I knew what we'd be in store for, there was no doubt. Basically, an incoming tide all day, 20 knot sustained (feeling) winds from the N.E. and yep....some serious K.O.D. But man. what "troopers" they were.
Dressed properly and ready and on time. I had so many live shrimp in the bait well I could get into anything and not run out.......unlike earlier in the week and last weekend.
We tried float-rig fishing, we tried bumping the bottom, we tried heading to the jetties, whoa that was fun....it was heinous outside the rocks. We tried fishing down the river. And went HOURS without a single fish. We had loads of bait stealer bites, and not a single connection with a hook into a decent fishes lips.
Yes, my friends. A serious K.O.D. situation is what I had on my hands here. Light tackle pitchin' and flipping just wasn't cutting it. Kelly was the real fisherman. And I wanted to so badly get him hooked up on something after all that we tried. So I said, I guess we're gonna have to do some bait-n-wait fishing, deep and with the heavier tackle. Sort of heavier....my Tiger Lite custom rods and Curado 300 DSV low profile reels. As light as I could go and still chunk 6 ounces.
Really, big Reds don't need giant reels and telephone pole rods. It's way more fun to tangle with them on adequate tackle....that's light to the feel and on the fish, just a tad. And this is what we used.
So we went and anchored up barely, on a spot that has consistently produced big Reds for me at the high tide. But we were still a few hours away from actual high. So we waited it out. Monster 8" whole dead shrimp works great here normally. It's all ya need. But when the game fish are sort of off the feed bag, the bait stealers are on the feed bag. And the jumbo shrimp was just getting chewed, as it sat down on the patch of hard bottom, 33 feet below.
We tried to hook them, but it took forever to catch one. And when we did, it was a small Whiting.
I said, "this will work!" So I cut the Whiting's head off, pinned it on and cast it out. It wasn't long before the rod doubled over and Kelly was FINALLY on a decent fish. But we had a scare.
As he was working the Red to the boat it ran down deep and got hung up in something. The fish just stopped. The line was hung up. So Kelly handed me the rod and I threw slack to it and the Red quickly became "un-stuck". To the boat it came, and on the light tackle it sure put up a hell of a battle.
A nice one at 16 pounds for the first real bite.
We re-baited and used more cut Whiting and had more action.
Marla on her largest fish ever, let alone ever held.
Her Redfish was the largest at 26 pounds, I believe.
I thought I was over having to do the ole "bait-n-wait" fishing. Because last week and weekend it was all about working the real light tackle for them Specks and Mangrove Snappers, Sheephead and big Yellowmouth Trout. Which is way more my forte.
I'm not all that happy when I have to sit watching pole tips. But ya have to do what ya have to do, sometimes.
No one had to kick me in the ass too hard to figure out that we really had to conform to something that was more wind friendly fishing, today.
I had to fight the images of a cooler full of beautiful specks that was in my head,, all morning....ahhhh how I love that. But we made the day with some Brutus T. Redbass in the boat. So after the last one, the tide completely went slack and the last fish was a Toadfish......Whoops, time to go. "Here's your sign" as they say. Toad's are a definite sign, time to go home.
Now, I have a few days till Wednesday that I won't be out in the wind. I sure hope we can float-rig and find some eaters Wednesday through Friday.
I'm not counting on it with the forecast. But ya never know.
I may hit it "solo" on Tuesday, seeing I have a livewell full of shrimp, still. Just to try my more expert hand at it.
