BIG RED on Surf City Pier

Hooked a big red from Surf City Pier last night about 1am. Using a 5' boat rod, Penn Peerless 9 bait caster, 15 lb stren, 10', 30lb shock leader, 4/0 circle hook, and a spot head. I have been loosing the big ones, two last night, so I changed my stradegy. When the clicker started, I picked up the rig, but just let it go until the clicker stopped. Then after a second, the fish started it's second run, still with the clicker on. Pulled out probably about 50 yards of line and stopped again. This time I clicked the drive lever and slowly cranked in. As soon as the fish felt pressure, he took off for deep water. My drag was set tight, but he spooled me as if it were nothing. After probabaly a hundred yards, he stopped and I was able to retrieve some line. The fish made three more runs, shorter each time, before I had him at the side of the pier. The fish looked to be over 3 ft long and fat. I had no one to man the net, so I tried to walk him to the beach, hoping to get a mesurement before releasing the big fish. Rough surf and wind made it hard to control him from my perch on the pier. After about 50 ft, he got around a piling and that was that. BUT WHAT FUN!!!

I caught two other puppy drum, under the 18 inch limit and released both unharmed. The two smaller ones hit shrimp and a bottom rig I was using for mullet in the suds near the surf line.

By the way, I caught a dozen nice mullet and croakers, but now that seems not so important.

Most of the anglers were catching a few mullet if they were persistant. There were also a few spanish, and lots of blues. The spanish were caught before dark. And of course, the sharks and the rays are ever present.