Just as the name implies, sight casting is the art of looking for tailing redfish or agitated bait fish and casting to the area in hopes of presenting the bait as part of the buffet that fish are actively feeding on. When sight casting, anglers will move through an area as quietly as possible, either by drifting, poling or slowly wading until some action is noticed such as tailing fish or disturbed bait fish breaking the water. Casts are not made until some visual sign suggest the presence of redfish.
Sight casting is often done with artificial lures, but can also be with live bait. For tailing redfish, casts are generally made past or in front of the fish, allowing for anglers to work the bait back into the feeding school of redfish without disturbing the easily spooked predators with the entry of the bait into the water.
Redfish will often follow large mullet to feed off of the things they stir up. Mullet are vegetarian and will stir up the grasses often pushing up small crabs and shrimp that the redfish will swoop in and suck up. When sight casting to schools of large mullet, be aware that the redfish are not feeding on the mullet, rather on the wake of the school as it turns up food. In this situation, sight casts should be made at the back end of the school of mullet to catch the trailing redfish.
In addition to drifting or poling, some anglers will “burn” the shorelines in search of active fish to sight cast. This method is useful for long grassy shorelines with cuts or sloughs that have slightly deeper water to run just out from the shore. The boaters will run on plane for long stretches until some activity is sighted. They will then shut down out from the fishing zone and drift, pole or use an electric trolling motor to approach the feeding fish.
