Tidelines – June 9, 2016
Fisherman’s Post has two new Weigh Masters (John and Simba) for the 2016 Inshore Trail, our series of five inshore tournaments targeting flounder and red drum, and they drove a hard bargain when we were negotiating pay—they didn’t want any money but preferred to be paid by being taken on a cobia fishing trip.
No writing checks? No cash exchanging hands? I get to go fishing, too, as part of the “payment”? Can I get you two to sign something?
John Metzger (left), Gary Hurley, and Ryan “Simba” Glass (right) with the first three citation red drum they caught and released off of Atlantic Beach casting to a school of fish working a bait ball. They were fishing with Capt. Justin Ragsdale of Breakday Charters.
I immediately got on the phone and set a date for the following week with Capt. Justin Ragsdale of Breakday Charters out of Atlantic Beach. He had already been sending in some cobia photos, so I knew he was on the fish, and he liked getting our cobia trip in before the busy Memorial Day weekend.
So I had the weigh master deal I wanted, and then had the captain and the date I wanted, so all we needed was the cobia to cooperate, but as luck would have it, the cobia bite didn’t happen that day. And when I say “as luck would have it,” I mean good luck.
Justin didn’t put John, Simba, or I on a single cobia that day, but the four of us couldn’t have been happier.
We started the day bouncing bucktails (handmade by Justin under the Breakday Bucktails name) at AR-315 and AR-320, and put a handful of keeper flatfish in the cooler before the sun was plenty high enough in the sky for us to easily start searching for bait balls and cruising fish.
Justin was up in his tower upgrading our flounder tackle to heavier gear and bucktails more appropriately matched for cobia, when off in the distance we saw a large school of bait getting repeatedly thrashed.
“You guys want to go over there and take a look, or should we just start cobia fishing?” the captain asked from above.
We all wanted to take a look, and taking a look proved to be our best decision of the day.
John, Simba, and I stood on the bow of the boat with rods in hand as we neared the frenzied bait ball that was still regularly cascading out of the water, and I’m pretty sure it was Simba that first said, “I think those are red drum.”
Yes, they were not only red drum, but they were citation red drum. We had happened upon a school of 200-300 big bull red drum terrorizing a huge ball of menhaden.
Three casts. Three hookups. Three line-peeling runs followed by strong battles around the boat. Three 40+ inch red drum in the boat for a quick photo. And then three releases.
Suddenly cobia didn’t matter much anymore. Not only had all three of us released (unexpectedly) a citation red drum about three miles off Atlantic Beach, but we had done so sight casting to a school feeding on the surface where each of us had enjoyed watching our respective fish crash our bucktail as soon as it hit the water.
The adrenaline was still coursing when a call came from up above, “I see them again. Look in the direction of 10:00 and hold on.”
A quick run-and-gun was followed by three more casts and three more hook-ups.
And then a little later the fish came up a third time. Three more casts and two more hookups. Somehow Simba didn’t hook up this time. I’m not sure why, but it probably has something to do with either him being very, very short, or having a dumb nickname like “Simba” (even if he is South African).
So we may not have caught any cobia, but I got to see citation drum come completely out of the water chasing menhaden.
Since our trip, John and Simba have already been making good on their end. They worked this past weekend at the Ocean Isle Inshore Challenge. You can read all about the event on page 32, or you can view the weigh-in and awards for yourself on the new Fisherman’s Post app. Just search for Fisherman’s Post in your app store, download our app for free, and you can view the weigh-in and awards for Ocean Isle and every other Fisherman’s Post event we will host this year.
And if anyone else wants a job at Fisherman’s Post where your payment is just a fishing trip, then please get me your application. No citation red drum guarantees, and stupid nicknames are not only acceptable—they are preferred.
