All week this week, my fishing pressure has been building I had a hankerin'to go back for a repeat! I knew it would be hard to do later this weekend, so yesterday (Friday) after work, at 5 PM, I looked at the area weather radar
and at the St. Teresa beachcam,
and--well I just had to seize the time!
After grabbing a little gear, I headed south on Hwy 319 in 5:45 traffic. The narrow and broken band of storms I had seen on the radar came into to view as dark clouds ahead as I approached Panacea, and the wind had clearly picked up as I was crossing the Ochlockonee Bridge. As I drove down Hwy 98, the road was wet and I could barely see Alligator Point due to the rain falling there. I forged on.
Shortly, I got out of my truck, grabbed my gear, and made my way to the water. It was murky and high tide and churning. It was not raining here.
I traveled light and had little time before sunset, so I started with my "last resort:" cut mullet under a Cajun Thunder [CT].
As I made my way out into the water, I noticed a lot of surface action, just like the previous pre-hurricane outing--big swishes and jumping baitfish.
And just as before, I had very little harrassment of my cut bait: I only had a few little pecks and I caught only one small catfish [DS] as I worked my way out farther and fished for the first half hour.
Then the wonderful calm hit: the water smoothed as the sun began to set. The tide had receded some, and I was standing in 2 1/2 feet of water.
Against the backdrop of a creamy-orange sunset, reflected on the water, my CT began moving sideways, then submerged. I waited. I waited. I am pretty sure I had a circle hook on, a 2/0 Owner as that is my usual choice. But I began to put on some pressure to the line. And the reel started to sing! And sing! Surely I must have the drag set too loose, I thought, even for my 10 lb. test. But that was not the case. Something strong was taking my line out and out and out.
I started bowing the rod, and tried some pumping; and I began to worry if I might even get spooled. I couldn't believe how long this was taking, how I had not turned the fish yet.
Then it stopped and started sideways and stopped again and then just hunkered down on the bottom quite a ways further out. It was as if it was stuck on the bottom, resisting my pull, and so I began to think I had a big sting ray on. But then it was up and sideways, and out and back, and I knew it was a fish! And it was acting, to me, like a big redfish!
It fought and fought and fought, shaking and pulling as I took in line. I began to imagine bringing the big boy home, and our dinner on the grill tonight! I knew it was big enough IF it was a red. Then it broke the surface with a full body exposure, wagging to get free; and I saw that it was a red alright, and maybe it was too big!
Then, when it had pulled around into the 30" water, and was struggling against me about 25' away, it went nose-down and its entire tail came up and out, repeeatedly like a whale, as it nosed down. I thought maybe it was the biggest redfish tail I had ever seen, in the water.
Ultimately, I did get it up to me and I gently cradled it as I tried to measure it. It was more than 30 inches is all I could tell under the circumstances. It was big and broad and, under the now red sky, it was beautifully gold. And the fella had somehow swallowed the hook.
I cut the line as far down inside his mouth as I could, and then I held him right above that big tail and swished him back and forth and revived him. I let go and he swam off.
