Another Great Day on the Water 6-30-11

After several days of targeting Redfish with some pretty astounding numbers for this time of year, I got a call from Greg from Atlanta who said he needed to put his two daughters, Madison and Kelsey, on some fish, and just needed to bend a rod.  As much as I truly love to target Redfish, Trout and Flounder all year long, I was looking forward to dropping some shrimp to the bottom to do some Whiting fishing (I'm a closet Whiting fisherman from way back in the day when we used to chase the Whiting and Pompano along the surf in north Florida). 

I was a little leary knowing that the water temps have warmed up, and didn't know what kind of numbers would be in the likely spots.  Thank goodness the fish were there in good numbers.  The girls began counting the Whiting and Croaker, but soon lost count.  Greg's first drop produced two fish off the double dropper rig, and from then on it was all we could do to keep the girls baited up.  Good sized Whiting, Croakers, Ladyfish, sharks and of course rays as well kept us busy all day.  If a Croaker grew to be ten pounds, I believe he would pull you overboard. 

With about 10 minutes left in our trip, we slid over into big shark territory to see if we could hook a bruiser for Dad.  As our time was running out, and it was apparent the big one wouldn't show, the clicker began that slow song and then began to scream.  It was then the Blackt tip broke the water with a leap as spectacular as any Tarpon.  Greg fought this fish expertly on fairly light tackle, including a nifty maneuver under the anchor rope and around the boat.  Finally, just under 5 ft of missile shaped Black tip came boat side and we took some pics and released her.  Thanks for an awesome day on the water gang!  I think I was more giddy than the girls!