# Does anything else tail, other than reds?



## MariettaMike

TysonC said:


> ...and got on the water before first light. Right off the main running channel I see about 20 fish stirring around, but it was so dark I couldn’t make out if they were tails or not. None the less I start by casting a doa shrimp to the edges of the group and slow twitch it on the bottom. I didn’t get a single bite. I switched up to a paddle tail and still nothing. So I throw right into the center, knowing my line is hitting them, nada. They never spooked but left after about 10 minutes. I never had enough light to see if they were reds but the behavior was strange as they never spooked even when line touched them.


Welcome to the board.

Since you said it was too dark to see heads or tails, I'm pretty sure you were seeing a school of larger mullet swimming in circles. They won't bite, and don't spook that easily. Jacks will do that too, but you should have gotten a bite.


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## Smackdaddy53

Trout, black drum, sheepshead, jacks, seen them all tail.


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## Pierson

Yeah pretty much all the shallow water species have been caught tailing from time to time. Based on your story, and being in the lagoon, I would say that was mullet or catfish tailing away with no bites or blow outs. I have seen that plenty of times.


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## topnative2

mullet


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## Smackdaddy53

MariettaMike said:


> Welcome to the board.
> 
> Since you said it was too dark to see heads or tails, I'm pretty sure you were seeing a school of larger mullet swimming in circles. They won't bite, and don't spook that easily. Jacks will do that too, but you should have gotten a bite.


Have you seen anyone chum up a sand flat with Grape Nuts cereal and toss little fuzzy brown flies to catch mullet? I read an article that it’s a “thing” in Florida.


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## crboggs

Anyone who tells you he's never cast at a school of mullet is lying to you.


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## Smackdaddy53

crboggs said:


> Anyone who tells you he's never cast at a school of mullet is lying to you.


When I do I just play it off and say it was just practice...


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## crboggs

*lol* Yeah man...I "practice casting" pretty much every time I'm creeping the local backwaters here.


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## FlyBy

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Have you seen anyone chum up a sand flat with Grape Nuts cereal and toss little fuzzy brown flies to catch mullet? I read an article that it’s a “thing” in Florida.


I'll be trying that.


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## Smackdaddy53

FlyBy said:


> I'll be trying that.


Yeah it was an article I read. Dudes catching 4-5# mullet on tiny fuzz flies with a 6wt IIRC.


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## FlyBy

Mullet can pull.


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## Smackdaddy53

FlyBy said:


> Mullet can pull.


I bet a 3-4# mullet would smoke a 6wt drag


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## SomaliPirate

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Have you seen anyone chum up a sand flat with Grape Nuts cereal and toss little fuzzy brown flies to catch mullet? I read an article that it’s a “thing” in Florida.


As a kid we used to catch them in the river by chumming with oatmeal, then throwing little cotton ball "flies" in the mix. They were beasts on my dad's old 6wt.


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## topnative2

scientific name is "cyrus horribilis"


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## MariettaMike

I was poling through a back channel of Fish Creek at Ozello really early one morning last year and could see some tails wagging about 100 yards away. So I switch into stealth mode and pole really slow and extra careful not to bang anything. Those tails would go down and randomly pop up all around in about a 50' circle that looked like a big school of reds that you just dream of finding. After what felt like an hour to get within casting range those tails starting looking kinda funny looking because they were dark on one side and light on the other, and just weren't waving and turning right. So I make a perfect 50' cast near one of them and nothing happens. Try again. Nothing. Pole a little closer to where I could get a good look to see it was a school of cow rays just lollygagging into the current with their wings up, and then circling back around. I hate cow rays.


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## Smackdaddy53

Not many people get to experience it (or at least they don’t speak of it) but I was kayaking several years ago and came into a foot deep back lake full of tails in pods of 30-50 or so fish and as I got closer it was a bunch of hardhead catfish in each pod. There were probably 10-12 pods over the entire flat and as I looked more closely I saw at least one or two redfish tails in the mix rooting around with the catfish. I had heard people talk about it but never saw it until that day and never saw it again.


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## TysonC

Thank you all for your answers. It was super frustrating because I had done everything right that morning. Can’t wait to get a true skiff and have some elevation to better see everything.


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## devrep

why wouldn't you cast at a school of mullet? Redfish love to hang with mullet and feed on the critters disturbed by the mullet digging in the mud.


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## EvanHammer

I've chased down single tailing hardheads, pods of tailing hardheads, pods of mudding hardheads... but one day at Chandeleur we spend a couple hours poling in the clouds interspersed with eating fried chicken and drinking Lone Star in the rain. Finally we happened on a big pod of tailers we could see from way out. Poled all the way over, took a couple shots to no avail, finally pulled all the way up and it was a giant ball of hardheads. What a letdown.


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## TysonC

devrep said:


> why wouldn't you cast at a school of mullet? Redfish love to hang with mullet and feed on the critters disturbed by the mullet digging in the mud.


If the question is towards me I was casting quite a bit. I’m kind of interested to try this idea about grape nuts and a 5wt.


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## FlyBy

TysonC said:


> If the question is towards me I was casting quite a bit. I’m kind of interested to try this idea about grape nuts and a 5wt.


I'm going with a 4 wt.

I did catch a trout tailing once, but it was in 12' of water. Feeding on glass minnows and sticking her tail up every time she ate. I didn't know what it was until she got close enough to cast to, and she bumped the fly 3 times before I hooked her.


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## lemaymiami

As already noted lots of different fish will tail in the right circumstances - way down south most would think of bonefish and permit first up on the flats- but you can add great big mutton snapper to that list - I doubt anyone has seen that kind of behavior in years... Watching a big mutton tail up on the edge of a flat will get your heart started just fine.... and the funny looking pink color will tell you immediately that you're not looking at anything else.... The few I saw years and years ago were following mudding rays... 

A big mutton up on super clear bonefish flats is as tough a target as you'll find (if you don't count tailing sheepheads in cold winter waters in the 10K area- they're even tougher to feed...).


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## CurtisWright

TysonC said:


> This is a novice question but I’m specifically referring to the lagoon, not carp, etc.
> 
> Here’s why:
> 
> I went out of wseg in my kayak not long ago and got on the water before first light. Right off the main running channel I see about 20 fish stirring around, but it was so dark I couldn’t make out if they were tails or not. None the less I start by casting a doa shrimp to the edges of the group and slow twitch it on the bottom. I didn’t get a single bite. I switched up to a paddle tail and still nothing. So I throw right into the center, knowing my line is hitting them, nada. They never spooked but left after about 10 minutes. I never had enough light to see if they were reds but the behavior was strange as they never spooked even when line touched them.
> 
> It was maybe two feet of water there and I’ve only caught sailcats and trout that close to the ramp. So, did I find a freakish group of reds that had no aversion or was a group of sailcats mimicking tailing behavior?
> 
> Thanks for entertaining my newb questions.


If this was in Louisiana it would be black drum. They muddy up the water eating something, likely oysters, and cannot see your bait. I do not think they care about it anyways since they are eating oysters. Maybe next time try a piece of dead shrimp (if your into that) or something that can just sit on the bottom until they pass over it.


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## CurtisWright

FlyBy said:


> I'll be trying that.


I use to do it when I was a kid with bread. My Grandfather worked at a bakery and would bring home boxes of disfigured loaves. He made a grinder thing out of a paint stirrer/ electric drill and would put a few loaves into a bucket and pulverize them. He had a local school of mullet that hung out by the dock waiting on a free meal.


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## SomaliPirate

CurtisWright said:


> If this was in Louisiana it would be black drum. They muddy up the water eating something, likely oysters, and cannot see your bait. I do not think they care about it anyways since they are eating oysters. Maybe next time try a piece of dead shrimp or something that can just sit on the bottom until they pass over it.


This: I see them tailing frequently and the larger ones are not spooky at all. You can pole to almost on top of them. Getting one to eat is another story. You have to present it just about on their nose. My goal for this year is to get one to eat a fly or die trying.


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## crboggs

Forgot about black drum. The smaller (juvi) sized ones will tail on certain flats around here just like red drum do. Looks exactly the same from a distance.


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## Smackdaddy53

crboggs said:


> Forgot about black drum. The smaller (juvi) sized ones will tail on certain flats around here just like red drum do. Looks exactly the same from a distance.


The moster black drum will do the same.


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## timogleason

I've even seen Tarpon and Snook tail a few times. Ben pretty uncommon but they do. I have cast at my share of tailing mullet and catfish through the years as well.


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## Austin Bustamante

SomaliPirate said:


> This:  I see them tailing frequently and the larger ones are not spooky at all. You can pole to almost on top of them. Getting one to eat is another story. You have to present it just about on their nose. My goal for this year is to get one to eat a fly or die trying.


Get a big heavy fly with a large body, drop it in front of them, move it slowly once to their path and let it sit. They will suck it up and pull away with your fly in 4lo.
This is also known as the Idaho Steve method, problem is the big drum smell like ass, and everything they touch will also for the remainder of the day.


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## albrighty_then

Whiskered seabass


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## Steve_Mevers

crboggs said:


> Anyone who tells you he's never cast at a school of mullet is lying to you.


They are lying if they don't admit they have casted to mullet more than once!


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## crboggs

Steve_Mevers said:


> They are lying if they don't admit they have casted to mullet more than once!


Or more than once per hour on any given day...


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## Guest

Whether mullet, drum, hardheads, or carp... a bad day fishing still beats a good day workin!


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## Steve_Mevers

No better place to be than on a casting platform with a fly rod in your hand, catching a fish is just an added bonus.


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## Bill Payne

Yeah, I'd love to tell you I've never mistook mullet or cats for tailing reds. But the other guys are right on, There are often target fish mixed in with them, and making a cast is free (so are hooksets for that matter), so definitely toss a lure or two in there.


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## Bill Payne

TysonC said:


> Thank you all for your answers. It was super frustrating because I had done everything right that morning. Can’t wait to get a true skiff and have some elevation to better see everything.


Also, don't be afraid to get out and wade if it's shallow enough to give you a height advantage. Just stake your kayak out, or tie it to your belt loop and drag it along.


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## TysonC

The area I’m referring to is the poll and troll around the WSEG ramp in the Mosquito Lagoon/MINWR. Most of the bottom is pretty soft at the moment. I suppose I could walk the points at the spoil islands.


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## bbohnhoff

"eating fried chicken and drinking Lone Star in the rain"- great song title!


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## Bill Payne

TysonC said:


> The area I’m referring to is the poll and troll around the WSEG ramp in the Mosquito Lagoon/MINWR. Most of the bottom is pretty soft at the moment. I suppose I could walk the points at the spoil islands.


Yeah, firm bottom is key. Although, the last time I fished the lagoon, we did very well fishing the outside of the spoil islands-or clinkers. We even spotted two reds tailing right on the shoreline under a mangrove.


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## Capt Rhan

They were Smoked Mullet


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## Capnredfish

Found this tailing with a quick search


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## Surffshr

Two evenings and two mornings the same thing in the same place. Only one fish to be had out of this school each trip, but I simply couldn’t ignore them. On the way to work after the second morning I was talking to the dude I call every morning and said “I had the redfish tails dream this morning...”. He replied “when you were younger, you used to dream of other tail in the morning!” The man speaks the Truth!


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## timogleason

Had Tarpon tailing (doing head stands) this AM


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## Smackdaddy53

timogleason said:


> Had Tarpon tailing (doing head stands) this AM


Rooting for crab?


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## timogleason

Smackdaddy53 said:


> Rooting for crab?


I can only assume that is what they are doing. Water is about 2 - 3 feet deep and then you see a tarpon tail sticking about a foot out of the water vertically. I don't see it all the time but regular enough that it isn't a surprise.


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## Smackdaddy53

timogleason said:


> I can only assume that is what they are doing. Water is about 2 - 3 feet deep and then you see a tarpon tail sticking about a foot out of the water vertically. I don't see it all the time but regular enough that it isn't a surprise.


That’s cool. I have yet to land a tarpon. The only one I hooked was two years ago when snook fishing in south Texas. We were sight casting snook around dock pilings in 35-40’ of water and a tarpon about 48” rose up next to a school of snook and I cast a soft plastic at it, it smashed it and broke me off almost immediately. I’m planning on at least jumping one in a few days on the beach front here on the middle coast.


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## timogleason

Smackdaddy53 said:


> That’s cool. I have yet to land a tarpon. The only one I hooked was two years ago when snook fishing in south Texas. We were sight casting snook around dock pilings in 35-40’ of water and a tarpon about 48” rose up next to a school of snook and I cast a soft plastic at it, it smashed it and broke me off almost immediately. I’m planning on at least jumping one in a few days on the beach front here on the middle coast.


Good luck - tarpon are awesome fish. Maddening and addicting. All else drops out of contention when there are tarpon around here for me...


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## permitchaser

Other things that tail in salt water, bone fish, permit, mullet, catfish, drum and Sail Fish that has it tail and dorsal out of the water

when I started bone fishing, the first trip was to Cozumel. Hired a guide, Beto, fished out of his 14' with a cooler and short wooden push pole
so we where back in some creeks and I was looking for ANY water movement. So I'd say " Beto is that bone fish, no senior " mulyeas" in his thick Spanish accent this happened a lot and I was wondering what kind of fish was a mulyea later when we saw bone fish i figured out he was saying mullet


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## hipshot

Just read this whole thread. Can't believe I'm the only one here who's ever stalked a school of tailing oysters......... They only do that when there's a little chop to the water.


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## State fish rob

I ve used fish meal and bare sabaki rig hooks to catch them in dock lites. Little 3wt i ve caught diving ducks w same rig ( not trying to)


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## State fish rob

hipshot said:


> Just read this whole thread. Can't believe I'm the only one here who's ever stalked a school of tailing oysters......... They only do that when there's a little chop to the water.


You cant imagine what ive poled across the pond for frog gigging & havent seen a frog yet. Anyone ever double check a knat on your gun barrel when you were dove hunting with no action? The squint factor is enormous!


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## topnative2

hipshot said:


> Just read this whole thread. Can't believe I'm the only one here who's ever stalked a school of tailing oysters......... They only do that when there's a little chop to the water.


OK......like chasing a school of bait fish ripples that is actually just a wind gust blowing between 2 house on shore...........still hurts


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## topnative2

......kinda....."sitting" in a tree standing and having your snore wake ya' up and then seeing an erect tail haulin' butt.....well its' a tail


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## lemaymiami

I'll add one more tail to the list... really big (and not so big...) sharks will tail up when they're working downed timber at the bottom of the outgoing tide. They're hunting for cripples and anything else they can chow on. Some days all you'll see is an occasional tip of a tail or dorsal as they slowly and methodically work a shoreline in less than two feet of water (other days you'll actually see their backs out of the water as they work up skinny). Things get interesting when they find a target and just jump on it along the Gulf coast of the Everglades between Lostman's River and Cape Sable... Some days all you'll see is a four to seven footer (small ones are bulls - longer ones, lemons). Every now and then "tailer" is attached to a critter much, much bigger. We've actually poled up on lemons that were well over ten feet long just outside the two foot line in a bit less than three feet of water.

For those that have never hunted them - the lemons show two dorsal fins the bull sharks only one (but the head on a bull just plain looks a lot bigger than the rest of him.... Just to add some perspective - in that area a ten foot shark isn't the big dog... A few years back we had a six foot great hammerhead that we'd just released (long and skinny with the bigger hammer and tall dorsal - it was about a 60lb fish). The animal was in fine shape swimming away slowly when it was just blown up be a really big shark (monster bull or just a big tiger would be my best guess). As it swam away with it's prize I pointed out to my anglers that there was a reason I'd never swim in those waters (with the dark waters you simply can't see who is swimming with you....).


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## FSUDrew99

Big blue fish..... hold on when they bite too....

Had a toad of a blue fish straighten out both skitter walk split rings... Last one fell out of his mouth when he hit the deck.


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## Ice Cream Man

MariettaMike said:


> I was poling through a back channel of Fish Creek at Ozello really early one morning last year and could see some tails wagging about 100 yards away. So I switch into stealth mode and pole really slow and extra careful not to bang anything. Those tails would go down and randomly pop up all around in about a 50' circle that looked like a big school of reds that you just dream of finding. After what felt like an hour to get within casting range those tails starting looking kinda funny looking because they were dark on one side and light on the other, and just weren't waving and turning right. So I make a perfect 50' cast near one of them and nothing happens. Try again. Nothing. Pole a little closer to where I could get a good look to see it was a school of cow rays just lollygagging into the current with their wings up, and then circling back around. I hate cow rays.


Had the same thing happen to me. Slow swimming Rays do look like tailing Reds.... ICM


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## Ice Cream Man

FSUDrew99 said:


> Big blue fish..... hold on when they bite too....
> 
> Had a toad of a blue fish straighten out both skitter walk split rings... Last one fell out of his mouth when he hit the deck.


Last year we had a big run of super big chopper Blues.
My buddy Harold hooked 2 on this Skitterwalk.... ICM


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## permitchaser

I forgot to mention, grass carp tail, but you can't catch them


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## MariettaMike

Ice Cream Man said:


> Had the same thing happen to me. Slow swimming Rays do look like tailing Reds.... ICM


Saw some tails near the same place this morning, and kinda blew them off until I saw they weren’t cow rays this time.


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## No Bait / Lures Only

TysonC said:


> This is a novice question but I’m specifically referring to the lagoon, not carp, etc.
> 
> Here’s why:
> 
> I went out of wseg in my kayak not long ago and got on the water before first light. Right off the main running channel I see about 20 fish stirring around, but it was so dark I couldn’t make out if they were tails or not. None the less I start by casting a doa shrimp to the edges of the group and slow twitch it on the bottom. I didn’t get a single bite. I switched up to a paddle tail and still nothing. So I throw right into the center, knowing my line is hitting them, nada. They never spooked but left after about 10 minutes. I never had enough light to see if they were reds but the behavior was strange as they never spooked even when line touched them.
> 
> It was maybe two feet of water there and I’ve only caught sailcats and trout that close to the ramp. So, did I find a freakish group of reds that had no aversion or was a group of sailcats mimicking tailing behavior?
> 
> Thanks for entertaining my newb questions.


Sheephead, mullets, garfish, black drum.


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## No Bait / Lures Only

devrep said:


> why wouldn't you cast at a school of mullet? Redfish love to hang with mullet and feed on the critters disturbed by the mullet digging in the mud.


Or following a ray mud


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## No Bait / Lures Only

albrighty_then said:


> Whiskered seabass


Nasty


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## No Bait / Lures Only

Capnredfish said:


> View attachment 29766
> Found this tailing with a quick search


Looks of high maintenance


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## devrep

I've caught several nice snook by casting next to manatees. I guess they are picking up goodies that are disturbed. I don't necessarily recommend this...


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## FlyBy

Don't know what fly you'd use for this but I'd like to try.








There are some dark brown crabs on the flats I fish in NC that climb spartina grass. If you see one of those climb about 6" and climb back down you'll be ready to cast. Three of us bailed out of a bay boat once to wade to one.


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## dingoatemebaby

Bluefish in the spring off Cape Cod get in VERY shallow, later in the summer the bass will dig in the flats/tail for lady crabs if there is no bait around


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## Guest

Backwater said:


> There's a tailer!


I thought those are for spear fishen!


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## dingoatemebaby

Wayne Davis also has some incredible work of my favorite tailing species, Thunnus thynnus and Xiphias gladius!
http://oceanaerials.com


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## zthomas

First time I've seen this -- a "tailing" turtle on Tiger Shoals in the fog yesterday. That's the ass end of his shell to the right, a back flipper to the left. Eating something off the bottom.


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## HelthInsXpert

I stalked a few really tempting looking tails across a flat several time only to find out they were catfish. The COLOR of the tail tells you a lot. Reds look orange/pink when the sun hits them and it's always exciting when you see those!


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## Ice Cream Man

Turn a corner on a flat last summer saw 200 tailers that turned out to be a large school of Rays......ICM


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## FlyBy

Ice Cream Man said:


> Turn a corner on a flat last summer saw 200 tailers that turned out to be a large school of Rays......ICM


I saw that twice near Sanibel. Black rays with their wing-tips out of the water. Thought I had found the mother lode of permit.


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## BassFlats

Large jacks wake and tail often in my area.


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## Godzuki86

I know the original question talked about ML, but in regards to what else tails I took this picture of a school of permit in about 11ft of water


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## Megalops

Godzuki86 said:


> View attachment 62662
> 
> 
> I know the original question talked about ML, but in regards to what else tails I took this picture of a school of permit in about 11ft of water


Heck those look like black rays near Sanibel.


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## Godzuki86

Megalops said:


> Heck those look like black rays near Sanibel.


They were definitely rubber lips though! There was like 7 billion schools of 50+ fish.


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