Tight Lipped Redfish

There were some tight lipped redfish in the refuge today.

It was raining when I left the house at around 3:00pm and the air temperature was a pleasant 78 degrees.  By the time I got to the bridge, it had slowed down to a mist and as I entered East Gator Creek Road the rain had stopped entirely.

The wind was still a problem.  It was coming out of the east and making most areas choppy enough to make casting a chore.

I didn't plan on fishing till dusk this afternoon so I passed several spots I normally fish and headed to a large pond where I spotted some reds yesterday.

As I navigated the unimproved road which has become overgrown with grass, I ran into Ron, a fellow angler friend of mine who fishes the area regularly.

I asked him if he caught anything and he said he missed some reds and caught a black drum.  His friend caught an oversize 30" eight spot redfish that he showed me pictures of on his smart phone.

Since it was his first redfish catch ever, I told him to email me the pics and I would post them on this site.

We parted ways and I started fishing a gold Tsunami spoon at the pond I hoped had some actively feeding reds in it.

After casting into the wind without even a hit for a half hour or so, I decided to change lures and fish the somewhat sheltered marsh canal.

I tied on a Meps Timber Doodle that I never fished before.  I found it  in one of my tackle boxes and for the life of me, I don't remember ever purchasing it.

Anyway, it looks somewhat like a crab so I smeared it up with some Pro-Cure Inshore formula and started blind casting it to the opposite bank of the marsh canal.

It took a while to learn how to fish the bait correctly, you have to fish it very slow in order to make it look like a crab but after a few dozen casts, a redfish grabbed the lure and zipped down the marsh canal.

I thought the fish was solidly hooked but when it turned and started coming back to me, the line went slack and the fish was gone.

I wasn't happy about losing the redfish, I wanted a pic for this blog post but at least I knew that the bait works on reds.

I continued blind casting the banks and after three more stops, I had another hit from a redfish.  The fish picked up the bait as soon as it hit the opposite side of the canal and after a short run dropped the lure.

I checked the point of the single hook, got a file out of the truck box and sharpened it up a bit before continuing.

I continued casting several areas with no luck so I switched back to the Tsunami gold spoon.

The last spot I planned to fish was where the canal opened up to a small pond.  I saw some mullet scattering so I shot the spoon past the commotion and was rewarded with a hookup.

This redfish was way over the slot and had some shoulders.  It took off up the marsh canal on the first run and came back to me just as fast.  I was reeling fast to take up line and as it headed into the pond.

I tightened down the drag and made the mistake of tightening it too much.  I was trying to force the fish away from a brush pile when the rod snapped.

I was still trying to turn the fish with the broken rod, but it headed straight for the stick up and broke off my Tsunami spoon.

It was getting late and I was not a happy camper.  Three redfish hookups and none landed.

Today, these tight lipped redfish won the day.  Next time will be different.

As I was leaving the refuge, the wind died down and I had to take this pic of the beautiful sunset.

 

Back to Bass Pro Monday for another rod!

Till next time, Tight Lines.