Tailing Reds, Falling Tide, Tampa Bay

This is the rig. No theory. Just what I run when I pole the flats out behind the Madeira backwaters on a falling tide and the tails are up.

Rod and reel. A 7'6" medium-light spinning rod with a fast tip. I run a 3000-class reel. Anything bigger throws the balance off when you're making short, accurate casts at a moving target. Drag set at about three pounds. You don't horse a tailing red. You let him run into the mangroves and you eat it.

Mainline. Twenty-pound braid. Not fifteen. The fifteen sounds smart on paper but the second a red turns into oyster bottom you'll wish you had the extra five.

Leader. Three feet of twenty-five-pound fluorocarbon. Tied to the braid with a double uni. I know the FG knot is technically better. I tie a uni in eleven seconds at the bow of a skiff with the wind blowing. The FG takes me three minutes and a YouTube video. I fish more on the uni.

Lure. A weedless gold spoon. Half-ounce on a strong falling tide, quarter-ounce when the water's almost out. If the spoon isn't producing, switch to a soft plastic on a 1/16th jighead. Pearl color. Nothing fancy. The fish on a falling tide is feeding on small crabs and shrimp pushed off the grass by the dropping water. Match small. Match light.

Presentation. This is where most people blow it. You do not cast at the tail. You cast three to four feet past the fish and on the same side his head is pointing. Then you let the lure sit. Don't strip immediately. Wait for him to either move toward it or settle. When he settles, give the spoon one slow turn of the handle. That's it. One turn. If he eats, he eats on the second turn or the third. If you strip fast you spook him every time.

Common mistakes. Casting too close. Stripping too fast. Standing up tall on the poling platform when you should be crouched. Wearing a white shirt on a sunny day. Reeling in to re-cast when the fish is still tracking — you will never recover that fish. He saw you reel.

Tide window. I like the last two hours of the falling tide and the first thirty minutes of the slack. After that the flats go quiet and the fish push out to deeper edges.

That's the rig. Run it in the back of John's Pass on a clean east wind and you'll find tails up most spring mornings.

I ran this exact setup last weekend. Saw four tailing fish. Cast at three of them. Caught zero.

It's about the ones that broke off.

Falling tide times: John's Pass tide chart. More local guides: Madeira Beach fishing guide.