Half Day Trip Along the South Shore

It was dink city in Cockroach Bay Sunday. The big boys I scouted last trip could still be found but wanted no part of anything we threw at them. Heavy chumming with live pilchards on the incoming tide only got us a few pitiful pops, that were probably more out of irritation than hunger. So, we ended up leaving Cockroach Bay only catching 2 shorty snook,a barely legal flounder and the memory of a nice redfish that got away. While idling along the shoreline I spotted a good number of snook from my tower,but what got my undivided attention was the redfish. Scattered along the flats between Sand Point and Shell Key in about a foot and a half of clear water were some quality redfish. All of which were over the slot (in the 30 something inch range). These fish were travelling in small groups and spookier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Knowing we had no chance of catching these reds with the rumbling of the outboard sounding the fish alarm (or time to wait for them to settle down) we reluctantly decided to leave them be. I would have to come back later in the week to pay them a visit. With Mr. Ryan still wanting to catch a redfish and only an hour to do it in, we headed up the Little Manatee River to fish the mangroves in four to five feet of water. A little live chum tossed in the middle of the cut coaxed a nice redfish out of the woods;the rest is history. {%image_id=3976%} Congradulations Mr. Ryan on landing your 1st 27 inch redfish! Have a quality day and a safe time on the water. Capt. Sean Hagen