The big red should be showing up any day now. A little reminder. Leave to gobo grips at home. Keep your hands out of their gills plates. Use both hands to support their body. Get your picture and get them back in the water. I preach to everyone hold your breath when you land the fish. If you need to breathe he does also . Remember it takes over 20 years for these fish to get that big. Y’all go get them and post us some pictures.
Good post and good reminders. Thank you
If people are so worried about them why target them?
I think it would help if it was illegal to take them out of the water.
If you leave a floater in the water it’s still a floater. Proper handling and catch and release has a low mortality rate. A little knowledge goes a long way and some people don’t know and bumping into info like this can inspire them to figure out the right techniques.
They show up in April in most the poplar spots and stack up when the water gets hot in July and hold there until September when some spread out to feed in better areas, like the beaches, bars and structure close to those areas that bait stacks up around during the fall bait runs. I haven’t made it to the harbor this year for them but I’ve got one close to 40 inch red this year at another spot. But I haven’t went for my inshore fish since March. I plan to catch a few big reds out the surf this fall which is probably my favorite way to catch them.