After listening to Capt. Hillman’s podcast, I wanted to share a graphic I created for the Sportfish Center's social media. I hope this information helps you learn about slicks and how they're formed by fish. Yes, even Gafftops...

If you have ever gone fishing on the coast, you have probably seen a fish slick on the water's surface. It has a sweet and pungent smell akin to watermelon or fresh-cut grass. This slick is a telltale sign that helps anglers locate fish in the area. Spotted seatrout are often the cause of these slicks. However, they can also form from other fish such as red drum, black drum, southern flounder, ladyfish, hardhead catfish, and gafftopsail catfish.

Two scenarios can explain how slicks form. First, a predatory fish will consume a prey item such as mullet, menhaden, pinfish, bay anchovy, or shrimp. During consumption, the prey can be torn apart and release oily body fluids. Second, after a heavy meal, a predator will regurgitate its food (e.g., like a person burping), releasing fragments of its prey and even digestive juices. In either case, the contents are less dense than the surrounding saltwater environment and float to the surface, creating an oily slick. These slicks start small and can quickly expand in size, depending on the strength of the wind or current. If you come across a sizable one, it has had time to spread out, and you should position yourself upwind where the fish that created it will be holding.

I know it’s late, but here’s my fishing update from this past weekend in the cold.
 
I launched at 11:00 AM on Saturday, and the water temperature was 45 degrees. After rescuing and dropping off some stunned sea turtles, I set out to fish. I drifted for two hours without a bite, so I moved closer to the ICW, where I found warmer water, specifically in a dead-end gut that was 49 degrees. The first signs of life were some black drum up shallow, followed by my first mullet of the day. Walking the edge of it, my initial casts with a Ball Tail Shad produced immediate hits, and I caught two trout. However, they were short-striking, so I switched to the junior version on a 3/16-ounce jighead. For the next 45 minutes, either I got bit or caught a fish, resulting in a total of 21 trout, including two limits from 15 to 18 inches. Additionally, by the time I left the was temperature was 52 degrees.
 
After that, I met up with two friends to wade a shoreline point adjacent to a deep drop-off, which coincided with the moonrise minor feed. I was wading in waist-deep water that was also at 49 degrees and had scattered seagrass beds. This was the most mullet I’d seen all day, and there was even a brown pelican feeding nearby. While fishing through the evening, I ended up catching four more trout (the biggest two weighed 4.5 and 5.5 pounds), four redfish, and a black drum, all on a Ball Tail Shad.
 
On Sunday, a friend and I waded along a spoil island where the water temperature was 50 degrees. He caught a big drum and some trout, while I waded farther out into waist-deep water with seagrass beds and potholes. The mullet were definitely more active, and the trout we caught were fat. We caught the tail end of the major feed and ended up with 10 trout (two keepers). From the afternoon until dark, we fished in areas similar to the previous day and saw water temperatures increase to 51 degrees. We caught over 40 trout with a total of seven limits. The trout he kept for dinner had some interesting prey items in their stomachs. Besides pinfish and mullet, one 16-inch trout had a 9-inch Violet Goby in it, and another had an Atlantic Needlefish. All our fish were caught on a Ball Tail Shad or Wig-A-Lo. With more cold weather expected this Sunday, I hope this gives you some insights into strategies you can use to catch some fish.