Sunday, August 20, 2006
Went fly fishing with Capt. Rick Lauman on his custom built flats skiff to the Pascagoula marsh. I had poled Rick no more than 5-minutes when two huge bull redfish came toward us on a collision course. A well placed crab fly was eagerly engulf by one of the huge reds. An incredible shallow water battle ensued, and when I finally managed to grasp the mammoth red by the tail, a new pending state saltwater fly fish record was established. The massive red was 44-inches in length, 26-inches in girth, and weighed 36-pounds on a Boga Grip weighing device. Rick used a 9-foot 6-weight St. Croix Legend Elite fly rod, and a 6-weight Lanson Litespeed fly reel to subdue the big “spottail”. The trophy redfish was released to fight another day. On the same outing, Rick landed his first ever tripletail a.k.a. “blackfish”, a 6 pounder, on a Lanson Litespeed and St. Croix 3-weight outfit. The tripletail was fooled by a brown-hued crab fly placed within inches of its nose. Congatulations to Capt. Rick Lauman of Ocean Springs, MS on an incredible day on the fly!