banned commercial harvest and protected breeding-size fish in response.
• Redfish 'drum' — males vibrate a muscle against their swim bladder to produce a low croak during spawning season, audible from the deck of a boat over still water.
• The fly cast to a tailing redfish on a grass flat at dawn is one of the foundational images of modern saltwater fly fishing.