As of late, St. Joe has been making a fool of me when comes to Redfish. Sure I've caught a few but I was looking for banner s days. Baygator and I planned to hit the Bay early Friday morning and come hell or high water, find the Reds. Baygator flaked out on me and decided to to go to work. Can't say I blame him given my history with Redfish in St. Joe
So it was a solo trip.Boat in the water by 7. I head over to pole the flat North of Eagle harbor. The wind as whipping pretty good and after about 20 min. of poling around in both deep and shallow flats, no bait was around and the flat seemed pretty lifeless. Turn the boat South and headed to the back of the Bay. High tide was to be just after lunch so the water was moving pretty good. I went to a pothole I marked earlier in the year that seemed to line up with a few others that made a B-line from the back of the Bay to a deep channel leading out to the open water. I staked off and waited to see what came by. With in about 20 min. the mullet and other baitfish started showing up in huge numbers. There were large schools of mullet and other small bait working the edges of the trough and little Trout were busting the smaller baits. About 100 yards out I see a school of bait crash through the surface in all directions and behind it a wall of red. They were headed right for me where I was staked out so I cast the fly out to be sure all of the line would clear on the money cast and just waited for them to get to me. As they came into casting range the school of Reds turned and gave me a full broadside target to cast to. First cast with a Red and tan slider was right on the money about 5-10 feet outside of the school. I twitched it once...twice....three Reds peeled off from the school and B-lined it to the fly and crushed it about 40 feet from the boat. When he felt the sting in his upper lip he turned tail and tried to catch back up with the school but It was not his lucky day. His two other buddies stayed with him the whole time until I got him to hand. First Red...27" took a quick picture and back in he goes. The school has moved and is by now way too far to chase down. I see them get to a shallow bar and make a wide circle and started coming back my way. When they came back by it was the same set up as before except with the strong ESE wind, I had to wait till they got a little beyond me to cast with the wind behind me to help launch the fly out. I moved a little after the second fish (22") to give me a head on shot when they were coming from either direction. Lost the fly on the third fish right at the boat. I was using a 15lb. flouro leader of about 6 inches which was entirely in his mouth. In the fight he wore through the mainline that was about 10lb. test. Tied on a new longer leader and a yellow/chart. slider and landed two more Reds out of the school up to 29" , all released, and pulled the hook on two other slot fish. By 10-10:30 the wind had gotten too bad to keep up with the fly rod and the whitecaps were starting so It was time to leave while I was ahead. Moved North to Town Beach and drifted back North on the now South wind. With no way to stay out of the wind, I put the boat on the trailer and called it a day. Back at the ramp by 1:30 -2 and drank a cold beer and ate a cheese burger at the Marina Grill. It was an Awesome day for me and provided a little redemption that I needed badly for my pride. Wish Baygator could have been there to help pounce on them. Sorry for the crappy pictures, the camera mount need a little attention.
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