6/9 - Second time around, is a charm!

Had Jason L. aboard today. Last year, we went out on June 8th. Jason, his young boy Preston, and I. Jason told me, "I've NEVER caught a dang Redfish before!"  So, of course we tried. But couldn't get any decent Redbass baits other than a few crabs. We looked for Pogies, and looked for Mullet. But were wasting too much tide. So we ended up doing allot of fishing for just Preston, catching small fish for him to reel on.

Well. today it was Jason, his boy Preston, and his little girl Piper. I had plans to put the end to that, "never caught a Redfish, thang."

We headed straight for the jetties. It was rolling pretty good inside the rocks on the falling tide.

Remember how we used to get nothing but hard west winds this time of the year? And after a month or so, the wind would blow out all the water, and cold water from out deep would come in on the beach making the water 68 degrees?  DON'T think we have to worry about that, during this stage of the climate change process. Because now each day seems to be nothing but EAST winds. Making the inside of the jetties on a falling tide un-fishable. Unless you can keep your stomach down while fishing the 4 foot rollers!!!

I got really lucky, never even had to pull out the cast net, a boat just outside the rocks just made a toss on the pogies, had a bunch and he nicely gave me all I could use. Thanks Fella's!!

We no sooner got some fresh live baits and headed back in the jetties. I tried to get the kids on the Whiting, but the swell bucked by the wind was a "HERE'S YER SIGN" that not much was gonna happen. Especially after trying three spots, with ZERO small fish success!!  So hell with this. The kids will just have to watch dad reel in some big ones, instead.

So I picked up on the last of the falling tide and headed for a hard bottom area in the river. I'm now fishing four rods.....two with live pogies, and two with shrimp for the kids to catch anything that'll bite. And that's when Jason broke his REDFISH spell.

This Red kicked butt! It was a true heavy weight. Larger than Jason's daughter! So large I was running out of boat to get them all in the frame.
This fish was 35 pounds and maybe larger, because I ran out of "scale".

"The Jason Non-Redfish catching spell" is NOW broken.  And broken in the best way. Because this is the largest RB of the year, now. Liela Wadley's 27 pounder, from two weeks ago, has now been over taken. 

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

A ship passes by....the kids are rambunctious, and a pogie rod doubles over again!

HERE WE GO!

Another, that goes 35 pounds PLUS!
Right before the falling tide starts to slack.
Which gave us time after releasing the fish to head back to the dock and have Piper go back to the hotel via a Mommy pick-up.
Which leaves us with Preston. Who didn't want to stay on the boat, either. Which reminds me........

Summer Info: Right now, is the start of when almost every single trip I make can or will have a less than ten year old on board.  Just so everyone knows. It can be very hot, and especially the summer time fishing, needs major patience by ""all"" involved. Kids, may not make the day, even though you think they can.  My 15+ years of experience has shown, ten and over do okay. Ten and under? That's up for grabs. 

So after the mom pick-up of Piper, and the convincing from Dad that Preston was staying on the boat no matter what, we headed back to the fishing grounds. And started on our second half of the day. Fishing the rising tide.

Soon as the current came, the wind and the boat were laying together. We were back into BIG Redbass.

Preston thought he could handle one of these, but look at dad flexing a rather heavy duty rod, connected to a $450 twin-drag ACCURATE reel, with 10 pounds of strike drag. No, if anything. Dad needs to keep his hands on this tackle!!

The Reds were smaller now, literally half the size of the first two we caught.

The last one was the smallest of the day. Sure a "keeper sizer" would have been great. But finding a small one is harder than finding a BIG one. So, I tell everyone to refer their concerns to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in Tallahassee, Florida. For me, it's all about time of year. Winter, is when we get allot of "keeper" size fish, in the river. Fishing isn't like going to Walmart.

I was VERY happy, that now on Jason's second year aboard the Jettywolf, that we put that non-Redfish catching spell, to rest. AND IN A REALLY BIG WAY!
It's all about the bait, time of year, and weather. But right now, the bait is back to being plentiful. The Redbass seem to be chewing.
But, add in some hard winds, and that can make catching them allot tougher, ON ME.

I'm happy with this week so far. We'll see what this weekend brings. I have 4 passengers on Saturday, and there's a Kingfish tournament going on and some kind of inshore tournament too. So here we go......Zoo time!

WEEKDAYS, if you can book'em. I'd would do'em. From here on out.

And please reserve in advance, at least a week, preferably more. Calls the ""night"" before just mean your trip could be much more expensive.