My First Redfish

Type: Tidal
Region: Southern
Location: South River

I decided to take a Saturday afternoon kayak ride on the South River and just couldn't resist bringing a rod with me. Many people ask me, "When will the keeper rockfish show up in the river?" I suppose its almost that time, so I focused my plans accordingly. As a trolled a charteruse 1/2oz Rat-L-Trap (my favorite) along a drop off I thought of all of the fish stories told by myself and by others about fishing the river. I recalled of hearing about more than a few redfish being caught in the South River this year. I have fished the river for years and having never seen one, it was easy to block the idea out of mind. After releasing a few small rock and perch, I found myself on a shallow point casting the trap and THUMP! With this kind of resistance, it was surely what would be my first keeper rockfish from the river this Fall. After spinning the kayak 540 degrees, up came a golden flash, the iconic redfish, one in which I had only seen on TV.

Suddenly the marshy Chesapeake point seemed more like the Louisiana delta. Now, where have you been all my life? I snapped many photos and back in the water it went. Before pushing it off I grabbed the tail and generated a swimming motion like I had seen on TV. If I remember properly this process losens up the muscles and eliminates the lactic acid buildup from the fight. At any rate, the fish swam back healthy and a new species was added to my list.