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Okay, that’s not Sugar Lake Bayou, that’s The Jump (or beginnning of Tiger Pass, depending on who you talk to). I’m not aware of a Sugar Lake Bayou in Venice.
“Then it got dirty again with no grass so I kept paddling north, found grass again and clear water in a cut of the pond”
The clearest water you will find will be next to dirty river water, usually in or on the other side of a grass mat. Thank you for finding it. I keep telling people that and they keep getting hung up on the dirty water, like I haven’t been doing this for years. lol
“saw a bunch of bait and 4 redfish in the span of 2 minutes, didn’t catch any but thought of it as a good sign to come”
Yeah, that’s good. If I saw that I would be pumped.
1. Maybe.
2. The river isn’t super low, but it isn’t high, either. I’ve fished that pond and had the most epic days of sight fishing on a river higher than what we have now (10ft+).
3. Just take that train of thought and throw it in the trash. Eject it from your brain and never use it again. Slot redfish are freshwater fish. The best sight fishing I’ve had has been in places right next to bluegill and bass.
I will concede that anywhere I see actual lilly pads (not water hyacinth) I don’t see as many redfish, but to say that there wasn’t enough salt in that pond with a river that hasn’t seen double digits in nearly a year is unhinged.
I’ll tell you that pond gets pressured a good deal. It’s no secret. It’s within striking distance of a world-destination marina that has everything from kayaks to airboats to bass boats to skiffs to tower boats going back there and pillaging the fish.
That and it’s a big pond. It can be garbage on one side of it and then absolutely on fire on the other side. There can be a good grass mat/flat behind that rig on the west side but, to be frank, there can be one anywhere back there.
THAT and the bass fishing can be dynamite in that pond. But you will rarely see them or not at all. You’ve gotta blindcast a Texas rig or spinner bait.
Running a Strike King Rage Shad (see attached) over the top of grass can draw them out, too. Redfish will hit that, too. Think of it as a weedless buzzbait.
Great report, thank you so much for posting it. And thank you for being a thoughtful, hard working angler. You’re doing good things!
