Grouper and Bull Reds

[chumhead]

Well, the wind has been blowing 20 mph, so when my friends came over from Mississippi and wanted to do some fishing, we had to stay inshore. We hit one of my shallow water grouper spots and Virgil caught this guy in about 4 feet of water...about 50 feet from shore.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0019-1.jpg

I had caught this one in just about the same spot the week prior while fishing with light trout tackle......
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0006-2.jpg

Last night we moved over to a local bridge to see if we couldn't scare up a few bull redfish, and within 20 minutes I had 3 hooked up. One pulled off (I had made the switch from circle hooks/bait to jigs/gulp shrimp and didn't remember to "set the hook"). I handed the rod off to a couple of guests that had never played with these guys before.....

Brian with his smaller bull.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0021-3.jpg

and Virgil with his slightly larger bull.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0029-1.jpg

Both of these fish were caught on my new Okuma Salina 30 reel. I am amazed at how well this little reel handled these fish. The drag that this little reel is capable of producing really keeps these guys from running into the bridge structure and breaking off. This is a good way to break in a new piece of tackle!

chumhead

[Shakespeare]

Chum... do you ever catch a fish that weighs less than 25lbs??? ???

[chumhead]

Rarely in that spot.....up 'til Tuesday, a 36 incher was the smallest out of about 100 or so fish caught there. Tuesday I was fishing that same spot during the day and 'almost' landed one that appeared to be close to the upper slot, but as I reached over to grab him, he did a quick spin and removed the hook from his lip......no big loss as I don't like to keep redfish (yeah, they taste great, but I'd rather catch 'em twice than eat them once).

On Wednesday we ran to a spot a kid that used to work for me told me he used to catch reds and grouper fishing from a dock. As we pulled up, a man and woman were each hooking up with red after red. I asked if it would be OK for us to anchor off the dock and fish the other end, and the woman said "sure", they already had their limit and were just fishing for fun now. Inside of 15 minutes I had 2 perfect tournament fish measuring as close to 27 inches as you could get without going over, and very, very fat. Then the tide went slack and they all got lockjaw. Next time they have a local tourney, I might just have to go back and see if I can put one in the livewell and see what happens.

Best news of all, its good to see the red tide didn't manage to get everything! We've had a bad case of it here offshore, and some in the bay and I'm more than a bit concerned what the offshore bottom fishing will be like in the near future.

If any of you guys find yourself near Panama City, FL.....give me a shout. I'm always looking for a reason to go fishing!

chumhead

[Familymanof5]

Chumhead nice to here the tornado's didn't blow you away.

Keep Fishin
TOM

[chumhead]

Thanks!

The tornado activity was mostly to the west of us, but I bet we must have gotten at least 8 inches of (needed) rain in the last few days......it was a heavy, non-stop rain for at least 12 hours yesterday.......good thing I own a boat....I might need it in order to get to work tomorrow! Up 'til recently we were something like 25 inches behind in rainfall for the year, but I believe we made a sizable gain on that deficit in the last few days.

Needless to say, no fishing or playing with the boat today.

chumhead