It was a long anticipated trip for Marty and his son Parker. Marty has been fishing this trip for over a month on the THT site with PM's back and forth. I was worried about not being able to meet up to his expectations. While I was waiting for him to get there I went up to the restaurant and talked to the waitresses that were off today and heading out on a hunt.
We met at the dock and 12 year old Parker shows up with crocks (no socks). Crocks and socks ain't cool! I did not realize this until we were already on the river. I gave him paper towels and he used them for socks. It helped out immensely. It was very cold running on the water and they were not quite dressed for it.
I went back to where I fished last. We hit it for about 10 minutes but the conditions were not right. Tide was still rushing out. Marty had mentioned he never caught a bull red and the biggest Parker had ever caught was a 22 incher so this was the time to hit the beach.
Before I crossed the sand bar I drifted so I could change over my setups. As I was doing this Dad hooks up. There was a $20.00 bet on the first fish. As the fish is coming in the jaw jacking starts about the bet. He did not realize the power of a bull red and after about 4 or 5 minutes the fish pulls the hook. We are still drifting and it is Parkers turn. The fish was a challenge for this 12 year old but with both fish and fisherman near exhaustion my net ended the round and both went to their corners.
The shrimp was still out from our last stop. I had not put it away. This fish came in on a Vu Du Cajun Pepper shrimp. Dad owes somebody a nice crisp 20 dollar bill and I have the picture to prove it! Now that I had all the rigs set up I headed out for some serious bull red fishing. It was not long before Marty hooks up again and this time he finishes what he started. This is his first bull red ever. 38 incher is a good way to start.
From here on we continued to find some bulls. The bite was slow but we stayed on them until about 1:00. Unfortunately after this picture my camera battery died. I had left it on. My fault. Marty took a bunch of pictures on his phone and will get them to me. I hope he adds to this post on some of the other sites I post on. You can see the paper towel socks he has on. This fish was 35 inches.
During our bull red fishing we caught one with a 4 or h as one of it's spots. we also had one that had the tail skin extend all the way out to the end of the tail with a spot on it. What we know as a tail was on either side of this unusual growth. Not a day to mess up with the camera.
From there we went in to see if we could find something for the box. As I was heading too one place another guide was leaving. He picked up a few there but the bite changed and a lot of sting rays had moved in. I decided to hit another spot instead of remaining in that area. About 10 minutes later I put the pole down and we settled in for some meat catching.
It was slow at first with dad getting one now and then but by this time our day had worn on the 12 year old guy a bit. His tension span had been tested and his stamina was also waning. He was missing a few good bites but he hung in there. In the hour and a half we camped there we had all the action we could ask for. The highlight of the trip was a double of keeper reds. I must note that dad got beat out on this one. Parker's was noticeably larger than dad's. A few casts later we have another double. It was dad's turn to shine. We ended the day with a flounder for the box.
We did pick up a few rat reds but not many at all and I never had to measure any that I put in the box All our slot reds were well over 16 inches. Nothing questionable. We ended up wit 14 slot reds, 8 sheepshead, 1 black drum and 1 flounder. After all my worrying I ended up giving them the trip they had been looking for.
Sorry about lack of pictures.
Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM