Some nice fall inshore redfish

[TheTwistedOne]

My wife and I tried for some inshore redfish this morning.  Ended up catching 7.  These were the three biggest slot sized reds for the day.  (got to be 15 to 23 here).



My wife took this picture of the biggest one.



A lot of fun on spinning tackle!  Don't feel so bad about not hunting today.

[Turkey Trot]

A nice way to spend some time and some good eating too.

In what state did you catch them?

[hookedspur]

 

[TClark]

They are so much fun and VERY good eating.

[Basser69]

 

[shark]

 

[mossy835]

Nice, congratulations.

[TheTwistedOne]

Got into them again today!  Repeat of yesterday!  I'm going home tomorrow morning so I won't get another crack at them at this spot for a while.



Next weekend I'm out of South Carolina looking forward to Alabama's rifle opener.  God willing my luck will hold!

[turkey slayer]

Redfish sure are fun to catch!

[Gobblestopper]

Bull Reds truly are some awesome fighting fish.  A number of years ago I was lucky enough to get on a group charter boat called the Silver Dollar 1 out of Biloxi Mississippi that is run by the famous Trochesset family. As it turned out, I just happened to be there for what I can only describe as the cosmic convergence that signaled the mighty return of the nearly decimated redfish. After getting our cookies somewaht tossed by huge el nino ground swell waves(buried the nose 3 times that day on a 53 foot boat) and a somewhat lack luster mixed AM catch of everything but reds, the two mates announced that we had to change our luck by "putting on our rally caps". We all laughed, but turned our caps inside out and backwards.  The Captain sped er up a bit and I could see we were headed for a crap pile of Gulls that were circling and diving into the water about 2 miles away.  As we got closer to the feeding frenzy the mates yelled  "Get your cameras and get to the side of the boat cause you're never going to see this again!  Well what we all saw was a huge school of bulls reds the size of a freaking football field all boiling and churning on the surface and eating these little red minnows and the gulls were diving right in on top of the whole mess. The mates yelled get to the chairs and the captain turned the boat to run the trolled lines into the school.  All heck broke loose when all four rods were instantly pounded.  One of the mates handed me a shotgun rod with a giant red and white jig attached and told me to cast it into the school. Instant hook up and the fight was on.  Everyone was hootin and hollering, barking orders on how to fight the fish, clearing crossed lines, landing fish, getting lines back out and getting a new group of fisherman into the chairs for the next pass and then only to repeat the whole firedrill all over again.  At one point I happened to look at one of the mates and I swear he actually had tears of joy running down his face.  We made four passes on the school, and even had a giant shark eat one of our hooked fish.  With the four lines out the back and the shot gun rod going we had our limit of 18 Reds in no time. One each for the 15 clients and 3 crew.  When we got back to the dock with our giant catch of Bull Reds it was like the circus carnival had just come to town for the first time ever.  Totally unforgettable for a guy from northern MN.
see http://www.biloxicharterfishing.com/  

[flintlock]

Nice work, I bet they are killer eating. 

[TheTwistedOne]

Nice work, I bet they are killer eating. 

They really are excellent eating.  My favorite inshore species is Spotted Seatrout but these inshore "puppy reds" hold a close second for me.  Both of these rank above flounder in my personal opinion. 

Gobblestopper, we can't keep any bull redfish here.  Any redfish over 23" must be released.  South Carolina has some giants in the surf but they are extremely challenging to get.  I've got into them before but it's strictly catch and release.  Honestly, I really enjoy catching the slot reds on spinning tackle.  Three slot reds just under 23" is a lot of fish to eat.

[Gobblestopper]

Totally agree those slot reds on light tackle would be a fist full of fun and 3 would be plenty for a meal. 
Funny thing is that many of the reds caught on my charter trip were probably in the 15, 20 to 25lb range and when we got back to the docks the mates started cleaning the fish and the 14 other tourists that were on the boat left without taking so much as a single fillet. I think more than a few were still pretty green from the wave pounding we took.  I tipped the mates $10 bucks a piece on top of the $60 I paid for the day long trip and walked away with a huge soft side cooler stuffed to the brim with at least 50lbs of fillets. Those big fillets were a bit like eating a thick cut pork chop, but man were they good.