I recently hit the south shore of Tampa Bay to do a little wade fishing in search of redfish

I waded about a mile down the mangrove shoreline jigging the whole way. Only hits I got were a few annoying puffer fish that bit my soft plastic artificial lures in half. Once I reached an area that had a bit steeper of a drop in depth off the mangrove edge I felt a huge thunk on the link of my line! This big girl made a run right for the mangrove roots and it took everything I had on my light tackle setup to turn this beast and prevent my line breaking off in the roots.

Large schools of big redfish can be found throughout Florida but late Spring and early Summer usually see the most action. Redfish can be caught year-round here but you'll see the largest schools during this period.

She made a few really big runs out into the open but after carefully fighting this big breeder for about 10 minutes I had her whooped. I picked her up for a couple quick pictures on my phone then released her to fight again another day. Probably a little over 30" in length, maybe 33" but she had some girth on her and was heavy...not too bad on 15lb line and a 10lb leader.