The family and the dog hit the beach Friday for some fun. We fished the out going tide and had a good day. When we arrived an hour after high tide it looked fishy with birds dive bombing into our spread and a couple of bars and troughs to work. First fish on within 5 minutes. It was a 24 inch lady, she was pissed off. Shortly after several blues, whiting,rays and one big shark run- that bite off our red rig after about 50 yds. The bite shut down for a while with us only getting one huge whiting that was 13 and a half inches. First pic( feel free to correct me if I called it wrong) it kind of looked like a small red. Several more hours went by with little action, and my wife and boy got bored and made the long walk back. I wish they would have stayed. I felt good about the way things were going and looked and wanted to stay and see if I could get a red. After tide went out a little more Grace and I made our way through a trough out to the outer bar.In the blink of an eye upon reaching the outer bar the bite turned on hard and strong. Within an hour and twenty six minutes we landed 4 decent reds and 3 nice black drum. We didn’t get a pic of one blk drum because he escaped when I was washing the sand off him for a pic. We also lost another" big" red that straightened out the snap on a pre-made store bought rig on our bait pole. It was a reminder to me that those things can handle but so much. I was taking it easy, but he didn’t. Unfortunately he hit my small set rod. Most fish were caught on a half a fresh large shrimp from the seafood market. Wishing the best of luck to all, God Bless.
Also noticed an open snap swivel in the last Red pic, I use those kind on everything. After you put the hook on, pinch it shut with some pliers. Then it can’t “unsnap” during a fight.
To be honest Mr. Parker I didn’t look. I will have to say you got me using shrimp more often has produced more variety ,and allot more black drum. I’ll never look back. Thank you Sir. I got another pic of the fish on his belly where he looks kind of like a whiting. If it was a whiting, that was probably my best Y’all check this other pic out and tell me what it was, I couldn’t figure it out. He looks small on that cooler but was pretty good size if he was a whiting. I don’t know. Holly crap you are right, that bugger almost got away too. You just pinch them shut with pliers to reinforce.
For sure Whiting (Gulf Kingfish), nice one. And yep, Shrimp WILL catch just about everything. I used up almost 4(four) pounds this weekend. Save the stinky cut bait and Mullet for the fall.
nice black drum! some of those reds look like they might have been just inside the slot, we caught several in the surf on Saturday that were all 25-28" or so. tons of black drum too (3 of us stopped counting after 50), but every one of them was between 10 and 14". seemed that both species were only represented by single year classes hanging out where we were.
~13" is about as big as I’ve seen on whiting so far this year too, I kept 3 or 4 that were at least a foot on saturday… release to the grease!
Thanks everybody. Walkman good to hear from you, where you been? I do use the big coast lock swivels on all my other bigger 9ft red poles with a Carolina rig, 50 mono liter ,#5 light circle owner hooks and never have lost one because of hardware failure or break offs. The pole that the snap opened up on was essentially an 8ft bait rod that I use to catch smaller fish with pre-made store bought rigs. I then cut them up to deploy on my larger set ups for reds. Mr. Parker has got me using more shrimp instead of squid, and it’s now putting larger fish on my bait rods:smiley: A good problem to have. I am still learning every time I go out and will either crimp them down like Mr. Parker has said, or make my own liter. They don’t break, just a hook and 50lb mono, no crimps to pull out. Were lucky to have good folks like David around who are willing to share what they have learned. Not everyone is so willing to do so.
Thanks everybody. Walkman good to hear from you, where you been? I do use the big coast lock swivels on all my other bigger 9ft red poles with a Carolina rig, 50 mono liter ,#5 light circle owner hooks and never have lost one because of hardware failure or break offs. The pole that the snap opened up on was essentially an 8ft bait rod that I use to catch smaller fish with pre-made store bought rigs. I then cut them up to deploy on my larger set ups for reds. Mr. Parker has got me using more shrimp instead of squid, and it’s now putting larger fish on my bait rods:smiley: A good problem to have. I am still learning every time I go out and will either crimp them down like Mr. Parker has said, or make my own liter. They don’t break, just a hook and 50lb mono, no crimps to pull out. Were lucky to have good folks like David around who are willing to share what they have learned. Not everyone is so willing to do so.
I have to admit I’ve been trolling here work has been super busy, also had side projects going on (hand carved leather belt and holster) so its been hard to get time to post on here. I did manage to get out this past weekend though…going to make a late post.
cut bait and Mullet for the fall. 
And yes most def. a