Now that my son Elliott has returned from Japan, we are reinstituting our long-standing tradition of fishing on New Year’s Day. Regardless of weather (or hangover) conditions, we get together and try to catch the first fish of the year. We may not catch a fish, but it is a great way to begin the new year.
Wanting to stack the first day of the year odds in our favor, my brother David, Elliott, and I did a little pre-fishing on the day after Christmas. We launched the Pathfinder at dead low tide. The water was clear and 51 degrees. Our plan was to locate and pattern schools of Redfish that we would re-visit on January first. After a bone chilling run to a shallow oyster laden area, I deployed the trolling motor and we began quietly moving down the shoreline. When searching for Redfish in the shallows, it is important to operate your trolling motor at low speed. High speed trolling motor operation will often alert the Redfish to your presence and make them much for difficult to catch.
After several minutes of slowly searching the shallows, we spotted a large school of Redfish swimming towards the boat. I cut power to the trolling motor and deployed the Power Pole to hold the Pathfinder in place. Quietly, we waited for the fish to swim into casting range. As the approached, we cast our Z-Man Finesse TRD lures well ahead of the school and them sit. When the Redfish were a few feet away, we gave the lures a slight twitch. Several Redfish darted forward. Bam. Bam. Bam. All three of us hooked up. Our level of excitement went through the roof. Typically, we are pretty quiet on the boat. However, the triple hook up had us hooting and laughing. As we set-up to take a picture, I thought about my Dad and thanked him for making fishing such an important part of out lives.
Make 2021 a great year. Go fishing with your family.