Herbs73

Now that's a quality write-up about a quality fish! Very well done to you all, but top marks to @Herbs73! Fantastic fish mate 👍👍

Awesome stuff, those Red Drum are amazing looking fish!  

So me and the wife have flown across the pond to see an old school friend who lives in Tallahassee Florida via New Orleans. He’s also a keen angler so he organised a fishing trip.  We’ve travelled from Tallahassee to a small town called Apalachicola for a few days and yesterday we went out with captain John Layne from JB charters and fished the St.Vincent sound targeting red drum  It was a bit overcast but flat Calm, fishing was a bit slow so we tried a few different marks caching small red drum, pin fish and cat fish Tim catching most of them,  fishing in about 2 ft of water using light tackle. Then Tim caught a lively 10lb red drum which gave an hell of a fight and went back as it was a breeding size fish. I still continued with the small fish. The time to pack up came and went as John wanted me to catch a decent fish. Then on my last cast my reel screened off and after a very tiring 15 minute battle (these fish fight hard) John netted a 30lb red drum.  
when we came back John took us back to his house where he prepped the fish and which we could keep and we took to a local resteraunt. 
  He also run us back to the hotel in his rock crawler 4wd, these Americans like their toys. 
 The boat was pretty awesome, a centre console design powered by a 250 Yamaha which did over 60 knots. What was interesting is that it didn’t have an anchor, on the bow is an electric trolling motor which keeps the boat in position by gps, on the aft they have “power poles”which in shallow water are deployed by a motor and extend down into the mud to hold the boat. 
  Fantastic days fishing with an old mate that I don’t see enough of and a brilliant skipper. 
 

 
 

So me and the wife have flown across the pond to see an old school friend who lives in Tallahassee Florida via New Orleans. He’s also a keen angler so he organised a fishing trip.  We’ve travelled from Tallahassee to a small town called Apalachicola for a few days and yesterday we went out with captain John Layne from JB charters and fished the St.Vincent sound targeting red drum  It was a bit overcast but flat Calm, fishing was a bit slow so we tried a few different marks caching small red drum, pin fish and cat fish Tim catching most of them,  fishing in about 2 ft of water using light tackle. Then Tim caught a lively 10lb red drum which gave an hell of a fight and went back as it was a breeding size fish. I still continued with the small fish. The time to pack up came and went as John wanted me to catch a decent fish. Then on my last cast my reel screened off and after a very tiring 15 minute battle (these fish fight hard) John netted a 30lb red drum.  
when we came back John took us back to his house where he prepped the fish and which we could keep and we took to a local resteraunt. 
  He also run us back to the hotel in his rock crawler 4wd, these Americans like their toys. 
 The boat was pretty awesome, a centre console design powered by a 250 Yamaha which did over 60 knots. What was interesting is that it didn’t have an anchor, on the bow is an electric trolling motor which keeps the boat in position by gps, on the aft they have “power poles”which in shallow water are deployed by a motor and extend down into the mud to hold the boat. 
  Fantastic days fishing with an old mate that I don’t see enough of and a brilliant skipper. 
 

 
 

So me and the wife have flown across the pond to see an old school friend who lives in Tallahassee Florida via New Orleans. He’s also a keen angler so he organised a fishing trip.  We’ve travelled from Tallahassee to a small town called Apalachicola for a few days and yesterday we went out with captain John Layne from JB charters and fished the St.Vincent sound targeting red drum  It was a bit overcast but flat Calm, fishing was a bit slow so we tried a few different marks caching small red drum, pin fish and cat fish Tim catching most of them,  fishing in about 2 ft of water using light tackle. Then Tim caught a lively 10lb red drum which gave an hell of a fight and went back as it was a breeding size fish. I still continued with the small fish. The time to pack up came and went as John wanted me to catch a decent fish. Then on my last cast my reel screened off and after a very tiring 15 minute battle (these fish fight hard) John netted a 30lb red drum.  
when we came back John took us back to his house where he prepped the fish and which we could keep and we took to a local resteraunt. 
  He also run us back to the hotel in his rock crawler 4wd, these Americans like their toys. 
 The boat was pretty awesome, a centre console design powered by a 250 Yamaha which did over 60 knots. What was interesting is that it didn’t have an anchor, on the bow is an electric trolling motor which keeps the boat in position by gps, on the aft they have “power poles”which in shallow water are deployed by a motor and extend down into the mud to hold the boat. 
  Fantastic days fishing with an old mate that I don’t see enough of and a brilliant skipper. 
 

 
 

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

Nice @Herbs73, tranquility, bass fishing and a stunning sunset. Perfect! 

What cracking photos! Sounds like a lovely way to spend the weekend. Boating with the wife, and catching fish too! Well done 👍

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

sounds like a good day out bud lovely sunset 

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

Went out from Brightlingsea yesterday with the wife to watch the barge race and sleep on the boat, no intention of fishing, the wife even had me take all the fishing gear off the boat. Luckily I left the spinning rod on board. 
   Got about a mile out from Brightlingsea and saw loads of seagulls diving, so out came the rod and I drifted for about an hour catching small bass on a Surface popper, must have been hundreds of them, the water was gin clear which is unusual for the area. They were throwing themselves on the hooks, even though they were small it was good fun. 
   Then back to the creek, for some food and a cider(s) and watch the sun go down. Came back this morning. 

Caught last year off of Boulder bank
19lb 10oz Starry

So went out yesterday at 3.3. Am to fish the Kentish knock for bass, had a run on my fist cast which I missed and then managed 1 dogfish in 4 hours before we called it a day. 
 Today though I was out on a tope trip on a charter boat and caught this 47lb tope. Absolutely buzzing.

So went out yesterday at 3.3. Am to fish the Kentish knock for bass, had a run on my fist cast which I missed and then managed 1 dogfish in 4 hours before we called it a day. 
 Today though I was out on a tope trip on a charter boat and caught this 47lb tope. Absolutely buzzing.

nice fish bud

So went out yesterday at 3.3. Am to fish the Kentish knock for bass, had a run on my fist cast which I missed and then managed 1 dogfish in 4 hours before we called it a day. 
 Today though I was out on a tope trip on a charter boat and caught this 47lb tope. Absolutely buzzing.

nice one - got to love a big old tope! 

So went out yesterday at 3.3. Am to fish the Kentish knock for bass, had a run on my fist cast which I missed and then managed 1 dogfish in 4 hours before we called it a day. 
 Today though I was out on a tope trip on a charter boat and caught this 47lb tope. Absolutely buzzing.

So went out yesterday at 3.3. Am to fish the Kentish knock for bass, had a run on my fist cast which I missed and then managed 1 dogfish in 4 hours before we called it a day. 
 Today though I was out on a tope trip on a charter boat and caught this 47lb tope. Absolutely buzzing.

1.5lb caught today on float fished 50/50 bread. I made sure I got a pic for @Geoffthis tyme!
 

It went off like a steam train, took me round the whole boat. 

@Saintly Fish was kind enough to offer me a trip out on Tarlach Too today. The plan was to hit low water slack at a shallow mark near Lymington for stingrays and gilthead bream, so we set off at early o'clock to grab the tail end of the ebb.

As we headed west we were greeted by a large flock of gulls working the water dead ahead of us. It would have been rude not to stop and see if we could bust the blank early doors.

So with some feathers hastily tied on we were both soon into mackerel, and even a bonus school bass for me. With 10 or so mackerel in the bucket we headed further west and soon dropped the anchor on our mark.
Didn't take long for the bites to start. Small black bream were nibbling our worm baits but the baits lasted long enough for Neil to hook into a decent stingray. During the fight it even managed to flap clear of the water - who knew stingrays could fly??
Not content to rest on his laurels, soon after he hauls up a lovely gilthead bream which went to 2lb on the scales. I'll leave it to him to post some pics of his catches.
As the tide flooded the weed became unmanageable, so we pushed out into the navigation channel where smoothounds were the target. Skipper did good and put us on the fish.


Again, I'll leave Neil to post up some pics of his hounds, but suffice to say he caught more of them, and they were bigger! 🤣
I also managed a nice little black bream from this mark, on a 1/0 hook intended for dogfish.

As the time ticked on we decided to move closer to home and stop off at another shallow mark to see if we could find any more giltheads. I managed to find a productive method by casting sideways and letting my ragworm and ball weight trundle around in the tide. A fair-sized schoolie bass and several bream fell to this technique.

Neil managed another couple of good smoothounds here to round off the day. Six species from three marks in six hours of fishing. Quality sunshine, quality giggles and quality skippering. Got to hand it to him, @Saintly Fish did good today - thanks mate, it was a brilliant session!