Spring 2008 Archives
A Redfish Story
I planned to wake up Sunday morning head over to my favorite fishing pier and still have time to get ready for church. I had over slept, but I jumped up, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to my Skiff.
There was a slight breeze coming down the Santa Rosa Sound, which meant I would be fishing from the leeward side of the POL pier. It wasn't long before a young security policeman came down to the pier and wanted to talk. I was relieved to learn that he was not a bit concerned about security; he just wanted to see what was biting.
We talked about fishing along the Gulf Coast and he couldn't seem to get enough of our talking. I had a few nibbles and lost a minnow. I tossed a new minnow up beside the pier and then began to back away. Suddenly, the rod doubled up and I found myself see-sawing the line around the bottom of the pilings. Too much direct pressure and barnacles on the pilings will cut through even the braided line. The young fellow was hollering at me to use the trolling motor to back away from the pier, and to appease him I put my foot on the motor and backed away. After about 5 minutes of playing “Redfish tug-of-war” he was in the boat. I laid him on the tape measure in the bottom of the boat and he was about 23” long with broad shoulders.
I had my one keeper for the day, so I said goodbye to my new friend and headed towards home.As I motored around Parrish Point I did not know how life could get any better so I took some pictures. In short order, I had my Carolina Skiff back in the sling and the fish filleted and ready for dinner.
It sure feels good to be a Redfish Angler on the Santa Rosa Sound portion of the ICW.
--Submitted 4/25/2008 by John Lulue
The Weather Started Getting Rough...
The story begins one Sunday morning on the Texas gulf coast. My friends and I decided to take a short 7 mile fishing trip. It didn't take long before we had our fish and started back.
The weather report said the wind would be picking up after dark, but Mother Nature did not want to wait. We had only gone a couple of miles when the wind started blowing hard from the north. In another 15 minutes and the wind was at 25knots and pushing 5 to 7 foot wave right in our face. I run a 258 DLV with twin 90 Suzuki 4 strokes. I slowed down and tried to just keep moving toward the beach but it was just too rough to try and plow through. I turned to the east and tried to angle the waves and try to get to the next port down the coast, Freeport TX. We made it to about 20 miles from Freeport before we decided the 25 knot winds were too much and we called in the Coast Guard. They came to our aid quickly, the waves got worse, and 7 hours later we where pulling into Freeport.
After being towed in, there was 1 foot of water in the Skiff, but the boat was still riding on top. This is one of the main reasons I purchased this boat. It always floats no matter what. My Skiff performed great under the circumstances. It didn't dig into the waves; it stayed on the top and just rolled over them. If our T-Top had not broken we might have made more headway and maybe we could have made it to the protection of the jetties in a couple of hours.
Thanks for a great boat and THANK GOD FOR THE COAST GUARD.
- Submitted 4/16/2008 by Ricky Cox Houston, TX
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