A Bad Day Turns Good

I return almost all of my fish to the water. It’s not because I am a tree hugger, I am anything but. I just don’t eat fish. Occasionally I will bring a fish home if my wife or any family members ask, which was the plan as I launched into Hickory Pass recently. I promised Bonny a nice redfish on the grill for dinner and I expected no problems making good on that.

The water was slick as I launched in a low incoming tide. My thoughts were to head to my redfish spot first and get my keeper on the stringer, and then spend the rest of the morning finding the rest of the slam. As I was making my way to the backwater I noticed several tailing reds. I thought they were a sign of things to come.

 

I arrived at the mouth of a small creek and fish, mainly mullet, were moving around the flats. I began casting my Gulp shrimp as I worked my way into the opening. I paid attention to the open areas and points along the mangroves as well as any bait schools the meandered by. Several times I had fish follow the bait, but they wouldn’t commit. After an hour or so, I began to head out of the creek in search of more productive areas. On the way out, I fooled a small redfish into the kayak, a promising sign.

 

I peddled my Pro Angler deeper into Estero Bay while the tide came in. As the water flooded the mangroves, I continued using a Gulp along the mangrove edge. As time went by, I felt a little disappointed I hadn’t landed my keeper yet, but I kept moving along. On a promising looking point my bait was slammed and I set the hook. Excitement turned to mild disappointment as I reeled in and landed an undersized snook. He was scrappy, but not what I was looking for.

There are some small mangrove islands just across the bay from my location and I began to peddle over to them. As I crossed deeper water I tossed my lure in search of any stray reds that may be around. I ended up landing a few undersized trout on the way over.  By now it was past noon and getting quite warm. I tooled around the islands for a while, but it was becoming clear that bringing home a redfish may not happen. I decided to work my way back in.

On the way back to the launch, I hit the mangrove edges that were too shallow on the way out. The tide was fully in and beginning to recede. I was moving along a promising edge with clear moving water when my bait was inhaled by a large redfish. I had become so complacent and was absent mindedly tossing my bait along the edge that I was woefully unprepared for what happened next. The drag on my reel was set a little loose, made evident by the fish taking off across the flats. I hurried to tighten it down while feebly attempting to stay in control. The fish was taking me to school as he ran right by the kayak, taking a good look at me before pushing headlong into the mangroves. I tried to dip the rod tip deep in the water to keep the line out of the mangroves, but this fish was a pro and my line was cut before I knew what was happening.

I sat there for a minute and thought about what had transpired. I began to laugh. My mood had become so dark because I hadn’t caught a slot redfish that I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. I caught a slam, although small, and I had a very large red on the line for a while. There was a time when that would have made for a stellar day! When did it become more important to focus on keepers or photo fish? My mood lightened much as I headed back in. I ended up having a pretty good day of fishing and I promised myself I stop taking fishing so seriously and enjoy the time I spend on the water, no matter what.