One of the cousins phoned me and said his brother was out fishing alone because a guy going fishing with him did not show up. The brother on the phone was a little concerned, heading out to join his brother, and asked if I wanted to go along. Sure. Fortunately he was fishing less than a mile from a rough boat launch that only works at high tide, but he nosed in to a protected bay beach and we hopped on.
We hooked a bunch, released some, kept 5 of a six fish boat limit, hoping for something bigger than the 8-9 pounders we kept releasing, but never got a legal one in the boat to fill out that last fish. I lost one at least 20 lbs, at least, that we saw up close to the boat, and lost another strong fish well into the fight that was a good 17. Got almost all of the fight out of both of them. We also released a "wild" fish about 16 lb. that did not have the clipped fin to make it legal.
My phone camera is a pain in the neck and I have been fighting it to try to get pics to post. What worked to download pics four days ago does not work now. Grrr :madd: