Species guide

Redfish fishing: choose your coast, date and captain

Redfish hold on coastal waters. In winter: seagrass, muddy or sand bottoms, oyster bars and spring-fed creeks. Most of the fleet sight casts. What you may keep changes by state, by coast and by date.

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Redfish

Every charter here names redfish on its own website, checked on the captain's own site

Everything below is drawn from what 1,108 captains publish about redfish on their own websites, from NOAA and from state wildlife agencies. Each figure links to where it came from.

Where to book a redfish trip

1,108 charters in 254 towns across 2 states name redfish on their own websites. A count is a website mention — not a catch, and not availability. Ask any captain how long the run to the grounds is before you book.

The waters they name

Every redfish state and town

What anglers discuss

What anglers ask before booking

How do I actually catch one?103 threads

From the charters' own trip descriptions: sight casting (200 sites), fly fishing (97 sites) and live bait fishing (38 sites). The baits they name are shrimp (80) and crabs (51). That is what the fleet advertises, not a ranking of what works.

Where should I go for them?56 threads

1,108 charters name redfish on their own websites, in 254 towns across 2 states, thickest at Crystal River, Islamorada, Tampa. The waters they name most often are Florida Keys, Tampa Bay, South Florida. Compare the ports

When should I go?38 threads

Charter websites name redfish in every month; the month most of them single out is October, with 280 sites saying so. That is when boats advertise the fish, not a measured bite — and whether you may keep one is a separate question with its own dates below.

What does a trip cost?16 threads

Across the 48 towns where redfish charters work, a full day is typically $1,200, from $600 to $2,837 depending on the port — the boat, not a seat. That is what boats there charge for a trip of that length, not a price for targeting redfish; nobody prices by species. Ask what the figure covers before you book.

Where these questions come from

The corpus. 518 Reddit threads that discussed redfish, across 8 angling forums. Each was counted once.

How a question was chosen. Every thread was assigned to the decision the person was stuck on — where to go, when, on what, what it costs. A decision raised in fewer than three threads is one person's question and does not become a heading here. The count beside each question is the number of threads that raised it.

What Reddit did not decide. Nothing above the fold of the answer. Reddit selects the question; the answer is from the charters' own websites, the state agencies, NOAA's dockside sample and the captains' published prices, each cited where it appears.

What this cannot show you. The collector keeps counts and subreddits, not permalinks or post dates, so there is no representative thread to link and no date range to quote. Posts were read without their comment threads, so an independent-commenter count would be wrong to give. A thread count is not a survey of anglers.

“We use anything from Jigs, Shrimp, Crabs, and/or cut bait to catch Redfish.”

Everglades City Fishing Charters, Everglades City · their website · 51 charters say the same

What the trip is like

They hold on coastal waters. In winter: seagrass, muddy or sand bottoms, oyster bars and spring-fed creeks. These are the methods charters describe when they write about redfish — each counted only where four or more independent sites say it.

  • Sight casting200 charter mentions
  • Fly fishing97 charter mentions
  • Live bait fishing38 charter mentions
  • Topwater24 charter mentions
  • Trolling16 charter mentions
  • Drifting15 charter mentions

On the hook: shrimp 80 · crabs 51 · live bait 36 · mullet 27

Before you pay

Ask the captain

“Will this trip target redfish? How long is the run to the grounds? Which waters will we fish? If harvest is closed, what is the plan? Do you fish shrimp for them, or something else?”

Harvest rules

When can you keep one?

Seasons and limits are set state by state, and these are Florida's. Redfish is caught by charters in 2 states on this page; ask your captain which rules apply where you are fishing.

  • Panhandle Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    4 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Big Bend Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    4 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Tampa Bay Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    2 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Sarasota Bay Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    2 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Charlotte Harbor Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    2 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Southwest Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    2 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Southeast Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    2 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Indian River Lagoon Catch and release only

    No fish may be kept · Catch and release only

    FWC lists this region as catch and release only. You can fish for them; you cannot keep one.

  • Northeast Open year round

    18 to 27 inches · 1 per person

    4 fish per vessel. The captain and crew may not keep a bag limit on a for-hire trip.

  • Other states Check your waters

    Michigan

Gear. Hook and line and cast nets only. Spearing, gigging, bowfishing and snatch hooking are prohibited, as are multiple hooks with live or dead natural bait. Fish must stay whole until landed ashore.

Official rules

Before keeping a fish, confirm the rule with the captain and the agency for the waters you will fish. Copied from FWC in Sep 2026, with every source at the foot of this page.

Certified catches

Redfish records by state

Certified catches — historic extremes, not what a trip brings in. Each links to the agency record; a catch logged to a named town links there too.

How records are verified

Charters that name redfish

Each one says so on its own website. Phone and website checked on the captain's own site; we take no bookings and no fee.

All 1,108 redfish charters, by state and town

The detail behind this page

Every state and town naming redfish

When charters fish for redfish

They are caught all year, with no month that stands out.

  • Jan
  • Feb
  • Mar
  • Apr
  • May
  • Jun
  • Jul
  • Aug
  • Sep
  • Oct
  • Nov
  • Dec

“Redfish Is Open Year Round” source

Counted across 280 charter websites at the busiest month and 217 at the quietest. Charters run year round, so this is when they talk about this fish, not a guarantee.

What a trip costs

Across the 48 towns where redfish charters work, a full day is typically $1,200 — $600 in FL/okeechobee, $2,837 in FL/destin. That is the boat, not a seat: split it between everyone aboard.

half day $600 typical, $395–$860 by town · three-quarter day $850 typical, $500–$1,800 by town · full day $1,200 typical, $600–$2,837 by town

What this is, and is not. Each town is represented by the middle of what its charters publish for a trip of that length; the figure above is the middle of those towns, across 644 charters that publish a price. These are prices for a trip of that length, not for a trip that targets redfish — the same boats run for other fish, and none of them price by species. Party boats are excluded: they sell seats, not the boat.

Which rules apply to your trip

  • The per-person limit is one fish a day everywhere harvest is open. What changes by region is the boat limit and, in the Indian River Lagoon, whether any fish may be kept.
  • Ask the captain which FWC region the trip fishes. FWC draws the region boundaries at landmarks such as roads, parks and county lines.

About the fish

SizeUp to 61 inches. Florida record 52 lb 5 oz
Where it livesCoastal waters. In winter: seagrass, muddy or sand bottoms, oyster bars and spring-fed creeks
What it eatsFish and invertebrates

FWC says redfish stay inshore until they reach roughly 30 inches, at about four years old.

From FWC's species profile, checked Sep 2026.

How big redfish run

Federal interviewers measured 2,977 of them on charter trips between 2022–2024. The middle half ran 14.7–24.1 inches, with a median of 18.5 inches.

Separately, MRIP's catch records for those trips count 8,203 released against 2,896 kept — more put back than taken, which is what a closed season or a tight limit looks like. That is a different tally from the fish that were measured, not a breakdown of them.

  • Georgia15.7" median, 1,277 measured
  • Florida20.8" median, 627 measured
  • North Carolina22.8" median, 562 measured
  • South Carolina18.1" median, 286 measured

NOAA Fisheries MRIP dockside interviews, 2022–2024. A sample of the fish boats brought in, not a total, and not a forecast for any one trip.

Fish anglers talk about alongside redfish

Counted from the same threads as the questions above — the fish that come up in the same conversation, not a list of popular species.

Seasons, sizes and bag limits on this page were copied from FWC, red drum regulations and FWC, red drum profile in Sep 2026. Rules change, sometimes mid-season. Check the current rule with your captain or FWC before you keep a fish.