First Bull Red…

I went out to do a little mullet run fishing a couple days before Halloween. From all the reports I’ve read, mainly on this site, the mullet run was delayed getting to us (central fl) due to east and southeast winds. However, there were a couple of days of north winds preceding this day so I went out for a bit of night fishing out of the port.

Looking for signs of life, I heard what sounded like rain in a cove and pointed my Gheenoe Highsider towards the rain. When I got there, WHOA, something(s) were corralling mullet by the thousands against the rocks and they were the ones making the noise. I’m not the greatest saltwater fishermen, but I knew something was a happening.

Earlier in the day I caught a couple of blue crabs that I still had in my bait bucket so after striking out on live mullet, I hooked one through its swimming leg on a 5/0 circle hook and chucked it about 10 feet from the rocks. It wasn’t more than a minute later that I thought I got it stuck on a submerged rock so I gave it tug to loosen it. To my surprise the rock it was stuck on moved, with a vengance, the reel humming in protest. Wait, rocks don’t move, I gotta fish I thought! Little did I know at the time it would be a monsta like this!

That thing’s first run was a good 15-20 seconds, the line, rod, and reel pushed to almost breaking point. After the line quit running out of the reel I thought I had it… nope that was only the first run. I reeled it to within about 30 feet of the boat, then it takes off again; drag as tight as I dare without breaking the fish off. Little did I know it was just he beginning. That thing drug me to and fro at will. It went from the deepest part of the channel, to the channel markers, back by the rocks and every time I thought I had it close it would run like a madman; rod bent almost in half. I gotta fight now, heck yeah! After the fight was lasted 10-15 minutes I started thinking I must have a shark. Nothing else could fight this long for this long. After fighting it for about 45 minutes it finally gave up and let me horse it to the top and get it into the boat. I was alone so I couldn’t get pic with it.

It wouldn’t fit in that part of my gheenoe straight so I had to place it a bit sideways to take the pic. When I got home, I measured the distance in that part of my Gheenoe; it is 37″. I estimate the bull read to be about 40″, maybe an inch either way.

Not going to lie, this is my first bull red and it was not fun getting pulled around for so long. My arms were spent. My hands hurt from keeping pressure on the rod. I had to rest the rod in my armpit more than a few times. Glad I got one, but that was a bit much.