Persistence Is The Name Of The Game

This afternoon I remembered that persistence is the name of the game when going after redfish in the salt marsh.

My wife and I spent most of the day looking for shrubbery to spruce up or Koi pond so I didn't get a chance to even think about fishing until around 5:30 pm.

Karen wanted to finish planting what was left of the hummingbird and butterfly attracting shrubs that we bought so I grabbed Elmo and a couple of spinning rods and headed for the "swamp".

There were rain clouds in the area and for most of the day it rained sporadically.  The air temperature was in the high 70s and there was a slight breeze over the water.

I decided to give Peacocks Pocket road a try and was wondering if Elmo and I were on a fool's errand today.  There were a lot of visitors and fishermen running around Peacocks Pocket road and the fish I spotted were spooky.

I started out tossing a Gold and Black back Chug Bug until the wind started to pick up and I couldn't make a good presentation.

I had a couple of hits on the Chug Bug from small sea trout but no keepers.

When presenting the Chug Bug became more like work than fun, I switched over to a gold
Johnson The Original Sprite Spoon smeared with Pro-Cure inshore salt water gel.

I had three hits in two locations that Elmo and I stopped at and finally decided to fish a culvert in a small pond where I knew redfish cruised this time of year.

Due to the rains this past week, the water levels in the marsh are up and the reds were foraging in the weeds for crabs, shrimp and other baitfish.

I targeted the edges of the weeds and drop offs next to weedy areas and was rewarded with a small sea trout.

I moved up to another culvert and cast the gold spoon into a shallow weedy area and after about four cranks of the reel handle was rewarded with a nice hit.

At first I thought it was a large sea trout but when the fish made it's first run I knew it was a big red.

 

The fish took off down the marsh canal and after a 15 minute battle and five more long runs I finally managed to "lip" the big redfish from the water.

I stumbled up the bank and took several pics of the redfish before releasing it.

The fish measured in at exactly 33" to the folded tail.

The redfish must have been really hungry because it inhaled the gold spoon.  I had a little trouble trying to get the spoon out of the fish's mouth but finally managed to gently push the barbs back through it's gills to free it.

I took a final brief video of the fish before releasing it.  It took a minute or so for it to revive but it finally managed to swim off into the deep marsh canal none the worse for wear.


It was getting late, Elmo was getting antsy and I was getting hungry so I headed for home.

Its' been a while since I landed a nice red but as they say; Persistence is the name of the game for redfish.

Till next time, Tight Lines.