I finally did it!
I caught a Red in the surf off of Bolivar Penisula!
It was a blast! I've been trying for this for years. Every year for the past 5 years we've gone down to the peninsula for a weekend in the summer. I have to work in fishing among the family activities. It has always been hard to dedicate time, when the time is right, to go fishing. The condition never seems to be right when I have time to go into it.
This year was different. The surf was very nice and flat. The color change was about 2-3 hundred yards out. Bait was everywhere. We could watch the blowups on the surface while standing on the beach.
I didn't take my kayaks this year because of our vehicle situation. I had to borrow my buddies Mainstream Jazz. This is a very small kayak and I wasn't wanting to take it out, but the conditions were just cherry.
First I rigged a circle hook right to my 12 lb mono. I put on a small finger mullet and paddled out. Right past the line where the color changes I casted. In about 30 seconds of casting I was visited by a big shark. He came right up beside my kayak and rolled to get a good look at me. I got a good look at him too and became slightly nervous. He was about as long as the kayak (He was probably a seven footer). 10 seconds later my rod bent heavy and went loose. He, or something, has taken my hook and bait. I didn't have a leader.
I paddled back and rigged the heaviest mono I had for a leader. So I tied on a 3 foot section of 40lb... tied on another circle hook, baited it with two small shad and paddled back out. I went straight to the same spot and casted. There were fish blow ups all around me. I wasn't sure it it was sharks or Reds. Within 2 minutes I had a fish on. The drag was screaming and I was being pulled around. I played with the drag back and forth until I felt like I was giving him enough to play but not to much. Keep in mind I'm not an expert here so I was fighting this fish with instinct and a few years worth of TKF reading.
I looked at my watch when I hooked the fish to know how long the fight was. After about 5 minutes I got my first look at this beautiful golden large head... I was pumped! I had my first Red on. He got his first look at me too... and he was pumped! The drag was peeling, he didn't want any part of me.
I was being pulled further and further out. The oil rigs were getting bigger and the beach house was getting smaller. I did this for 40 minutes before I was able to pull this beautiful fish along side the boat. He rolled over, so I scooped him up and placed him in front of me between my legs.
Wow, that was fun.. but now I had to paddle all that distance back. The Jazz served me well, but it isn't much fun to paddle long distances. It was long but I made it.
Later I found out that my wife was on the deck of the beach house with binoculars. She lost sight of me once I got so far out that she was worried enough to call the coast guard. It took a couple of my buddies talking to her to get her to relax. One of my buddies offered to her to rent a Jet Ski to go get me. They finally got a glimpse of me in the binocs and assured her that I was fine.
This fish will always be a great memory for me. He ended up being 38 inches long. I didn't weigh him.
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