Great First Day in Centipede Bay
Finally, after several false starts, we got out. The day started off great, no flat tires, motor started and the boat did not sink at the ramp... Just a little sarcasm, since victories have been more challenging lately.
Back to the what really matters... I have a few reports of whitebait in Aripeka but I was not that motivated to run down to Aripeka and hunt whitebait. I checked last year this time and I would look for whitebait and end up with mud minnows. So I stopped by the island on the way to the bay and sure enough there where big schools of mud minnows. More than I would use in a year. So one throw of the net and we had about 30 nice size mud minnow.
Since I had not been fishing for a while, I figured it would be best to start out with a reliable spot. Just as I get there and set the pole anchor I noticed 20 big redfish sitting about 30 feet in front of the boat.
So I grabbed the only rod with a hook on it... (As the last posting "getting ready" well I never finished getting ready 100%) Tossed a bait out and about 5 seconds later the fight was on. Now I started to feel like the first day of school, wondering what I forgot, as the line peeled out from the untested drag. Of course that sent the rest of the redfish running in all directions. Fortunately they only went about 100 ft and stopped. Once I had the first fish in the boat, I though it might be too big given the fight, but it came in at 25 inches, which made my stomach smile...
To save a little time while I could still see the fish I left the fish in the net and tied another hook on the second rod. And 5 sec later we had another fight. This was a bigger redfish and I thought for sure it was too big. But it was right at 27, I almost let it go in hopes of catching another 24-25 inch fish. The problem with that was that I did not see many small fish. Now that I had two fish in the boat, I took a break and rigged the rest of the rods and tested the drags and checked the knots. Tossed out a couple more bait and hook up with two more reds, one 24 and the other 31.
The 24 inch fish had the auto release on and the hook pulled right at the boat. And the 31 was released so she could go make millions of baby redfish.
Overall a very nice first day of the season. One interesting thing is that it was a full moon last night. While I did not look around for more fish to test the full moon theory, this school was hungry.
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Good Luck
Zippyjr
Tide : Raising 3.5 2:13pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 97% full
Temp: 81 F
Water Temp : 71F
Wind: 5-10 mph SE
Bait: Mud Minnows (Big schools around the out island)
Results: 4 Redfish.