Jen and I were able to get away with our friend and super bad ass guide, Captain Greg Moon for 3 days of fishing out of New Orleans. Jen had never been to New Orleans and had never fished for Redfish. The weather called for rain each day and the tides had slacked off so we weren't expecting what we got. I can honestly say that she has now been completely spoiled and was able to experience the best redfishing I have ever seen. Now she thinks it is normal to put 1000+ lbs of redfish in the boat in a matter of days.
The first day we found them blowing up on bait. The water had so much bait in it. We started off trying to find some creepers and had some success but then we saw cannon balls going off on the water. The reds were blowing up on bait. We followed that school for a while and picked off a number of fish before we lost the tide and the school went down.We then went to hunt for creepers for a bit.
Day two was a completely different day. There wasn't any wind and we spotted a huge school of reds immediately. They were still blowing up bait and were not afraid of the boat. Jen cast into the school and instantly yelled, "I got a FIIISSSSSHHHH!!!!!" and her reel began to scream. "I got a FFFFIIIIIISSSSSSHHHHH quickly became the battle cry. The hook ups happened fast and Jen got the hang of casting and fighting monster redfish. We were all catching fish and it was just the beginning of the day. The school moved on and went deep and we went searching for some more happy fish. Moon and Rocky had their radios and were in contact with each other. There were fish all over but Rocky told us we had to see what he was seeing. As we got closer we spotted the hundreds of tails just cruising on the surface. Happy Fish just milling about. We drifted with the school and caught fish until all of our arms were sore. Funny thing is, the next day was the best ever and our arms hadn't seen anything yet.
Day three we were out on the water by sunrise, a completely different day than the other two and on fish immediately. The schools had consolidated into one happy mellow school. There weren't the huge blowups but the fish were sipping things from the surface. Looked like 30lb trout taking a dry, except instead of a dry fly, the reds were sipping crabs and eels. We were right in the middle of an eel hatch. 3-8" eels were swimming all over the water with crabs in the mix. The gulls were picking whatever they could from the surface. For 7 hours we would drift through the school sight casting to the reds, triples and doubles each time. After they were landed and a pic or two were snapped we would idle back above the school and repeat. For seven hours we did this. Each drift resulted in 50 to 75lbs worth of redfish. It was on FIRE. Literally the best red fishing ever. (Moon shot about 200 pictures on the last day. More pics to follow including Jen's Monster Red). Check out Captain Greg Moon's site and follow him on Facebook to see what is going on out on the water!
