Tweet
In an attempt to upgrade my big red for the Hooked Up summer slam tourney I headed south to the CBBT. Typically I'll catch a few 45"-50"+ reds each fall so in theory (which never works out, haha) this shouldn't have been too hard. After launching we immediately saw birds working. Assuming they were snapper blues I wasn't in a hurry to get there. As I pedaled up to where the birds were, the "blues" exploded again; this time skying out of the water. I assumed they were Spanish and immediately got excited because that would have put me in a tight slam race with the first place boat guy (assuming I could upgrade my 41" red). I clipped the bait rig off my 3000 Stradic and put on a drone. It was immediately crushed and broke off. After putting on a steel leader (Thanks, Gary!!!!) I landed my "Spanish"; a 22" Albie. That was pretty awesome on such a small reel.
After catching some bait and getting to our destination; I had my first bull of the day pulling the kayak around. Unfortunately he broke me off on some structure after a few minutes. It was pretty slow for a bit until my guest from Pittsburg had a bull red crush his jig. The only problem was it spit the hook. He made up for it about an hour later when he came tight on what we thought was a bull red. After towing the kayak around for 15 minutes I had a suspicion of what he had. Finally, after 30 minutes my suspicions were confirmed when it surfaced...a 51.25" cobia. He's a smallie fisherman from PA, so needless to say he was stoked.
It was really really hard to release this fish. Really hard. But he swam off unharmed. I had one more red hit my jig that never came tight (rough day on the reds), but it was all good; we made some memories and experienced two unexpected catches that we won't soon forget. Man, I love September.
After catching some bait and getting to our destination; I had my first bull of the day pulling the kayak around. Unfortunately he broke me off on some structure after a few minutes. It was pretty slow for a bit until my guest from Pittsburg had a bull red crush his jig. The only problem was it spit the hook. He made up for it about an hour later when he came tight on what we thought was a bull red. After towing the kayak around for 15 minutes I had a suspicion of what he had. Finally, after 30 minutes my suspicions were confirmed when it surfaced...a 51.25" cobia. He's a smallie fisherman from PA, so needless to say he was stoked.
It was really really hard to release this fish. Really hard. But he swam off unharmed. I had one more red hit my jig that never came tight (rough day on the reds), but it was all good; we made some memories and experienced two unexpected catches that we won't soon forget. Man, I love September.
Comment