Been so busy with classes lately that we haven't been making any time for fishing, so we decided we needed a break. Taylor, Brandon & I headed out to Sykes last night around 9:30 or so, which is earlier than usual for us. Grunts were out in force. Couldn't find any trout. The reds seemed scarce too, & Taylor wanted to call it quits around only midnight. I told him that the bite was gonna heat up if we stayed later, so he agreed to stay a bit longer. Sure enough, around 12:45 I'm down the bridge throwing a topwater when I hear Brandon yelling that my C4 was screaming. I sprinted down to him & grabbed the rod, let it run a few more seconds, then engaged the reel. HOOKED UP! Something seemed odd about this red though. Knew it was a red right away because after the first run it began the tell-tale hard head shakes, but after the first run it just stayed deep & didn't really try to make any runs. It seemed almost lethargic, & we figured out why after only a three or so minute fight. When it got to the surface we all noticed something wrong with its head. Pulled it up in the drop net, measured it @ 39.5'', & then got some good pictures with it. Made sure to get a close-up of the head injury. It's hard to tell in the pictures but there were 2 very distinctive tooth marks that were a few inches away from the bulk of the injury. They were both about 1'' in length. Anyways, hooked up with a shark around 1:15 but broke off shortly after the hookup. Headed out around 1:30 to go get some food & then some well-deserved sleep.
Tally for the night: Brandon: Nada Taylor: 1 missed hookup Me: 39.5'' red
Tight lines everybody, & be sure to leave your thoughts on what you think that injury could be from! We all figured probably a shark, but it could be from something else. Either way, that red had a SHITTY day, cause that wound looked pretty fresh. Seems as though it had a close call with a shark or something yesterday morning & then got caught by us last night. That thing was a trooper! She even swam away strong.
That's very possible too. If it was from a piling though it seems as though it would have had to have been hauling a$$ when it hit it though, cause it sure didn't look like it just brushed up against one!
Very possible also. Didn't even think of that. It'd have to be one tough fish to survive a 20+ foot drop onto a piling off the side of Sykes, but I suppose those reds are pretty hardy fish. I don't get why people don't just lower them down w/ the dropnet.
It is certainly an abrasion of some kind, not a bite. Probably from a run-in with structure, but it also looks similar to lesions that form on fish from certain bacterium and viruses. Some of these lesions do bleed, we've seen that on reds around Perdido Pass. Regardless, it looks nasty
I'm gonna hope that it's not from some sort of virus/bacteria, because I took some teeth to the thumb while reaching the pliers down its mouth to unhook it.. . But yeah, definitely looks nasty.
hey sawyer you know the button next to the quote option allows you to multi quote a message right? so you don't got to reply with 3 different posts? just click it, it lights up and then click it again on the next message you want to quote. when you get to the last reply you are quoting just hit the normal quote button
It could be abrasion but I'd say some sort of virus or infection. I caught a few last year with some small spot that looked red and somewhat rotted. With how tough a red scales are it would of had to be dragged very hard and fast over something. Would be a really nice fish if it wasn't messed up.
Sawyer that looks to me like a self inflicted mechanical injury. Scrapes between the nares indicate that it was probably tail up and head down rooting for food in some kind of structure. Might have made it in then got hung up around the dorsal fin where those puncture marks are. Found it was hung up good and lashed around hard causing the scales then skin to be sheared until it was an open wound. With that wound bed there's no type of uniformity at all to indicate a predator attack. That is unless the Alien Cat Monster I released almost a year ago grew up and was getting hungry :blink:
and it is a nice fish..... but it's a trash fish... who gives a crap about catching little redfish... man up and go fish for something good... like hard heads...
Looks like one of the Reds I read about on a 100% fact based blog. The gov't is releasing damaged stock so that the FWC will be able to impose more regulations and Obama can tax anyone who handles one of these fish. 100% true and completely irrefutable.
Have called the FWC 3 times on separate occasions, they always sound concerned on the phone and tell us an agent is in the area yet they have shown up exactly 0 times.
Nathan, remember that time I called FWC on that guy that killed that manta(?) by jumping on it with a knife? FWC never responded and the guy had enough time to dig a really deep hole and bury it.
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