Rudee turned not so family friendly!!!!

I took the day off on Friday to get a kick start on the holiday weekend.  After getting my gear ready and packed, I got down to Rudee early to mid morning.  As I get ready to launch I talk to one fella who reports nothing but a couple dink's being caught in the morning.  I then run across Kayak Kevin who was waiting for Lee to show up to go attack the flatties.  We chat a bit then it is time to launch.  I paddle over to the cop docks for a bit and get no love from the fish, then work my way out to the front.  Once I get to the bridge, I get a little love but nothing major.  After a while, Kevin and Lee show up and then another kayaker shows up, but everyone is having about the same luck.  I move over to the other side of the bridge and set up with my foot anchor on the oyster bank and cast into the bridge.  I start catching the flounder.  They are all undersize but damn there were a lot of them.  The biggest I got was right around 17".

After a bit I caught a tiny croaker and wondered what to do with him.

I saw that one of my rods was still rigged for catfish and decided to put the croaker on the the 10/0 circle hook and let it soak for a bit.  I fished for another 30 min or so when my rod doubles over and the fight is on.  I had no idea what the hell could have gotten the croaker.  It was pulling drag like mad and it took a bit to coordinate myself to fight the fish.  Just as a line of Jet Skier's were going out, the fish made it's first appearance as it did a tail dance just by the wall of the bridge channel.  One jet skier stopped to watch as the fish did two more tail dances.  The head on this fish was enormous.  My heart was pumping because this would be the first serious fish of the season that I have fought.  I get the fish closer and it takes a dive for the oyster wall, then comes back up.  He does the a couple more times before becoming spent and finally succumbs to my fight.  As I lift the tip of my rod up to pull his head out of the water so I can get my lip grip's into his mouth, the line snaps and the fish slowly sinks before reviving and swimming away.  Having caught several big fish in my life, I would estimate this to be a bluefish over 35".  I had a tough time identifying it as a bluefish because it seemed a lot taller/fatter than a blue, but after reviewing photos online to match to my memory, I have come to the conclusion that it was just a great big blue.  When the line snapped, I shouted out a few words that turned Rudee into a less than family friendly environment.  The fella on the jet ski shouted over to me "I saw it, I saw it.  You had a monster.  I saw it."  It made me giggle but was still upset at the line break.  At least I got it to the boat.  I would have loved to have gotten a photo but it was fun just fighting the fish.  

I was able to catch my first red of the season though.  Here is a photo of it:

All in all I caught a couple tiny croaker, a bunch of undersized flounder, and almost landed a monster blue.  It was a great day!!!!