best fish

fishing 7 am to 1 pm yesterday in the bay off the intercostal waterway between the isle of palms and what? mount pleasant, so. carolina watched the sunrise over the atlantic ocean in the eastern sky, a sky so blue it hurt... a cold morning at probably 37 or 42 degrees, somewhere in that range... and the wind as the boat charged to our destination, bitter but wonderful as well... bubbles between the waves; i have no idea...

we motor in, close to the tall marsh grass, and anchor with the pole... that long black stiff snake of a pole sunk into the bottom... the bottom... i can see the bottom which is about 2 and a half to 3 and a half feet below me... there are shell beds which slowly, surprisingly rise above the waterline as the tide goes out imperceptibly over the course of fishing...

i cast to moving blue water which is a school of fish below the surface... i miss more than i hit the right spots... and we get no bites of any sort really...

soon, even i can see the blue water moving and can identify that there are fish there... juvenile red drum swimming together in schools of 100 at times, per my guide...

a dolphin comes in on us... and "runs", fin up, into the schools of fish... he slaps the water, churns it up, brings mud from the bottom (as do the fish...) the young dolphin runs the fish to the grass and eats them... then goes off, coming a few more times in different places, but doing the same to the water and the drum...

later, my guide swithes to live bait, minnows... and i am casting and giving slack... and i turn to say something... and oh, a thud... and the fish runs from me, and i hook him...

it takes me a good 5 minutes, i think, to give him drag, reel him in, let him run a bit, reel him in again, and on and on... until he shows himself out in the water... he is a big juvenile drum...

when i catch him... and he is on the boat... he is thick in the head, and a good 27 inches long, i think... but he definitely weighs 10.5 pounds... and he is the best fish i have ever caught...

we let him go... he looks in shock for a moment, then flips his tail and swims away...

5 spots on one side, 4 on the other... a beautiful creature... free...