Friday we woke up at around sunrise. When we emerged from the tent, we noticed the wind had shifted and there a gentle north breeze. This was great news. We were anticipating a cold front either late Friday or Saturday morning. Since we are set up to hunt in our blinds with north wind, we were excited the beginning of this front was starting to arrive. We decided to go ahead and get our fishing done early and off we went.
We went back out into the Gulf and got one or two, but they weren't biting as well as they did on Thursday. So we fished some canals on the inside picking up one or two good eating size fish and even a couple of yummy flounder. We ended up at a place we now call "four corners" where two bayous meet and empty into the lake. I caught a nice keeper redfish on one corner and we went to the edge of the lake just as the tide started to rise and found ourselves catching little "rat" reds about 12" long. Since redfish have to be at least 16" to keep, we threw all the rat reds back but we stayed there a while and had fun catching one after the other.
Eventually we went back to the camp and relaxed with a few toddies. Dick wanted to fish more after lunch but Joe wanted to take a nap. I told Dick I'd go with him so off in the boat we went. We headed straight to the sand flat. Dick had a very good idea where the reef was located, so when we got near the reef he shut off the motor and let us drift with the north wind. By now the wind was a little more stiff and the water was not as calm as that morning or the day before. I cast my line about 20 yards off the back of the boat. When my cork got 10 yards behind the boat, down it went and at first I didn't know if I had a redfish or hard head catfish. It took a couple of minutes for the fish to realize it was hooked, then off it went, screeching a hundred feet of line off my reel. And I knew I had hooked into a monster red. Since I hadn't caught one of those 30 pounders yet and had my line broken three times already, I handled this fish with finesse and care. Taking my time, I finally got him close to the boat. When he saw the boat, off he went again. This happened several times. Eventually, after a 15 minute fight, Dick netted the fish. It was the largest fish I'd ever caught (shown on previous page).
I immediately threw my line back to the same spot at 10 yards behind the boat. As the cork hit the water - boom - another red grabbed the bait. This fish wasn't as big as the first so I yelled for Dick to throw his line 10 yards behind the boat. I landed my fish (shown below) and Dick hooks another big one 10 yards behind the boat. This went on and on for at least an hour - fish after fish 10 yards off the back of the boat - same spot each time. It was a remarkable afternoon of fishing. |
