Running with da Bruiser Bull Reds (40"+) at Cameron Jetties

[MathGeek]

Finally made it out again yesterday. Hit Holly Beach Seafood for the crabs and made it through the west cut (Cameron Jetties) at 3:00 PM. The end looked a bit rough with the 10 mph SE wind, so we anchored 50 yards S and 50 yards W of the cut.

Nothing happened for the first 30 minutes, but the wind was gradually pushing us SSE and just as we got a few yards S of the cut, my crab went off, and I could tell it was a big one. After a 15 minute fight, I put a 41" bull in the boat, my personal best. We let out 20 feet more anchor line to stop the anchor drag, and then my daughter's crab (front of the boat) started going nuts. She had one bruiser break off, and two other hooks rip out, complete with lips and other tissue left on the hook. Other than the break off, which got into the rocks (through the cut), my daughter was successfully fighting the fish to the boat, and then the fish were going nuts when they saw the boat, and the hooks were ripping out. It happened a couple of times to my sons also. Finally, we got one of these bruisers (45.5" long, est 39 lbs) into the net. This fish was the biggest bull red we've put in the boat.

All together we had 5 fish lost and put 2 in the boat. From the ones we saw and how they fought, all were likely 40"+ bruisers. We were impressed by how much harder these guys fought compared with the 36" to 40" fish that have made up the bulk of our bull redfish haul this year: pulling really hard and fast on the first run, then just going crazy when they see the boat.

All we managed on mullet was a gafftop. All the monster bull red hookups were on cracked crab or whole crab. My daughter was really jazzed. All the action was between 3:00 and 5:30 pm. The wind had picked up to 15 mph and looked like it was moving more out of the south. We noticed sizable swells (2 ft) building in the channel, and wanted to get back to the boat ramp before things got ugly.

We hope to hit it again on Sat AM (9:30-10:00 at the pier ramp, east side) if anyone wants to buddy boat it.