Phil. W Kayak Fishing.: In Search of Bull Reds

With the lower temperatures coming and the leaves starting to turn the fall red drum run was in full swing. I dropped a leave chit for my birthday and got my tackle ready for chasing after some big bulls. The reports were lookin good with fish being caught out at the first island of the CBBT so I headed over to Chics and launched at the beach. Three days in a row of tough current and winds and no bites of any bulls (but several witnessed landings by boaters,) or even any flounderI was getting frustrated.

On the fourth day I headed out at sunrise with a forecasted wind of only 5 mph and over cast skies I was hoping to hook up. I grabbed some fresh mullet from the tackleshop and a freshpack of fish bites for spots and headed out. I got out to the island and started fishing for spots/croaker to use for bait on fish bites and caught a small flounder. I switched to a buck tail to see if any bigger flatties were sitting in the low washed out area near the pilings and managed two flounder but they were short of 16 inch keepers. I caught two small spot and had the mullet so I decided to try for some reds, I paddled over to the eastern side of the first island and let my first bait down on a 9/0 circle hook and 2 oz weight. The current was pulling me towards short and I had to paddle a few strokes just to keep my bait near the bottom. As I was drifting I seen a boater's rod double over and he started scrambling on deck, he had hooked up on a good size bull drum. Jay Brooks and Chuck Wrenn were also out in their kayaks lookin for some bull drum action. Jay landed a nice drum, bigger than one id ever landed. Then I seen The Man himself Kayak Kevin jigging and seen his rod double over, he was hooked up on a bull red! He fought the fish and landed a nice lookin bull. I was excited to see it that close in person and just knew it was my day to land one, they were in the area! I did a few more drifts with the mullet and then switched over to a live spot. I made one pass, nothing. Paddled back up to the front of the island and drifted back down, then I felt my spot getting jumpy, bzzt bzzt bzzzzzzzzt! A bite! I slid my lever out of free spool and in my excitement jerked the rod hard hoping to set the hook. Rookie mistake. Slack line. Circle hooks set themselves by steady pressure, and I had ruined my chance by jerking the hook right out of the fishes mouth, and right in front of two of the most well respected kayak fisherman in the area. I still had bait though so I was determined to get one and paddled back up to set another drift. Kevin seeing that I lost a fish gave me some advice to keep my reel out of free spool and let the fish pull down on the rod so I get a good set. After a few hours it seemed the fish had moved on and Jay and Kevin paddled on but I was hoping to get a fish before the tide turned. I kept using a whole spot and jigging for flounder while I drifted by. Then I felt it, the sudden jerk of somthing big on the end of my line, I quickly reeled up my buck tail and stowed my flounder rod and got ready for the hook up. I kept my rod bent and slowly reeled down and felt the weight increase on the line. Then it bolted, peeling line off of my reel and swinging my kayak around to face the island. I was hooked up! I felt my kayak lurching with each head shake. Then I felt the line go tight and felt hard snaps like someone playing the guitar on a string, and then nothing it was slack. I reeled up to see a frayed and clean cut 80 pound flouro leader. He must have rubbed down on the rocks and cut me off on an oyster or sharp edge. I fished a few more hours and managed some skates and more small flounder but no more excitement. It was definitely a learning experience and I cant wait to get out there next fall and land me a bull red!

The worst thing about that week is two days later (on my birthday) after attempting to fish in a 25 mph small craft advisory, making it to the first island and turning around and paddling back I turtled my kayak after landing on the beach.