The False Eye

  When fishing on the Bayou, one is likely to catch a red drum or as locals call them "redfish".  These fish seem to like the brackish water that breeds shrimp and other small crustaceans.  They also feed on the small mullet, menhaden and bull minnows that school in the shallows.  We catch a lot of redfish when fishing from the pier.  Most are of the four to five pound range but, occasionally, we hook into one of the large bull reds.  These massive fish are usually returned to the water but there is nothing better to eat than a smaller red.  Redfish are probably my favorite fish to eat.

  "Red" is not quite a good descriptive term for the fish as they are more golden than red.  Their obvious "trademark" is a black dot on the tail.  Usually, there is just one dot but often there are two, three or more.  Last year, we caught a redfish that actually had close to 35 spots on each side but that seems to have been a fluke.  Just recently, it was mentioned on one of my photographs that the black spot found on the tail has a purpose.  Indeed it does.  The large black dot is believed to be a built in bit of protection for the fish.  A predator fish that is wishing to dine upon the redfish is confused by what it thinks is the fish's eye (the black dot) and attacks the tail instead of the head.  The redfish is more likely to be able to escape if being attacked from behind.  That said, can you imagine how confused any predator may have been if trying to figure out the spotted redfish?  Which was the head and which was the tail?  There were too many "eyes"!