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The snook and redfish red tide harvest ban is officially lifted by midnight tonight according to the state regulatory agency’s website. Redfish will soon be a fish you can take home again, but snook will remain closed due to the regular closure during their summer spawn. I was lucky enough to catch a nice slot redfish today just outside the mouth of Southerland Bayou. I found a school of redfish sitting on an oyster bar. I rolled past them, then turned around and set back up on them. After sighting them, then reposistioning them, I chummed the water with the many shrimp I had in the livewell I didn’t get around to using during my day on the water. I threw about 10 shrimp into the water, then casted one into the water attached to a hook on the end of my fishing pole. Immediately I hooked one. I turned the camera on immediately after hooking it. It was docile while I was turning on the camera and setting up the camera. When I tried to apply pressure to bring the fish to the boat, that’s when it started to thrash the most. It was rolling on the fishing line and pulling drag in an effort to escape, to no avail. I boated this beautiful 25 and a half inch redfish. Honestly, it didn’t put up that much of a fight. It would have been a great meal! I thought, hmmm, maybe I can do something on the water for 6 hours, then take it home and eat it. I thought, naw, not worth it. I’ll just catch another one in the future. So, redfish are coming back into season in less than two hours. Get out there and get chew some.

The pelicans and seagulls were really having a field day on the beach with all the bait. All I was seeing out there were the really small, almost not catchable little fish, probably miniature pilchards. Check out all the pilicans and seagulls on the beach today. It was wild. You’d have to see it to believe it. It was amazing.

I wasn’t expecting to catch much today. It was a spur of the moment boat excursion. Beautiful weather was my prime motivator today. It’s been really nice, and should continue to be just ideal for at least another week before the sweltering hot weather sets in. I’m glad I got on the water today. Hopefully you can get out and enjoy it too.