Moved up to NC to go to school at UNCW. My dream of sight casting to skinny reds was at hand, and I’d knew I would start slaying them immediately.
No.
My slice of humble pie was delivered in the form of the most repugnant, despicable, and lecherous creature to infest the waters of Wilmington:
The Lizardfish.
So after catching hundreds of those and no redfish, I became pretty frustrated. I decided to push deep into the marsh and start actually using my kayak to get where no one could go.
Started seeing redfish after about my 6th expedition, took a few more tries to learn how not to spook them, and eventually my buddy Zach and I pulled our yaks over enough grass and crossed enough to become lost.
Funny how that’s usually when you tear them up.
Climbed up on a random mudbank parallel to an elbow in a small creek only to see 200-300 bronzeback flats tunas trapped with the tide. Zach and I tried to catch every fish in the school but got tired of them after releasing about 40-50 each.
Threw topwaters, redfish magics, DOAs, Gulp, and found they were hungry for anything. Kept two for dinner and yes, they tasted better than you could ever imagine. Made me really appreciate how a yak can perform when nothing else can.
[URL=http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/michaelparks995/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG951921_zpsmhxbf8kd.jpg.html]
[/URL]
[URL=http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/michaelparks995/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150326_183731_zpskamdo2du.jpg.html]
[/URL]
[URL=http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/michaelparks995/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150323_205137_zpskv1uzh5m.jpg.html]
[/URL]
[URL=http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/michaelparks995/media/Mo