St. Joe Bay 10/9/05
Posted: October 9th, 2005, 9:14 pm
The kids complained of being cold at the beach yesterday, so this morning I suggested a boat ride on the bay and maybe look for shells and sand dollars. So we launched from Presnells around 10:00 and headed west. It was pretty cool riding so I strategically stopped the boat near a spot Chalk and I like to fish to let the kids and the wife warm up while I tossed a jerk worm.
On my 2nd or 3rd cast a shark decided he needed my rig and cut me off clean. So, I'm down in the boat re-rigging another jerk worm and the boat is drifting a little. As I stand back up on the front deck, I realize we a surrounded by a HUGE school of mullet. I tell the kids to look at all the mullet and "Hey thats not mullet" we are surrounded by the largest school of redfish I have ever seen.
I quickly toss my jerk worm among the school and it's inhaled by a nice red. I yell to the wife and kids to get their lines in the water. Chaos insues, so I hand my rod to the wife and grab her rod. Toss out another jerk worm and quickly hook up. I hand this rod to my son and tell him to hang on. I take my son's rod and almost immediately have another red hooked. I handed this rod to my very bewildered 3yr. old daughter and tell her to reel as I keep 1 hand on the rod and 1 hand on her britches.
By this time my wife has landed my fish and makes another cast into the school and hooks up again. So with 1 hand on my 3yr. old, I help my son land his fish and then shortly thereafter we land my daughter's. We land my wife's fish as the kids are jumping up and down and 3 other redfish are flopping in the boat. It was sheer pandamonium, but I was ecstatic.
In all the excitement, we lost the school, but we didn't care. We had had our fun. We spent another hour chasing dolphins and picking up sand dollars. Back on the trailer by 11:30. Couldn't have asked for a better hour and a half. Can't wait until next time.
On my 2nd or 3rd cast a shark decided he needed my rig and cut me off clean. So, I'm down in the boat re-rigging another jerk worm and the boat is drifting a little. As I stand back up on the front deck, I realize we a surrounded by a HUGE school of mullet. I tell the kids to look at all the mullet and "Hey thats not mullet" we are surrounded by the largest school of redfish I have ever seen.
I quickly toss my jerk worm among the school and it's inhaled by a nice red. I yell to the wife and kids to get their lines in the water. Chaos insues, so I hand my rod to the wife and grab her rod. Toss out another jerk worm and quickly hook up. I hand this rod to my son and tell him to hang on. I take my son's rod and almost immediately have another red hooked. I handed this rod to my very bewildered 3yr. old daughter and tell her to reel as I keep 1 hand on the rod and 1 hand on her britches.
By this time my wife has landed my fish and makes another cast into the school and hooks up again. So with 1 hand on my 3yr. old, I help my son land his fish and then shortly thereafter we land my daughter's. We land my wife's fish as the kids are jumping up and down and 3 other redfish are flopping in the boat. It was sheer pandamonium, but I was ecstatic.
In all the excitement, we lost the school, but we didn't care. We had had our fun. We spent another hour chasing dolphins and picking up sand dollars. Back on the trailer by 11:30. Couldn't have asked for a better hour and a half. Can't wait until next time.
well, mines white, for now.... 
