RJ Fishing October Fishing 10-20

RJ and I got up early on Sunday morning to chase the fish around the fort again.  After getting loaded up and in the water.  We were running to one of the keys off the Skyway bridge to look for some top-water fish as the tide was still falling.  There was lots of activity in the deeper water before the shallow area around the mangroves and we were thick into the lady fish right off the bat.  There is a reason they call them the poor man's tarpon because they are a heck of a lot of fun on top water.  We missed a couple of trout as well, but nothing was really doing and there was a little rain storm moving east just south of the fort right along the mouth of the bay.  It was building a little back north towards us and our first flat of the day about a mile south was covered in rain so we took off north to see if we could stay dry.  We ran a couple of miles and let the motor run a little to another mangrove island that I've seen people around from the Skyway.  Well we stayed dry and other than and a mangrove and a pinfish that was all that little run was worth.  So as the ran moved east we fired back up and headed back south and after a quick stop to check water levels we decided our best shot was back into the larger cut that we fished on Sat.

The difference a day makes though as we got into mangrove cut and there wasn't anyone but us an another kayaker.  Luckily the first oyster bar was open and even though there was not much water in there there was some activity.  The sun was just finally making an appearance as well so we could see quite a bit of the water around the mangroves.  We weren't really seeing much so we backed out a little and RJ wanted to get a little time on the poling tower so he figured it out pretty quickly and after we got back into the mullet he started pointing out redish.  There were a couple of groups of fish mixed in with the mullet and lots of big pushes and activity so instead of chasing the groups which were ignoring our shrimp on jigheads it was a time to fish a shrimp under a cork.  We anchored up and I got a shrimp tail hooked out in the mullet and it wasn't long before the cork just started swimming away.  It didn't really go down but it was moving way to fast to be a pinfish but not like a lady fish or other trash fish bite either.  I raised up on the circle hook and it came tight to a really nice overslot red.


Well that was it from that area so we moved around a little and saw some larger snook but they weren't really interested in the shrimp so with about 30 minutes left in our trip we head back to the same area that we found that keeper red on Sat.  Well the mullet were thick in there again and we got set up a little further away from the mangroves but close enough to cast to the broken water around the edges.  First cast out with a shrimp on a jig head got pounded by a perfect slot red.  

After getting that fish into the cooler we got another couple of shrimp out and I was happened to be busy when RJ was at the front of the boat when my cork rod started getting a bite.  RJ pulled a little and came tight to a twin of the fish I had just pulled in.

So two keepers in the matter of 10 minutes and a nice dance around the powerpole in the video!  We drifted a little further and saw a nice red cruising the broken water towards the mangroves.  I took a first shot at the fish and missed and RJ took a cast out in front on the moving red and a few seconds later the cork disappeared and the fight was on.  

Unfortunately, I screwed up my part with landing but it really didn't matter since we had some great video and knew that fish was easily 24 inches and solid.  By that time it was getting a little into the afternoon and we knew that RJ had a longer drive in the evening to get back home.  We did see two big reds on the way out along another shore line that I will be checking out at a later time, though.  All in all we had a great weekend and spent some much needed time for both of us on the water.  We caught plenty of fish, ate some fresh redfish tacos and had some great beer.  Couldn't ask for a better weekend.