Got a call from a friend about Spanish Mackerel fishing in Cedar Key on Friday night. Decided to take a run up on Saturday morning. My brother-in-law (Wayne), good friend (Ron) and I left CR at about 9:15 and arrived on SeaHorse reef a bit before 10am. Sunny, HOT, DAMN HOT, with a light breeze. Water temperature about 82. Middle of the full moon incoming tide.

Started Trolling with spoons and florios. Action was incredible. Every line within a minute would have a fish. Hooked three before Ron could even get tied on. He finally gave up trying to tie his own rig and grabbed one of mine. Constant action for the first hour.

Somewhere near 11AM: Time for a check: How many in the box? What's the limit? Count: 34 Spanish!


Then after cleaning up a bit... LOOK! The water over there is copper colored!


The picture doesn't really tell the story, the copper area was a good 200 yards wide and 100 yard deep. So, we head over, what is it?

All 34" to 40" Bull Redfish! Not skiddish and hungry! There had to be 500 to 1,000 of them.

Ron's Red:


My Red:


And after a while Wayne's Red:


All reds were too large to keep. All were released unharmed. As fast as we found the reds, they were gone. We did see them again before we left.

Well, back to the Spanish fishing. Instead of trolling, we decided to cast to them. Had our final 11 in the boat in about 15 minutes. Total Spanish: 45 in about 1 1/2 hours. Cleaned the boat up and headed back to CR before noon.

Do you think they liked the day?


Worked until 1am, cleaning, bagging, smoking and freezing 45 Spanish. All and all a very good day.

Looks like a pretty good trip.

What size spanish did you catch?

One time my brother, dad and I took a charter we caught 50 spanish but none over 1 pound.

Last year I caught an almost 5 pound Spanish.

This was in North Carolina.

CRC

Those are some beautiful reds...  sounds like a great trip!

The color on those reds is crazy. Usually see must deeper colors on the ones we catch.

Quoted: What size spanish did you catch? One time my brother, dad and I took a charter we caught 50 spanish but none over 1 pound. Last year I caught an almost 5 pound Spanish. This was in North Carolina. CRC

The smallest Spanish you can keep in FL is 12". The smallest one we caugh was 16". Most were in the 18"-24" range. That usually brings them in around 3 lbs.

Quoted: The color on those reds is crazy. Usually see must deeper colors on the ones we catch.

Yes. Here too. The inshore reds are much darker.

Seahorse reef is 7 miles from shore. These were reds from the deeper water coming in to spawn... I think.

Most of the spanish in your photo look to be 1 1/2-2 pounds so I would agree with the 16" plus lengths.

Congrats on such a fine catch.

I love to fish for spanish mackerel everytime I am at the beach/ocean.

CRC

There MUST be great fishing there. Cedar Key is near where I caught my only fish trolling from NC to Mobile AL in a sailboat. Either my boat was going too slow, too fast, or the artificials I was using weren't too palatable. I actually snagged the mackeral! Did have great luck with bluefish while at anchor, but they'll eat anything.

Here is one more pic of the Reds. They swam under the boat as we approched. If I had had a polarized lens on the camera, you would have been able to count at least 100.

Quoted: The color on those reds is crazy. Usually see must deeper colors on the ones we catch.

That's what I was thinking....never seen 'em that light

These pics make me REALLY miss living in Gainesville. I used to go to Cedar Key almost every weekend that I had off. My last trip before moving to Austin I caught a huge redfish from the pier at the Shellmound. Thanks for the pics!

always great fishing when a low pressure system is approaching, the fish sense the pressure drop and put on a feedbag.

Great Pics, im an avid fisherman myself, great rush to see a school hitting bait

Yummmm, blackened redfish

Quoted: Yummmm, blackened redfish

Nope. They were all too large. They were all set free.

If we would have kept them, we would have been busted as we were stopped by FWC on the return trip and checked.

Great work  caught a very large red drum last year in the Chesapeak. it was also to large and had to be thrown back but wow what a fight. Nice to get out there in the sun aint it