11/23. An hour of Ponce redfish fishing

[troutman561]

Well another successful redfish trip for us happened today after we got out of X-ray tech lab early. Josh and I took our friend Rob out to the inlet in hopes of getting him a red that will beat his current personal best of 28in. We got to the inlet, dumped the boat in, and had a cast net full of oversize mullet in no time. Unfortunately as we were picking the mullet up off the deck Rob snagged his hand pretty good on a knife and began to bleed at a good rate. He looked at it and wrapped it up in his shirt and said he was fine after Josh and I offered to go back in so he could get it checked out. He said he had been cut worse so off we go to anchor up and soak some baits. We set up and no sooner than 5 minutes into soaking baits I have a decent red on. It was a little more exciting than normal because my bigger setup was low on line so I had to use my small Saros 4000 on a 8-10lb line class rod. The fight was good and took a bit longer to turn the fish than normal but we got her in and she measured at 39in. While reviving her we notced she had one of those cheap premade walmart rigs coming out of her butt complete with swivel and all. She was nice and fat so apparently it was not causing to much harm to her. I did not try to pull it out as there may have been a hook lodged somewhere but it is interesting to see they can function just fine with something like that happening.. She swam off like nothing happened.



After we anchored back up we got the lines back in and in about 10 minutes Josh had another decent red on. We get off the anchor and drift to the fish. As we got closer we could see it was up on the surface and originally thought it was a shark until we got closer and saw she had managed to get the line stuck behind her fin even though she was hooked normally which apparently made her surface. It was the quickest fight so far due to the line situation and we netted her, undid the line which was not even wrapped on her fin, took a pic and released her swimming off strong.. She measured out at 41in..



We anchored back up but by this time Rob's hand had pretty much soaked the shirt he had it wrapped in with blood so we called it and headed back. I just got off the phone with him and he had to get it stitched up. Definitely a good day for a total of around 1 hr from launch to retrieve. Too bad Rob couldn't reel in a fish due to his hand but I have heard we have a few more weeks of big reds like this so hopefully we can get him back out there..

[troutman561]

Forgot to add that both fish came on mullet chunks..

[Brand H]

Nice job Trout! I haven't seen reds like that since my days fishing the LA marsh.

[ReelSaltFish]

Way to crush'em again. What size weight were you using?

http://www.reelsaltfish.com

[troutman561]

Thanks guys..

Brand H.. I have heard about the redfish fishing out in LA.. I am hoping to get out there and do that and the tuna fishing in those parts.. Whereabouts in LA is good for them? I have heard stories but no specifics..

RSF, we were using a 1.5oz egg sinker with a 6 ft long 40lb fluorocarbon leader with a 3/0 Owner circle hook..

[ReelSaltFish]

Cool, thanks for the info!

http://www.reelsaltfish.com

[secretspot]

nice report

[Mud-Fish]

troutman561, if you don't mind me asking where's a good spot to look for bait around Ponce? I can usually find Greenies by the CG station, but I could sure use another spot.

[troutman561]

Those 2 little coves are pretty consistent with bait. When it was warmer the smaller cove closer to the inlet was stuffed with greenies and finger mullet. Netting in the north cove will get you some mullet with bonus pin fish or mojarras occasionally. Finally, that little island just south of the ramp always has bait on it on the outside edges of it..

[Mud-Fish]

Thanks troutman561, I couldn't ask for more then that. Hope to see you out there. I'm in a 18' Blue Mako