Then we saw some bigger tails mixed in with the mullet and lucky for me I got my lady fish back from the last catch so I threw it back out and not a few seconds later I've got a bit stronger tug this time around!! A nice 29" red comes aboard to have his picture taken!! This day is starting out all right!
So at this point the sun is up and its getting crowded. I noticed a few of the boats piling up and wandered over to see if they found what we were all looking for. Sure enough the school of bigguns has shown itself and are actively tailing, but are they eating? Doesn't seem like anyone's hooked up yet, more like they are just chasing them around, so I sit back and watch for awhile waiting for my opportunity to sneak in a cast without getting in anyone's way. Well all it took was one perfectly placed cast with a small chunk of lady fish, and I nabbed the first hook up. Funny cause as I'm being towed away, a guy in a flats boat says "That's it I'm buying a Kayak"!!!. The battle didn't last long, and with this heat you don't want to be battling these breeders to long, otherwise the lack of oxygen in the water due to high water temps will due serious harm, even kill the fish. So I dropped the hammer, turned the yak sideways, and got him yakside within 15 minutes. A few pictures and a lengthy revival and this nice 40"+ red swam away to produce more lil baby reds!
A good bunch of the boats who were not getting any hookups departed, which left myself, a guide and his 2 clients, and another boat with some weekend warriors on the school. I was actually very surprised that we all worked together to keep each other on the school, and we all had multiple hook ups and landed plenty of over slots. So the schools swimming back and forth along the shallow grass edge feeding pretty actively. I decided to give an artificial a try and loaded up a gulp 4" peeler crab in new penny flavor. Waited it out for about 15 minutes so I could get another perfect sight cast on them, and bam hook up on artificial! Sweet! Not as big as the previous but still a nice fight, and he was happily revived and released as well.
I took a time out and watched the capt work with his clients for awhile, not sure who he was, young kid but definitely a great guide. Positive attitude towards his client, and the other fisherman in the area, and he put his clients on many over-slot fish.
So the school broke up into a bunch of smaller pods and everyone kind of disbanded working their own school. I had treble hooked myself a mullet earlier so I cut him up, and got set up with a nice mullet chunk. They didn't seem to be feeding as actively and I had to work for this hook up, but 30 mins later I had another fish hooked, and all though he was much smaller then the previous 2 I figured great way to end the day. I get him yakside and noticed he's got some battle wounds. Looks like someone ran him over with a boat, and some how even with that huge chunk of him missing he's still alive and ticking. I wanted to be extra careful with him, so quick photo, and some revival time, and he ran away happy to have survived again!
All in all a great day on the water, and hey sometimes that place ain't so bad!
