Breeder-class reds like these are a big draw at the mouth of St. Andrew Bay in Panama City Beach.

When you hook an especially big bull red and it moves off with you in tow, that’s exciting. When all three of you hook big bulls at the same time, and they move off in different directions, that’s bedlam!

Mine bent me over one corner of the stern, Rick Ayers doubled over the other with his, and Capt. Chris Parker, our fishing guide, bent over the starboard rail with his, all of us grunting and heaving on the thick bowed rods as our bulls weighing up to 40 pounds stampeded in opposite directions. That’s when Rick’s reel bail broke with a bang!

Mono still streaked over the spooling bearing under brake pressure.

“ Switch! Take mine,” yelled Parker. Rick and Parker switched rods.

Rick’s fish bulldozed an end run around my line and my bull charged under the boat. Lines crossed and sizzled. Parker grabbed me around the waist and Rick’s broken bail rod passed under mine. Our taut lines suddenly uncrossed. Parker to my left now cranked hard, bringing in mono on his broken reel. Rick to starboard fought to stand up straight, under pressure from Chris’ fish. My bull peeled off mono as though there was no brake, taking 30-pound-test I could hardly pull off the spool before.

Meanwhile, we three aboard Chris’ 22-foot Not to Worry were dragged unceremoniously downtide past the entire fleet of 29 powerboats with their ogling crews of anglers probably wondering how three guys managed three hookups at once and where the devil were they going to wind up! More than one of those anglers with their mouths open prayed our bulls wouldn’t drag us into their boats, especially those making the mistake of anchoring themselves in the middle of the ship channel. Stampeding wild bulls don’t care where they go once they get rolling with a half-ton boat riding free behind them. Anchoring in the strong tide of a narrow ship’s channel with heavy traffic, including a fleet of drift fishermen, is a sure recipe for disaster. But some people have to learn the hard way.

Such scenes are not new to Panhandle Florida. But now the herds of really big bulls spawning in the fall at major tidal outflows from one end of the Panhandle to the other, are healthier than ever before, thanks to Florida’s efforts to protect them.

Heavy tackle is needed to subdue big fish in the deep, swift pass.

Despite our three bulls’ rampaging runs, by the time we passed the fleet fishing the ship channel at Panama City, one by one we worked them up from the bottom for Parker to release. The largest were carefully brought aboard for photos, and then eased back into the water again. Parker pumped them back and forth to aerate gills until they shot out of his hand under their own power. Of our three simultaneous hookups, the largest was an over-40-pounder with the other two in the 30-pound class.

Seasonal spawning of these bulls across Panhandle Florida starts about the same time each year. Generally, it’s between the end of September and the end of October, with a guaranteed time of October 15 usually the big bull day. All the action takes place near the mouth of the jetties where the male and females mate. None of the large redfish enter the bay, but their tide-borne fertilized eggs are carried in and distributed over the interior grassflats where the hatch occurs and the young are protected.

Area coastal bottom fishermen like Chris Parker are alerted to the approaching spawning action when they encounter schools of the large bulls up to five or more miles offshore near sunken bridge spans and other reefs. These encounters are generally brief as the schools move on. Supposedly the fish stage in these areas before moving into the channel for their annual mating event. When we speak of “bulls” we include both sexes.

Little is ladylike about the female of this species. Generally larger and extremely aggressive, the females are bullish in all ways including the way they fight. When you cradle their bulk for a photograph you feel the heavy load of roe carried in their bellies.

Last year Chris and his charter got into them before word got out and boats began crowding into the pass hunting them. Only two other boats were there and aware of them. Parker had four anglers that began fishing the pass on a fairly slack tide at 1:30 p.m. As the tide started falling they got into bulls immediately. When they pulled out four hours later they had caught and released 18 bull reds between 25 and 42 pounds; caught six grouper, the smallest 22 inches, the largest 27 inches, all on the 12th of October, which was the start of it for the Panama City area that season.