Outdoors Column | Fishing after stormy weather nets a big surprise from the Gulf of Mexico
Angler Kyle Paulhus doesn’t fish the flats much. With his newly acquired 32-foot SeaVee, he’s been in love with offshore fishing and ventures out at every opportunity. But the problem in 2021 has been poor weather that has kept him land side. He’s been fishing more from his dock than his boat just to pass the time.
“These winter fronts seem to land right on a Thursday or Friday and make for crappy weekends,” Paulhus said. “It feels like we haven’t had a calm weekend day since Black Friday to get offshore.”
Last Saturday, seas built to 10 feet offshore after a strong overnight cold front. By Sunday, winds had calmed, but seas remained high. Knowing the conditions would be rough but calming as the day went on, Paulhus and crew pushed west from Tampa Bay into a sloppy sea because he couldn’t wait any longer to get back offshore
“It started out cold in the low 50’s, but winds were light and less than 10 mph. The forecast called for 4-foot waves. They were spaced apart with eigh seconds so not your typical gulf chop, and likely why there were a lot of people surfing at the beach.”
Pushing 25 miles offshore to 75 feet of water the long shafted Rhodan trolling motor was still able to hold them tight to a hard bottom spot below. Paulhus was hoping for hogfish and snapper.
“I was fishing my 7 and a half foot custom Red Lion rod with an Accurate 400 dropping 1/2-ounce pink jigheads with shrimp. That’s when I hooked something that started out fighting like a grouper, heavy and pulling drag,” Paulhus recalled.
“It kept pulling drag and I kept pumping and drag would go again. I thought for sure I was going to get rocked up but slowly it came up. When we first saw color I thought it was a big gag grouper.”
Paulhus doesn’t spend much time targeting flats fish but he’s recently caught snook and redfish off his dock. Looking down below, the fish he saw was quite unexpected with no land in sight.
“I saw a huge redfish head and was shocked! I used some explicit language and said, ‘Grab the net!’ Never thought I would hook an offshore breeder but I have heard about them before. My previous best was 34 inches so I’m sure it’s going to be a long time before I pass this one.”
After netting the fish and bringing it into the boat they were all surprised at just how big the redfish was. When measured it came to a whopping 39.5 inches! The big breeder was quickly revived and released.
A few minutes later Caleb Petitt hooked into a a big redfish, as well. Finally a third came up shortly after with angler Eric Lowney. In total, three were landed and released over the span of 15 minutes with the smallest at 37 inches.
Redfish remain closed to harvest along the west central coast in state waters, and are not legal for harvest in federal waters.