covertfisherman

On Thursday night, Konz and I met out at Bob Sikes (GB side) for some fishing. Spent 4 hours or so with not much doing except white trout / ground mullet. About 9:30, I hooked up on a screamer on my shark rig. After about 20 minutes of hardly being able to slow it, we get it up and it is a MONSTER stingray. Some other dude thought he could get it with a pier net, but the net (36" wide) was smaller than 1 wing. Ended up cutting the line with Ray's estimate at around 6' wide. Absolutely dead the rest of the night.

On Friday night, Ray and I went to the beach side of Sikes. OH... MY... GOODNESS. At least 100 people fishing on it when we got there around 6pm. About 7/8 of the way down, we found a pretty open spot and started to set up. Master_of_Bait showed up and we were just getting ready for a night of fishing when the motherlode hit. 2 guys with enough gear for a good 15 people got set up over the course of several trips hauling stuff in. :banghead One of the guys nearby was talking to me and said he and hus buddy kept 7 reds in one day last week, but it had been slow. :banghead :banghead Then, the dudes with all the stuff turned on a generator. A little one, but also very cheap and VERY loud. Mind you, they dropped their lines within 2' of Ray's pole that was out. And mind you that the generator was set up about 5' fom that. And mind you that the freaking generator was up to run ONLY 1 light, not any bigger than a lantern. :banghead :banghead :banghead

So, we are kinda annoyed because we can't hear our drags and feel crowded. We sat down deciding to ride this one out and wait for other areas to clear out. Right as Ray and I were discussing how this was one of the most ridiculous exhibitions in fishing (the entire pier) and how we couldn't imagine seeing anything so crazy, a dude pulls up in about a 100cc go-kart with tons of fishing stuff hanging off it. Ray sighed and exclaimed, "Dude, now I have seen it all." The go-kart made another trip to bring back 2 more people and set up actually IN-BETWEEN and over our rods out. Ray's "I Attract Crazy People" cologne worked all too welland the writing was on the wall, so we called yankee2 (Steven) and decided to shift to the GB side. [Note: This is where we left, roofordie.]

Anyway, after miles of walking with too much crap ourselves and a good deal of frustration, we got lines in the water again around 9:30. GB side was a welcomed peaceful relief to the insane beach side. However, on the way out, there was a dispute between an Asian man and several other fisherman about how he wanted to keep their ~35" redfish and run with it. Ultimately, I think he did, but he straight up left. Was the same guy that was catching them and fileting them all last week. Why can't FWC ever get out there?? Man, we call them, but they apparently just don't give a darn. Must be too busychecking legal fisherman's licenses elsewhere... (Please don't flame... not disparaging law enforcement)

Was pretty slow there too as we caught some small rays (well, mostly I did... my stupid "Come Hither Rays" cologne must have spilled on me). About 10:00, Ray got a hot run but no hookup. I got about a 20" bluefish, but it was looking pretty sad until around 11:45 whenSteven got a good run. He hooked up, fought for about 3 seconds, and it stopped solid. Right about then,Ray got agreat run andhe thought he missed this one too, but it just ran back under the bridge. After a good 15 minutes of finagling the thing around pilings and the underside of the bridge, we got a up a nice 40" redfish (Ray will post a pic). Back in the water with him. Steven picked his big rod back up (still solidly lodged in one place straight out in the middle of open water) and it straight-up SMOKED him and broke off. Must have been another monster ray sucked onto the bottom. Literally as his line broke, Steven's pole on the other side of the bridge (cast under the driving bridge) went off HARD. The red ran right between the pilings. By some miracle, his line didn't break and we got his 41" and 20lb red up fora pic and back in the water.



Things went dead still from 11:55 onward, so we left around 1:15.

Total Tally: 2 redfish, 1 bluefish, 5 small stingrays, and a few assorted small fish.

As a side story, DO NOT DRINK AND FISH or this might happen to you. The 3 people fishing next to us were drunk to the point they were about to need medical attention. About 3 hours later, one of them pulls up about an 8"fireworm. I hear them yelling crazily, so I went over to see. The dude picked up the fireworm in his bare hand and starts laughing because it "tickled." I told him that he was going to be in a lot of pain, so he set it down and said he wished I would have told him sooner. About a second later, he forgot our conversation, started laughing, and started poking it with his finger. He was proud to have a ton of spines sticking out of it. When he pushed it towards me and asked if I wanted to touch, I knew it was time to get the heck outta there... That guy is hating life right about now. :looser

roofordie

Thanks for the very detailed post. I saw you guys walk off right the beach side when I got out there to the end. Maybe Ill bump into you some day. I woulda said hi, but the only one I halfway recognized was Ray, but I wasnt sure it was him. That and you guys looked kinda irritated. I was fishing near the old drawbridge control thing. That guy with the generator and all the stuff caught TWO bull reds and kept them:boo. He was using a 9 foot rod with 50# line and a 9/0 hook and cut mullet. He just yanked em both in without a fight. We fished on the east side and EVERY bite we got went under the bridge, so we switched sides, but then had to deal with the damn pilings. From the sound of your report, we had more last friday, but you guys beat us last night!!!

That story about the fireworm guy, PRICELESS:doh

Redfish

Glad To See ya'll got some Fish Sorry you Had to deal With some ASSHats, Ray Didn't wear His Flip Flop's Again Did He!oke Nice Report and Great Pic's!!! Btw I know a Few FWC Guy's I'll call them and Let Them Know!!! Taking aillegal Fish Is the Same As Stealing in my Book!!!!!

Dylan

Dang!

roofordie

Ray wore boots. THAT'S learning from experience!:letsparty

konz

It was a strange night for sure! Somebody should have told that generator guy that there is such a thing as a lantern.....haha!

User6882

ive called the FWC probably close to 20 times on that asian guy and they are yet to do a damn thing, next time im out there and i see him pull up a red im gona grab it and toss it over

RickD

If I was there, Brandon, I would gladly assist you!

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roofordie

Now thats a novel idea. I'll jump on that boat. I'll bet if everyone joins in, and we throw peoples illegal fish back in the water, not only would it be funny as hell, maybe those folks willeventually stop keeping them. And if not, atleast it would be fun

RickD

LMAO!!!........"The PFF Keeper Patrol".........imagine some small asian fisherperson seeing Konz, Brandon, and even myself (6'2". 280#)....three big ole bears rambling over to his/her fish!......hells bells, they would probably hit the water themselves!........waaaay too funny!



..........LET"S DO IT!

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