Fishing yesterday and last Saturday

[vampiro]

Yesterday I hit Xmas Bay in the afternoon. Decent amount of bait fish in the water in Churchill bayou and more in the cuts. Plenty of redfish were there too but it looked like they were all undersized and not interested in biting. Landed 2 of them but too small to keep. Also caught an eel. Sorry no pictures as my camera malfunctioned and shut down out there.

Now a week ago fishing in Dickinson bayou I just kept on catching one hardhead after another. Then as I was about to give up and go home early I felt a tug on the line. It was a gentle pull at first and came stronger so i pulled back and then the reel started screaming as 50 feet of line was ripped out. The fish stopped just long enough for me to crank up the drag and started taking line again. I released my anchor and it towed me out into the middle of the channel while still taking line. After almost spooling me (could see the mono layer under the braid) the thing stopped. Dont really know how long it took to bring him in for I was too excited to have any sense of time. Got it near the boat and he dove straight down then as it broke the surface at the tip of my yak I head a loud bang like a handgun going off (picture 871). That guy started attacking the kayak again and again while I was trying to keep him at a safe distance and snap a few pictures (one got 1 good one). Eventually he tired out and I cut the line as close to it as I felt safe. Looked up I was in the middle of the channel and there about 100 feet in front of me was boat that stopped on his way in watching the show. That stingray did line up with the kayak at one point allowing me to get a good estimate on its size - about 40 inched from head to tail.

After that I returned to my anchor float and took a break with my line and bare hook dangling in the water. As I was having a drink and snack the fishing rod started dancing and I wound up catching my first fish on a bare hook (a fat croaker). Kept on pulling up fish after that but not too many hardheads. But no keepers other than a 19 inch gafftop which made for a nice dinner. I boiled the meat off his head and ended up with a nice clean skull. The underside of which looked like ---- well you can look at the picture and decide. -

[jaguarpaw]

Wow about that Stingray