Sea birds diving over rampaging reds and fleeing baitfish
On launching the next day from the Yacht Basin boat ramp, we found that lower than normal tides kept us from motoring into the bay forcing us to run to Stingray Marina instead. Making the turn at Stingray we throttled out into the bay steering towards a distant grass-line and into the amazing scene we were about to experience.
After spotting the bird and feeding activity we throttled down… dropped in the troll-motor and slowly moved towards the action being careful not to spook the fish. Not knowing what species were feeding, thoughts of trout entered my mind at first, but our first cast produced a redfish, with the second, third, and fourth casts giving up redfish as well.
Marrauding Redfish popping surfacing baitfish
After inviting Rick and his “Birthday Gal” wife Nancy Bauchman (of Miss Nancy’s Bait Camp) along for a mornings worth of angling, we launched into the chill of winter that would soon have us warming up from some of the HOTTEST fishing action anyone could ever hope to encounter on a cold wintry day.
Birthday Gal with her 28incher- our largest keeper red of the day
All we had to do was cruise up and down the yardage of feeding gulls with our troll-motor set on slow, casting spoons, catching reds, and dodging birds. The size of the reds varied from 30-plus inches to the rat reds below the keeper slot of 20-to-28 inches, with many redfish within the slot. After 2 hours of this action without another boat in sight, we managed to box 3 limits (9 reds) measuring from 22 to 28 inches, from which our birthday gal, Nancy Bauchman, landed the 28incher, our largest keeper of the day.
Silver spoons were our clincher baits for this action and not the normal redfish gold. We found by reeling them subsurface on a steady medium speed, then popping (rod jerks) every 3ft to allow our spoons to flutter down, the reds would pick up on the falling, flashing spoon resembling an injured shad and slam it.
The Bauchmans with 9 reds weighing 70 lbs
We boated 27 reds, but lost just as many, losing several huge reds to straightened hooks and busted lines. About 15 of those 27 reds marked the 20 to 28inch keeper limit, from which we boxed our 3 person/9 redfish limit weighing over 60 lbs. This was very exciting action with a memory enjoyed and an experience shared.
Finally, after two hours of this heavy redfish action another boat of anglers arrived to get in on the action, so we decided to leave. Besides we were tired and very hungry. Heading back in for the boat-ramp, laughing and high five-ing as we went, we were excited and in awe of catching so many fish, that is, until suddenly realizing that we would have to clean all those reds!
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