On this particular day I was after sheepshead, fishing the end of the jetties at the mouth of the St Johns River in Florida. The change of the low tide is an awesome time to be on these jetties, and this particular day was the first time any boat had been able to even approach the jetties in almost two weeks. Winds and seas kept fishermen at bay.
The sheepshead were there as I suspected, and I did catch a number of them – up to 8 pounds. However, what normally would be a welcome fish – redfish – were also there. Not that I don’t love catching redfish – I do. But today I had six pound spinning gear, a quarter ounce jig head and fiddler crabs. What I didn’t need was to be pulled off my sheepshead to fight a big fish. But, that is exactly what happened.
Reds in the 30 to 36 inch range, anywhere from ten to fifteen pounds simply would not leave my jig alone. I would catch one or two sheepshead, and then fight a big red for the next twenty minutes.
There are many of you out there just wishing you could have a day like this. Redfish too big to keep on light tackle. I have to admit it was fun, but I was after fish for a fish fry, and sport fishing was not my plan.
One thing happens on a spinning reel when the drag runs a lot – and mine ran constantly from the long powerful runs the big reds gave me. That one thing is twisted line. As the line runs off the reel with the drag, it is stretched somewhat. Any kind of reel retrieve while the drag is running out automatically twists the line. After every big red, I had to move away from the rocks, crank my big engine, and idle about for a few minutes. I cut the jig off my line and allowed it to run out behind the boat as I did a fast idle. I let almost half the spool of line run behind the boat for a few minutes. The line untwists and can be reeled in with no more twist.
So, every big redfish that took me twenty minutes to land and release cost me another fifteen minutes of line untwisting.
I ended the day with enough fish for my fish fry and with very sore arms after fighting those big reds. Funny, I don’t remember my arms being this tired when I was twenty years younger!
