I want to start today's report with a remembrance of the victims of 911 and the brave men and women who fight for our freedom. As Americans we are blessed to have these brave people keeping us safe.
I had the pleasure of once again having Dan and Dave onboard today. These guys are a blast and always great to spend a day with. The guys helped me gather bait at sunrise with Dave chumming and Dan tossing the bait in the live well. It was a treat having the help! Baits still small but getting better.
Big Redfish was today's target but needing the tide to rise we started by targeting Trout Sharks and Ladyfish. The action was hot from the begining with numerous species hammering our live baits. We switched to lures and had fish flying everywhere.
As the water level rose we moved into a no motor zone and started the hunt for big reds. I hadn't been in the tower for 3 minutes before we saw our first redfish. We quickly deployed cut ladyfish on 2/0 circle hooks. Within minutes a drag began to spin as the red ran hard 15-20 only to have the line go limp. Then we lost another red all very disappointing.
Now Dave's rod was bent more than double and the red was making a hard run. Turned out Dave had a huge shark hooked and the fun had just begun. Not wanting to have a empty spools we started to follow the shark. After several minutes the line finally broke.
Back in the tower it took another 10 minutes to get on a large school of monster redfish all over 30"s. We fired bait after bait into the school with no success. We got on the school 3 times before things heated up. Everyone was hooked up all around. First redfish in measured 34" and had very broad shoulders. Look for this great action to continue for several weeks.
Captain Steven Markovich