As I cautiously made my way down the bay toward the old Ft. Pickens pier, I hoped that the morning fog would lift soon. I had a charter this morning, and they weren't going to let the fog put a damper on our trip. We popped out of the fog near the pier and surprised a boater as he was setting his anchor. He said, "Where did you come from?" I told him we came from the east, but more importantly I asked him if the fish were biting. He actually had just gotten there, so we were all fishing blind, to say the least. We fished near the old pier for a few minutes, but didn't get any bites. I decided to move on to my next spot, and left the pier, which was soon out of sight. It wasn't too long and I was on the spot marking fish. On our first drift, I heard Joe say, "I think I've got a good one!" and after about 10 minutes he was right, he had landed his first ever redfish, a whopper at nearly 25lbs. Joe was all smiles for the camera. A few minutes later, Chris said, "Fish on!" and now he was battling what I thought was another red, but turned out to be a nice 6lb black drum. Nick was also hooked up with a black drum, a bit smaller around 5lbs. While this was going on, Kevin was waiting for his bite. He didn't know it yet, but his fish was going to be the catch of the day, a 42" Redfish!
It was a great trip today, even with the fog. Our tally for the day was 3 small undersized Gags, 2 undersized Red Grouper, 1 Scamp, 2 undersized Red Snapper, two keeper Black Drum, two Sheepshead and I lost count on how many missed hookups or how many broke us off. Of course, as always, all undersized or oversized fish were safely released.
Here's wishing you bent rods and screaming drags.
Capt. John
