Tweet
I went out yesterday evening to the flats in the backwaters of OC area hoping to find that some reds had finally showed up this year. A few of us have tried a handful of times over the last month and half or so and haven't found any yet; just some short stripers and lots of houndfish patrolling the area. It was slick calm out last night and I was hoping I'd see some surface activity or tailing fish to indicate the reds had arrived. I wasn't seeing much as I slowly made my way across the flats other than some baitfish and spooking the occasional ray so I just started casting a topwater as I moved around hoping I’d get something’s attention.
I’d been out about an hour and had a short bass, and had a couple others try and miss, and was starting to get the feeling that the reds weren't there when my topwater was crushed about 20 ft. from the kayak. I knew it had to be a red as I haven't gotten into any other species of fish on the flats with any size big enough to rip drag like this fish was doing. But as the fish broke the top again I could see it wasn't a red but instead a big blue! I finally subdue and land the chomper and it goes 31”. I was really surprised to see a blue of that size this time of year in the skinny water. I figured it was luck, just a lone fish roaming around, right? About an hour later another blue crushes my topwater and when it hit I saw at least 5 other big swirls take off in different directions. There must have been a school of them. This one ended up being smaller at 25”, but still a respectable sized blue. It was getting close to dark by the time I released the fish and I couldn’t find where the other fish scattered to, so I headed in.
No sign of reds out there but I’ll take some big blues any day!
P1030834.jpgP1030843.jpgP1030846.jpgP1030839.jpg
Looks like the one blue may have gotten a little too close to a shark at one point...
I’d been out about an hour and had a short bass, and had a couple others try and miss, and was starting to get the feeling that the reds weren't there when my topwater was crushed about 20 ft. from the kayak. I knew it had to be a red as I haven't gotten into any other species of fish on the flats with any size big enough to rip drag like this fish was doing. But as the fish broke the top again I could see it wasn't a red but instead a big blue! I finally subdue and land the chomper and it goes 31”. I was really surprised to see a blue of that size this time of year in the skinny water. I figured it was luck, just a lone fish roaming around, right? About an hour later another blue crushes my topwater and when it hit I saw at least 5 other big swirls take off in different directions. There must have been a school of them. This one ended up being smaller at 25”, but still a respectable sized blue. It was getting close to dark by the time I released the fish and I couldn’t find where the other fish scattered to, so I headed in.
No sign of reds out there but I’ll take some big blues any day!
P1030834.jpgP1030843.jpgP1030846.jpgP1030839.jpg
Looks like the one blue may have gotten a little too close to a shark at one point...
Comment