Early 7-10-11 (Keaton area)
Posted: July 11th, 2011, 11:18 am
I worked in the field down around the beaches this past Friday afternoon. At one place, we noticed a huge school of mullet piled up in a bay, and stopped to watch them for a minute. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a mixture of mullet and redfish. We talked to a guy who lives right there who said they had been in there every day lately. Although I knew I wouldn't have time to go Saturday, I knew exactly where I'd be Sunday mornin. 
I got to the ramp just before 7:00 and had found my school of redfish by 7:05. I shut down the motor and decided to ease up on them with the trolling motor. I had been up the night before drying out my trolling motor with a hairdryer, but apparently it still had some moisture in it, because it kicked on and almost flipped off the bracket as soon as I hooked the 2nd cable to the terminal (It does this when I leave it out in the rain for too long and moisture accumulates in the head). I decided to scratch the trolling motor idea and use a paddle. The paddle was making too much noise and the reds were keeping their distance, but I finaly managed to position myself so that I'd drift right over them.
My first hit was HUGE! Something took my grub and ran like crazy peeling off a good 15 or 20 yards of line. My first though was "huge redfish!", but later I saw what I'm pretty sure was a tarpon terrorizing the mullet, so I figure that might be what I had. Whatever it was, it came unhooked after about 5 seconds. A few casts later I had a 17-18 inch red. Got him unhooked and paddled back over to pick up a little bit nicer one (22"). Got him unhooked, paddled back over and had a little bit nicer one (24"). This one had swallowed the hook, so I decided to bring him home for dinner. After retying, I caught another little guy on my next cast. By the time I got the hook out and released him, I looked up and my redfish were nowhere to be found. The mullet were still jumping, but no redfish. I decided that since it was so hot and I had already had so much fun, I'd go ahead and head on in. When I turned to go, I saw a nice rainbow to top off my morning! Got my boat loaded, and was pulling away from the ramp at 8:15. Can't beat that
I got to the ramp just before 7:00 and had found my school of redfish by 7:05. I shut down the motor and decided to ease up on them with the trolling motor. I had been up the night before drying out my trolling motor with a hairdryer, but apparently it still had some moisture in it, because it kicked on and almost flipped off the bracket as soon as I hooked the 2nd cable to the terminal (It does this when I leave it out in the rain for too long and moisture accumulates in the head). I decided to scratch the trolling motor idea and use a paddle. The paddle was making too much noise and the reds were keeping their distance, but I finaly managed to position myself so that I'd drift right over them.
My first hit was HUGE! Something took my grub and ran like crazy peeling off a good 15 or 20 yards of line. My first though was "huge redfish!", but later I saw what I'm pretty sure was a tarpon terrorizing the mullet, so I figure that might be what I had. Whatever it was, it came unhooked after about 5 seconds. A few casts later I had a 17-18 inch red. Got him unhooked and paddled back over to pick up a little bit nicer one (22"). Got him unhooked, paddled back over and had a little bit nicer one (24"). This one had swallowed the hook, so I decided to bring him home for dinner. After retying, I caught another little guy on my next cast. By the time I got the hook out and released him, I looked up and my redfish were nowhere to be found. The mullet were still jumping, but no redfish. I decided that since it was so hot and I had already had so much fun, I'd go ahead and head on in. When I turned to go, I saw a nice rainbow to top off my morning! Got my boat loaded, and was pulling away from the ramp at 8:15. Can't beat that
Not sure I could have left that early with biting fish. I probably would have been tempted to find that poon.