I’ve been spending the winter trolling for striper, but with the water temps rising I figured it was time to return to the salt. A buddy I work with has never been on a boat and his personal best catch consisted of a 12 inch largemouth.
We launched out of shem around 0700 and was surprised to see that the harbor was flat. 58 degrees with 64 degree water temps created some optimism. We started fishing the falling tide around oyster banks with live minnows. After a few spots and 2 hours of fishing we didn’t even get a hit. We jumped around a bit and finally found a grass bank that began producing. My buddy caught his first red at 16 inches. We managed 7 reds between 16 and 23 inches in the next hour. He was excited but I wanted him to reel in something big so we decided to move on in search of a big red. We tossed frozen finger mullet and shad under some docks. The crabs picked us clean. I caught a small pinfish on cut shrimp and decided to put it under a dock. In less than 3 minutes the rod doubles over. My buddy struggles to grab it out of the rod holder. After a good battle we managed to put the red in the net. My buddy was amazed at his catch, a 31 inch red. 10 minutes later the other rod doubles over. He fought it for a few minutes but it broke the leader on the dock. We decided to call it a day after that. We put 2 slot reds in the cooler and were satisfied with the trip. The wind started howling and the ride back was interesting. It’s always fun to see someone catch a big fish for the first time.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Malibu Stealth 12
2008 Carolina Skiff JVX16/ Yamaha F60