Your best tips for fishing Oyster bars

jqmustang

I recently came to the realization that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to oyster bars, I'm completely clueless!
I'd love to know exactly what you look for? How you do fish it on the incoming tide? How do you fish it on the outgoing? What are your best tips? 

captbonefish

Capt. Lemay maybe can add a lot more than me, but farther north of the 10k islands, I have fished a few oyster bars for years. Lots of things vary, especially wind conditions and tide movement. 

I try to determine where the deepest water is close to the bar and where the tide, when moving, offers the best vantage point when presenting bait, keeping in mind I only fish live bait. 

I generally only fish those spots on an incoming tide. Now I would add, the oyster bars I fish, or fished, I fished for a long time. Meaning I knew what side and where the snook prefered, same with reds. So I didn't waste time fishing on the wrong side. 

It is a lot of trial and error, for sure. Like anything in fishing, when learning. 

10kman

  In much of the 10k islands,I frequently catch more snook than reds.But
I only fish shrimp,cut lady fish and/or artificals.

JW_YakAngler

I fish primarily doa and gulp jerk shads on weedless swimbait hooks for oyster bars because they rarely get hung up even if you throw right up on the oysters. I arrive on low tide and fish the beginning of the incoming for redfish. They will be sitting in the slightly deeper holes on low tide waiting for the water to come up and give them access to the oysters. Cast towards the edges of the bars near slightly deeper water. For the oyster bars on the inside edge of the 10K (choko bay side for example) small reds are there year round, the big ones are there in the transitional months and will move outside as water temps rise. As mentioned above, in the 10k snook are often on the oysters, especially when the wind is blowing into them. They will be there to eat bait that is getting pounded against the bar.

lemaymiami

When there's enough water on top of an oyster bar (but not enough to float your skiff...) I'm very fond of tossing #17 Mirrolures up on top of the oysters since they suspend very nicely then work them medium slow with lots of twitches, stopping and starting... works like a charm and if the water is clear enough my anglers can see what their lures are doing - and when they get bit...