Karen Catching A 38 Inch Redfish In The Swamp

These pictures of Karen catching a 38 inch redfish are only part of the story. The video is the best part. Trust me on this.

This afternoon my wife suggested we take Elmo and Odie to the "swamp" for a road trip.

It was around 4:30 pm when we finally got the dogs and some rods loaded into the truck, and shortly thereafter we were trucking down Peacocks Pocket Road towards the kayak launch.

Karen has been working on her stained glass projects and hasn't been going fishing with me lately, but today she decided to see if she could catch a redfish.

As we drove past the second set of culverts at the kayak launch, I spotted Glenn,  a subscribe to this site and some of his friends fishing in the Indian River.  They had about six rods set out in holders with mullet and cut baits for redfish.

When I asked him if they were catching anything, he reminded me that we had met on the fishing pier one evening as I was compiling a fishing report.  He noted that the shrimping for the most part  has been pretty lousy for the past couple of years.  He also said they had caught several redfish in the slot and a few that were oversize.  The redfish bite has been on fire this month and today was no exception.

We parted ways and headed down Peacocks Pocket Road to find a spot to fish.

Karen wanted to fish an area where she caught some reds this past summer, but I told her they were probably not in the area during this time of the year.  But, we stopped briefly at the spot and set out a couple of rods with cut ladyfish for bait.

After about a half hour or so with not bites on the chunk baits or the topwater XPS Slimdog I was pitching around, I decided to move to a spot where I caught fish the past couple of days.

We pulled up to the area and the culverts were still open and flowing.  There were some mullet in the area so I decided to give it a try.

Karen wanted to try a piece of shrimp, and I baited up with a ladyfish head.  I set her rod out at the culvert so she could get the best shot at a red, and I moved down the road to try another spot.

After a few minutes, Karen said she had a fish on and thought it was a redfish.  I didn't have my camera with me so I pulled out my cell phone and started to video the action.  The results are below for your enjoyment.

The fish she had on was a bruiser.  The red took off down the marsh canal and went underneath some brush on the bank.  I told Karen to keep the line tight and keep pumping the fish in, which she did well.

I can truly say it took some real dedication on her part to land this redfish.  It was tangled in the brush and would not have survived if Karen had not literally went out on a limb to retrieve the fish.

When I finally got the fish to the bank, we measured it at a hair over 37 inches without the tail being pinched.    I had to coax her to hold the fish for a couple of pics and then spent a considerable amount of time reviving the redfish at the open culvert.

Watching Karen catching a 38 inch redfish this afternoon was a blast,  and she fought the fish like a pro.   But landing the fish was beyond a doubt the best part of the outing.

Till next time Tight Lines.

P.S.  By the way, I missed three redfish today, and landed none.  I guess that's why they call it fishing.