ACE Basin Redfish

Drove down to the ACE Basin on Sunday to fish with a good friend that knows those waters well. We nestled into a small creek, not far from the big river, to fish the incoming tide against a rock bank. It was windy, but a few small reds were hungry for cut squid.

We moved around quite a bit after that. Always fun to explore new areas, especially when they are that beautiful, but I highly recommend not being alone, and having someone with you that knows the area. Navionics charts are useless there and creeks circle back on themselves like twisted up snakes.

We pulled a father and his sons back to the boat ramp. Hope they had a better rest of the day!

At one of the spots, we were into catfish and had the idea to create a fish fry. But as soon as we started keeping them the bite turned off. Released the two better sized ones to a willing fisherman at the boat ramp. Hope they were tasty!

But the main event was a 31" redfish caught next to the grassline on an artificial. Green 4" StreakZ on a weedless EyeStrike jig to be exact. The fight was incredible on a med-light rod spooled with 10 lb. braid and tippet. My friend said I was crazy to use such light tippet, but we safely landed and released this beautiful fish anyway.

I was just reading penfishn’s post before this and it made me realize that it’s the memory of this fish/day that I will keep with me. Nice to have photos to share, but nothing else really matters.

Sorry for the long-ish post, but I like the forum and wanted to contribute.

#FEITCLUB
Key West 177SK
Yamaha 70hp

Great story and catch! Love the ACE Basin. Haven’t been back there in a while…


1966 13’ Boston Whaler “Flatty”
2018 Sportsman Masters 207
www.eyestrikefishing.com #predatorsstriketheeye

What a gorgeous fish

Beautiful color nice fish!!

Fish, Sleep, Repeat

Nice fish, Justin!

“There is nothing better we can do for our future than to teach our children well”
Cracker Larry

That’s what it is all about! Thanks for sharing!

Fishing Nerd

“skilled labor isn’t cheap, cheap labor isn’t skilled”

Nice Red and good read.

“Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education”

18’ CC SeaFox

Beautiful fish! Congrats! Thanks for sharing.

“You don’t always know where you stand till you know that you won’t run away.” ~Slipknot

Thanks for the friendly replies! I worry about getting the “you’re doing it wrong” comments that sometimes go around, but it is cool to hear from the guys (and girls) that I mostly just follow with anticipation. Plan on fishing again this week and hope to have a fish tale worth sharing. Good luck to everyone else that gets out on the water!

#FEITCLUB
Key West 177SK
Yamaha 70hp

Incredible fish. I hope to read another story like this soon

Anything that pulls drag, right?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJapLk9rt91Jop89mxRU7eg?