St. Marks reds & sharks
Posted: August 29th, 2011, 10:38 am
It was time for another weekend excursion to St. Marks for Capt. Rob, Bartman & Bullet. We departed Shell Island just as the sun was rising on Saturday a.m.. Arrived at bait spot & proceeded to load the bait well with good-sized pins & some LY’s. An informal straw poll determined the destination for fishing. It turned out to be a great decision. Within minutes of arrival, the 3 of us were all into the “stacked up” redfish around the oyster bar we were wading. For well over 2 ½ hours, we caught redfish…..smallest ones on Saturday were 20” in length. We kept 3 of the 26” reds we caught, turned loose approximately 30 slot reds (one overslot).
It didn’t take long to realize that we had other company on the bar besides the reds. Bartman astutely commented that when a redfish mimics the behavior of a hooked ladyfish, there are large predators after them. Numerous sharks of different sizes were also patrolling for the reds. There were plenty mullet around for them to feed on.... but just like us, they were interested in the reds.
Sunday a.m. was a repeat performance of Saturday with a few less reds and a few more sharks. Let me tell you, it is pretty impressive to see the gray suits come out of the water chasing a hooked red. This required a modification of our fighting / landing technique on the reds. Drags were tightened, more horsing was involved and when you saw the large wake behind your red, a moonwalk back up on to the oyster bar was in order.
All in all, a banner weekend.
I had a little trouble with the pics…..hope they work.
It didn’t take long to realize that we had other company on the bar besides the reds. Bartman astutely commented that when a redfish mimics the behavior of a hooked ladyfish, there are large predators after them. Numerous sharks of different sizes were also patrolling for the reds. There were plenty mullet around for them to feed on.... but just like us, they were interested in the reds.
Sunday a.m. was a repeat performance of Saturday with a few less reds and a few more sharks. Let me tell you, it is pretty impressive to see the gray suits come out of the water chasing a hooked red. This required a modification of our fighting / landing technique on the reds. Drags were tightened, more horsing was involved and when you saw the large wake behind your red, a moonwalk back up on to the oyster bar was in order.
All in all, a banner weekend.
I had a little trouble with the pics…..hope they work.
I hope y'all didn't feed too many sharks. Make them work for their dinner like you did.