This 18″ Bass was caught by my Grandson Trent while fishing in a small pond by our house in Sugar Land Texas. He was learning how to use his spinning reel and a top water “popping” plug. He’s going to grow up to be quite the angler.
Danette Sides-Pfaff – First Redfish – McFaddin Beach
It doesn’t take much for a Texan to catch a redfish, but what about someone from Illinois? I have been chasing my keeper redfish for 6 years unsuccessfully–that is, until May 25, 2013.
You may ask, what is heartache? I have experienced it plenty during this quest for my keeper redfish.
Heartache is sitting in the boat next to your wife while she catches her first keeper redfish.
Heartache is hooking into a big bull red and fighting it almost an hour only to have it break off at the boat. Heartache is sitting next to your 10 year old son and watching him catch his first keeper redfish. 
Heartache is going to the beach and hooking into something big only to have your popping cork reappear throughout the day in front of you but out of reach. Heartache is watching Flatts Class and seeing them catch a huge redfish with the same color popping cork hanging out of its mouth. Heartache is going fishing with your wife and her cousin and her cousin’s husband to have her catch your limit and hers in keeper size redfish while you catch nothing but hardheads (not to mention her casting where you had been all day and catching the biggest red of the night). 
Heartache is getting advice from everyone on how to catch this fish and it not working. Chester Moore from Texas Fish and Game even got in on the action by offering advice. I’ve caught catfish just about everywhere and I’ve caught about all the “rat” reds you can imagine. Finally after 6 years of throwing away redfish tags and license that I never used for catching a redfish, May 25, 2013 I caught not only my first keeper redfish but my tagged redfish. Timing was perfect, my wife had just gotten to McFaddin Beach where I had been fishing since 6:30 am. I was fishing with my wife’s cousin’s husband, Richard. Richard had already caught a bull red and a shark. I had yet to catch anything! It was about 3:30 pm and I went to reel in my wife’s Penn Powerstick I had been using and something took off on the end of my line. I never knew how much fun I could have catching a fish. I would reel and then the fish would pull drag out. The battle went on for about 20 minutes, it was back and forth until finally, I saw a tail coming out of the water. 
To say I was happy is an understatement, I had my family with me, including Richard Alderson, who had made it his mission to help me catch my keeper red. We also had my wife’s grandpa who is almost 80 and was in the surf for a few hours beating up the baby sharks in denim overalls, a white t-shirt, and a hat.
What made it even better is that as we were packing up another rod went off…. Richard called my wife over and she reeled in her first over slot red. This was truly the best day at the beach yet!
Lauren Fite – Black Drum
My name is Lauren Fite and I caught a 4-1/2 foot 70lb black drum on a 7-ft Uglystick with 30-lb PowerPro line. Were trying to fish for trout with live shrimp until he showed up! Took me 45 min to get him in after I thought he would spool me. I put him back in the water and he swam away safely. Thank you PowerPro and my Ugly stick or this would have never happened!
The Big Ugly!
