Went out Saturday evening just to mark some spots in the Harbor where I was seeing lots on shrimp on the sonar. Found a bull red floating belly up, being carried by the incoming tide from the Grillage. No reason this fish needed to die. I could tell that it had been caught no less than 3 times based on the hook holes in the mouth. This was a strong fish. As you can see in the photo, while it was unable to swim down, the fish was propped and that probably marked the end of the story. Anyway, I grabbed it just in case there was still a small chance to vent the fish and get it down. It was dead. Used the opportunity to show my boys how to vent the big fish and left it for the sharks.
Meanwhile, I did mark some shrimp. Did not have my deep hole net on the boat. Decided to go ahead and get wet with the 7 foot net for a couple of throws. Would have taken forever to fill a cooler with the small, untaped net, but as you can see, the size was good.
Headed out Sunday morning early enough to see about some top-water action. Found a school of bluefish chasing bait and tossed a gotcha plug at them. They cooperated and hit it as soon as the lure hit the water. That was fun but we moved on in hopes of catching dinner. Set up in the Harbor under what seemed like great conditions: fast current, right on a good rip, over structure. Aaaand . . . caught a toad fish. Once the tide was nearly completely out, we picked up and headed for a deep hole up the Cooper. Caught a large stingray. Inshore trash-fish slam!!
Sounds like overall you had a good day!
But why consider blue fish trash? Blue fish are one of the best fighting fish for their size and taste good as well.
And lastly, I’ll never understand why people fish the grillage. All that is there is small BSB, sharks and large reds that you can’t keep and can easily be killed, as you pointed out.
Blue fish are fun to catch, I agree. But, I also consider them “trash fish”. I imagine the reason they get that title is because people are wanting to catch trout, reds and flounder. So picking up the blues is kind of a byproduct of the hunt. As far as fishing the Grillage, I’m guilty as charged. Now, I have lost a couple of anchors there so I swore I would never return. But with the new iPilot trolling motor, anchor is not necessary if the tide isn’t overly strong. The reason large redfish are targeted is for the fight, the pictures and bragging rights. I typically only fish for them in 30’ or less of water. But if deeper water is where I end up catching them, each is brought in quickly, vented and returned to the water. I always make sure to hold the fish at the side of the boat, in the current and wait for the fish to kick off to let me know it’s ready to swim away. Nothing wrong with fishing for reds in deep water as long as you are not careless about it. This topic has been beat down more times than the proverbial horse but will always have people that think it isn’t right.
2014 Pioneer 197 Sportfish
2012 Malibu Stealth 12 Kayak(SOLD)
“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles”
quote:Originally posted by bhr3
Found a bull red floating belly up, being carried by the incoming tide from the Grillage. No reason this fish needed to die. I could tell that it had been caught no less than 3 times based on the hook holes in the mouth. This was a strong fish. As you can see in the photo, while it was unable to swim down, the fish was propped and that probably marked the end of the story.
I’ll ask you what I asked the last guy saying the same thing that you just posted. There are natural mortality causes for young redfish as well as larger redfish. What qualifies you to diagnose the cause of death in this fish?
Is it possible it was caught and died after the release? Sure, but there are lots of other reasons that fish could have died. Why blame grillage fisherman?
“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017
Sea Tonic, basically I just consider blue fish a trash fish because I do not eat them. But I agree that they are super fun to catch. If I see a school, I’m not going to let them swim on by!
Sheaper, I was seeing them between 15 and 25 feet. The nicest casts were in 20 feet. Probably 2 hours before high water. At that stage of the tide, I’m sure there were probably plenty in more shallow areas.
Sailfish, Of course you are right that there is no way to say definitively how the fish died. I am not opposed to people fishing the grillage. I have fished there. But in my mind, the preponderance of the evidence points in that direction. (All sorts of things are possible, but only a few turn out to be likely.) All things considered, the fish appeared to be healthy, disease-free, had not been chewed on by a shark or dolphin. Plus, it is a fish that really likes to be down deep but was hit by a prop, which indicates to me that it was not on the surface because it wanted to be there. Given the tide, it is unlikely that the fish came from further inshore. And given that the fish had been caught at least three times, it seems like it must have been hanging out where some folks were regularly offering hooks. (Of course, it could have been further out at the jetties, etc.). I’m not looking to point any fingers. I think it is always worthwhile to point out on a site like this, especially given all the new folks in the area, that while you can go catch a monster/trophy fish more or less reliably at certain places, it takes a little extra effort to give that breeder fish the best chance to live and produce more redfish for us to catch. And I recognize that sometimes the fish dies despite best efforts.
I don’t have a problem with anything you’ve said, and on a neutral field, I think we agree probably on most things. The problem I have is that ignorant people will read what you wrote and decide that people can’t catch redfish without killing a large percentage of them. Its simply not true. That type of thinking gets twisted in many peoples’ heads. Some of those heads are responsible for creating our regulations. Its the type of thinking that has a lot to do with our ridiculous red snapper season believe it or not.
Besides using an olive and white clouser, I know two things when it comes to big redfish death:
They sometimes die at the hands of inexperienced and uneducated anglers.
There is a natural mortality of them at some rate that is unknown to us. DNR actually has very little information on the natural mortality of bigger breeder red drum.
That is all. Your information, while probably likely, doesn’t help our sport. It only provides ammo for the people in charge of creating our regulations that delight in bigger and bigger government.
