The Saltwater Excursion...

[bassfisher02]

Well, woke up at 3:45AM this morning, loaded the boat, and set off to St. Marks for a solid day of fishing. Got on the water just before sunrise, somewhere around 5:45AM, and we headed to gather a few pinfish to hang under the bobber. while my stepdad fished for the pinfish, i threw a Manns grub on a red jighead to see what I could come up with. ended up catching a short and a few small grunts. After we had filled the livewell with baitfish, we set off to the first destination of the day... we decided to try our hand at some redfish since it was lowtide, and drifted over some oyster grounds. I caught a few more shorts on the grub, my stepdad as well with a Gulp shrimp, and then the distinctive sound of the rod/reel we had set up with a pinfish under a bobber zipped off. My stepdad set the hook and landed the first and only redfish of the day, measuring at about 23 inches, and sure enough he went straight unto the ice. We fished there for a bit longer, with no more luck, only the occasional short, then headed for deeper water. Tossing a Gulp shrimp on a jighead and caught yet more shorts, same with my stepdad. We ended up catching abunch of junkfish for the next hour or so, then while throwing the jigged grub my rob practically bent into an upside down U [thank god for ugly stix] and the fight was on. The fish stayed near the bottom, ripped drag off my reel like crazy, and produced that beautiful sound of a screaming reel. Wasnt sure what it was, at first I thought catfish, since it stayed on the bottom, then I saw a silvery flash and my stepdad and I agreed a Jack, a big one... the fight went on for a few more minutes, and everytime I gained some line it peeled right back off, still hadnt seen the fish, stayed on the bottom... well after yet another few minutes I finally pulled the fish to the surface, and it was dissapointingly a huge sailcat. Grateful for the great figth it gave me, but still nothing that would enter the boat. Anyways after another 45 minutes or so we decided to move again after catching only more shorts and ladyfish, we decided to go even deeper, and settled down in about 12feet. My stepdad was still rigging up a pinfish, and I had just thrown in my grub, and once again my road bent into a pretzel and the reel screamed, even louder than it did with the sailcat. After a 5 minute fight I brought the fish to the surface, nothing less than a 3-4 foot shark, but powerpro alone stood no chance against its razor sharp teeth, and it soon cut my line. My stepdad had pulled in 2 keeper trout in the next couple hours, while we both consistently caught shorts and ladyfish, seabass, lizardfish, and all sorts of others. We finally called it a day, with 1 red and 2 trout on the ice. Those 2 fights made it all worth while, even though it was nothing to put in the boat, it sure was fun to fight them.

[JB]

Sounds like a great day, my son moved to st pete and is going out tomorrow with my sister and brother in law out of tampa, hope they catch some!