Memorial Day Blues

I had plans to hit Rudee Inlet Friday morning of Memorial Day weekend for some reds and flounder. I was rigged up and met up with a buddy, William Ragulsky. He looked over my gear and said you wanna borrow a rod, I got an extra. I laughed him off and he handed me some leaders and said to retie, but I already had my plan. I was gonna chase flat fish while him and his buddies Tommy, Alex and Lee chased big blues. Well after a little over an hour passed I had nothing to show and I paddle up to the guys and they yelled “Where have you been?”.  They had all hooked and landed Blues over thirty inches. Well I am no dummy so I asked for the leaders back and retied. I caught a smallish 20” and the bite died. We looked but they seemed to have moved on along with the warm air. A cold front blows in bringing freezing rain and I can see my breath. The other guys start calling it a day until its just Tommy, William and myself. I finally get a run but instead of pulling me forward he hit the lure right at the boat headed to the rear. I immediately start losing line as the drag screams off. Tommy and William chuckle at my amazement of the power of this thing. I finally get him in the boat and we know its big but we only have a hawg trough so we guess its around 33”.

I told William I wanted to take my wife out for round two and there was a TKAA Club get together that Sunday. I saw lots of folks and it was great putting some names to faces. Allie thought it was cool some people recognized her from some of her fishing pictures too. We head off looking for the blues hoping they hadn’t been scared off by the holiday boat and yak traffic. On Allies first cast she hooks up to a nice blue but it shakes her off and I throw in next to her and hook up and hand her the rod. She fights and lands on her own a mid 20” Blue, but she didn’t like it. She looked at me and said "no, I am gonna do this by myself next time.". So the next fishy looking spot she fires and hooks into a big blue. Allie looked at me and screamed its taking my line as the fish pulls her and her 14 foot kayak with ease! She finally gets it close and pulls it in and it’s a beautiful 32”er. She asked how big they are supposed to be, these are my first ones, hahaha. We take some pics and the bite dies. William comes out and catches several and I am left with the skunk until I land one at the bottom of the ninth narrowly avoiding the skunk.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day out with friends and loved ones.

 

Check out William Ragulskys report at http://coastalkayakfishing.blogspot.com/

  

On a side note I just got some stickers printed with the site logo and the quality was great. I went through “Sticker Steve”, you can find him on Face Book at https://www.facebook.com/StickerStevePuckett

This one is in the Tarpon 140.