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"!
It's a speck! Grab the scoop net! Yep, both Mark and I were getting pretty excited this morning when he hooked this fish. By the way it was tugging on his line, we could tell it was a hefty fish. He played the thing out and when it finally was near enough for us to see it, we both thought that he had hooked the first big Speckled Trout of the season. I grabbed the scoop net and fell to my knees on the pier. There was no way that I could reach the fish with the short handled net unless I got closer. The tide was not too high so the water was a far reach from the top of the pier. I did not mind, though, because "It's a speck!" Well, once scooped, we realized that this was no speck....this was a Redfish! Ok, so we would dine upon Redfish and not trout. That was just fine and dandy by me!
What caused the confusion was that this Redfish had multiple spots and in the early morning light (or lack thereof) the water was dark. We saw spots and thought "Speck". Normally, one spot graces the tail of such a fish....sometimes two...maybe three but never as many as what was on this fish! Almost never anyway. The record number of spots ever recorded on a Redfish was 606 on a fish caught back in 2007. Mark's fish had 38 spots on one side and 34 on the other. I guess you could call it a "Speckled Red Drum!
Redfish are actually Red Drums. They also go by the names of Spottail, Red Bass and Channel Bass depending on who is telling a fish tale and the region where the fish is caught. We have always just called them Redfish. The fish is good eating, plentiful and fun to catch so what more can you ask?
