Sunday, December 28, 2008

Fishing Big Tree



I set the hook I knew that the fish was not a small red. It fought stronger than anything I had caught.......
At Christmas dinner, George and I had talked about going fishing, as Renita and Val had shopping on their minds. The next day we loaded into George's car and went in search of bait, intending to wade fish St Charles Bay, near Big Tree.
The bait search was not good as place after place had an out of bait sign or had taken down their bait flag. Duh, none of the shrimpers had gone out for Christmas, and many had even taken off till New Years! We were able to find one bait stand that had fresh dead shrimp,or at least he claimed it was, and so we bought a pint and headed to St Charles Bay.
It was with some trepidation that I followed George out, as we passed the alligator warning sign. George had assured me that the gators were somewhere else keeping warm, and so we waded out, past the duck blinds and cast our dead shrimp. The bites were almost immediate! George caught a red fish and then another. As usual he was giving me another fishing lesson.
Finally I caught a red, and then another. Then a fish bit and took off! It worked the drag and ran in a series of strong powerful runs. I realized then that I had something different, on a black drum. I was impressed with the fish, and it was a small legal one, they grow to huge sizes as fifty pounders are not unheard of.
The bite stopped as the tide went slack, but it was a fun morning, catching three species of fish, reds, sheephead, and black drum. We returned to the park where I watched George clean the black drum. Fresh fish for supper! Clear skies.

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