Action like this is typical in October.

Our action in the cut at Panama City ran the normal gamut from small redfish to large ones as the day got later and the incoming tide increased. Single hookups soon became doubles, two of us fighting a pair of bulls simultaneously. Most of our action ended well before we reached St. Andrew Bay. And it was obvious that everyone else in that floating fleet was similarly engaged. It became evident after our first bunch of bulls that one of the best things we had going for us was circle hooks. Always they ended up in the corner of the bull’s lips rather than deep down their gullets. They might appear about to fall out but that was never the case. These fish have leather lips. Pliers are usually needed to extract the hook. Part of that probably has to do with our manner of fishing. As you bounce your lead along bottom, the first indication that something is about to happen is the gentle tugs on your line. Nothing heavy or swift. But the tugs become insistent and when line moves off as though you’ve accidentally hooked bottom, you let it go until your rodtip is dragged underwater. Then you tighten up and give a slight nudge. After that the pressure of a heavy moving fish annoyed by your interference with his meal becomes apparent and he charges off while you hang on to the swiftly bowing rod.

Once our revived catches swam off, Parker eased us back to the head of the jetties where we got in line with the other drifters to start the ride of the bowed rods all over again.

They finally wore us out. We left the big ones still biting at 4 p.m. We had caught and released over 20 bull redfish ranging in size from 15 to over 40 pounds. In that time we had four doubles and one triple hookup. None was lost.

As far as I was concerned riding with the bulls here was a lot better than running with the bulls in Pamplona. None of us got trampled or gored and all the bulls lived to fight another day. Papa would have been proud.

FS