Netted some nice shrimp before daylight as the gnats chewed me up. Set the crab pots and off I went. Live shrimp + trout honey hole = nada, not even bait stealing action. Live shrimp + red hole = nada. I did see a tail though. The fish wasn’t tailing, but was on the surface on the grass. Then to old faithful and almost skunked out until a bonnet saved the day. Went to my monster trout hole even though it’s way to early for them to be schooled up there and hooked into a nice upper slot red. I had a lot of pressure on him because I had two anchor lines in the water and grass and oysters were abundant. Got him the whole way to the boat, under the boat, around the boat and finally along side. The cork was against the side and he took one last dash = pop! Dag nabbit!I’ve been skipping the improved part of the improved clench not, but not anymore. Quickin rerigged, threw out and immediately had a bite, but no hookup. That was it for the day. By the way, fished Quantum Catalyst reels for 4 years until they gave out. Tried the Quantum Blue in search of a nice reel that wasn’t pushing 200 clams. That red was the first time I taxed the reel hard and it failed miserably. While fighting, I felt this impossible flex. After the fish got away, I did an inspection to find that the shank between the body and reel seat was bent about 10 degrees and was rediculously flexible. This is no salt water worthy reel. Perhaps I’ll try the Battle, or just buy more good reels. 12 keeper crabs completed the haul; a far cry from last weekend.
Good luck!
OC this is a nice read. Thankya
OC - I have been using a Battle this year and have no complaints…have caught some 30" reds on it and was impressed with the way it held up.
21’ Sea Pro CC Bay
115 Yamaha 4 stroke