I've been pestering everyone on here for the last couple of months due to a trip I had planned to Fort Morgan....well I'm back from that trip.

For the most part...the fishing sucked...I've be going to this area for years and typically do okay off the beach, but this year I was pretty much skunked. I caught a couple cats and skipjacks, but nothing of any significance. I also took my fathers boat out to dixie bar and to a couple of rigs and for the most part I was skunked there as well....with the exception to one good fishing tale....

We weren't aware before we got there, but my fathers boat was fully operational. We were excited about it, but wanted to do some "testing" of the boat first to see if it would be water worthy. We decided to putt around in the bay a little, and then got brave enough to hit the point. I'd heard a lot about the gulp shrimp so I tied one on and worked it on the bottom for over an hour. My father was using a spoon. My son and wife were sitting happily awaiting a hook up. My son's boredom soon kicked in and he started playing around in the cooler. He then found a dead croaker we had caught off the beach a couple days prior. My son wants to use it as bait, but I tell him it's junk now and it stinks, so it won't catch anything, but he really wants to use it. We are drift fishing so I decided to use a Carolina Rig and drag it along the bottom as we drift. My son gets a quick lesson in how to hook the fish on and he sends the bait through the air and into the water.

He then sits eagerly awaiting anything to happen. Several minutes pass and the sun is scorching down on us with all it's power. We decide it's about time to pack it up and head in, due to the fact we haven't even seen a fish let alone had one hit yet. My son begs to stay a little longer and the wife shoots me the eyes, as to say we should stay. I agree and we sit another 20+ minutes. Just then the line begins to slowly peel off the reel. When I say slow I mean like if you were to grab the line and walk away from me at a walking pace. My son grabs the line and starts to reel. He doesn't really understand the idea behind the drag. I'm telling him to tightenthe drag a little, but he just doesn't get it and after a minute or two of trying to understand he hands me to pole. I tighten the drag a little and it keeps slowly peeling off. We are getting to the point where we may get spooled soon. I tighten again and really make an attempt at trying to gain some ground, but it isn't budging and it's starting to feel like we may be hung up on something. There isn't any fight in the line at all. If I pull on the line it feels like a rock is on the other side. My father turns the engines on and we begin to back up to gain some line. At this point we are about 150 yards out. We slowly back up as I reel up the line trying to keep up. As we get closer it become more and more apparent that whatever is on the other end of this line isn't moving. We really must be hung up on something. The boat goes over the top of the spot and I run to the front of the boat as my father puts it back into forward to stall out over top of the supposed hook up. I start to crank the line really putting some pressure on it. I'm trying to see if I'm gaining any ground or not, but I can't tell. Just then out of the corner of my eye I see about 6-8 ft down a very murky outline that looks like a stingray. I yell to the rest of the boat it's a stingray. At this point the boat is starting to drift again so I move again to the back of the boat. As I'm moving my father notices it's not a stingray....it's a Red Fish and it's huge....if I had to guess I would say at least 30lbs if not more. This is the biggest fish I have seen ever....everyone on the boat begins to get excited a little knowing that this long battle was for a huge fish. My father gets ready with a gaff at the side of the boat as I reel it up. I put the fish right next to the boat. At this point it is floating on it's side exhausted from the fight. He goes to gaff it and misses twice. The fish takes off again and dives to the bottom. I question my father as to why he was gaffing it and not trying to just pull it into the boat and he said we should trade places. I hand him the pole and take my place next to the boat. Just then the fish appear floating again about 15yrd from the boat. My father then proceeds to really horse the fish. Pulling as hard as he can with as much force as he can muster. The fish doesn't really move much so he hands the pole back to me. I tighten the line a little and SNAP. The line breaks. The fish is still floating about 10 yards from the boat. I remove my hat and glasses and start to jump into the water just as the fish dives and disappears for good. After a good 10 mins of griping and complaining about the fish that got away I started to think about it. I didn't want the fish anyway. What would I have done with it? I wouldn't have eaten it. I would have taken a few pictures and showed it off to some of my family that was there, but not on the boat with us. Would it have been worth it to kill the fish just to show off? Not in my opinion. I had a great fight, everyone on the boat touched the line at some point, and now I have a great story to share about the experience and about the three generations of my family that got to enjoy this awesome fish. Then to top it off, the fish got to live another day to hopefully allow someone else a turn to fight it. GREAT EXPERIENCE.

Other then that fish we didn't catch much of anything else.