This Friday I was supposed to be at work, but that wasn't what was on my mind. I kept thinking of the fish that Rob Choi, Justin Mayer, William Ragulsky, and Seth Goodrich caught the week before. The weather was looking good so Lee and Damien had decided to make a trip off shore for some big Red Drum.
I was late in making my decision and at the last minute I decided to make the run and catch up with the guys. I paddled out even though I couldn't see them, hoping they were out somewhere over the horizon and finally I see them waving their paddles at me in between the rolling sets of swells. I find out the Damian was already on the board after just a few minutes and he had to take off to get back to work haha. Lee and I set up shop for hours and picked through shark after shark. Losing expensive gear nearly each time. It got to the point where I look at lee and said "Are you ready" and he responds with "I feel as if we sat here for a million years we wouldn't catch one.". We decided to dump our bait and began to stow our gear for the rough beach landing to come. Just as I dump my bait my rod goes off but its not a typical fight, at first its just very heavy weight and I am thinking I got a Ray this time. But as it got closer to the kayak it began moving then taking line then a lot of line. I was using my Okuma Trio Spinning Reel with a Med Action Okuma Cedros Spinning Rod with only 30lb braid so I really couldn't horse him in. She came up and I told Lee yeah its a red. She made a couple long runs until Lee said my arms were shaking. I got her in the boat took a couple quick pics and got her in the water to ensure her health. Its vital to get these old fish back in the water as soon as you can or risk losing a true trophy. She swam off and without bait and the sun going down we called it a day.
Lee looks at me and said "You bottom of the Ninth me!" haha, I guess I did. Lee told me before that he puts people on drum and man was he right, I owe Lee a thanks for talking me out of work and onto fish!
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