# Reds and Sharks -- Topsail 1/20/13



## MikeHarp (Jan 12, 2012)

Great weekend at Topsail. Packed the car up Saturday, and drove to Destin from Jackson, MS. Spent the weekend at Topsail Hill State Preserve. If you have never been there, consider it for your next camping trip. The preserve's protected dunes and dune lakes are home to dozens of endangered species. On top of it, it is the cleanest campground I have ever visited, and the staff are very friendly, and offer a tram service to the beach.

Got to the beach a bit late sunday morning, about 20 minutes after sunrise. Got some fresh shrimp out on carolina rigs, and immediately caught a nice red. Estimated him to be about 25 inches, but I left the measuring tape in the car, so back he went into the ocean. Enjoyed the beach til about 10am, then headed back to the campsite to reload for the afternoon and get some lunch.

Got back out to the beach around 2, put out the shrimp and yakked the shark rig out, caught several more reds throughout the afternoon, all big boys...over the slot. Around 4 we caught a nice shark, about 4.5' long. Sunset was magnificient...as always. Right around dark the clicker started going crazy on the penn 6/0, hooked into a nice shark! Was happy to put one of my friends, a saltwater fishing virgin, onto a nice shark! (he's the one on the far left in the pic of us standing next to the shark.) We got the hook out, Gathered around for a picture, and after about 10 seconds of reviving, the shark was on his way back out into the surf.






























After putting the shark rig back out, we caught several more reds after dark. We decided to call it quits around 19:30 (had to catch the last bit of the ravens game). As we were packing up, the 6/0 started screaming again! I got to reel this one in, and after a nice fight, we got him in. Removed the hook, got a nice picture of my his jaws, and back to the ocean he went, no reviving needed whatsoever! An excellent way to end the day.



















Overall a great trip. Can't wait to get back to South Walton.:thumbsup:


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## jakec (Oct 14, 2010)

nice man! thats a long way to drive to go fishing.


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## MikeHarp (Jan 12, 2012)

We spent the night saturday and sunday, and spent all day monday! totally worth it!


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## aquatic argobull (Mar 2, 2009)

Good to know that they're biting. I'm going to try this weekend


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## DAWGONIT (Jan 16, 2009)

WTG Mike & crew; thanks for sharing your report & pics.
You certainly made some memories for sure.

Catch 'em up.


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## bigassredfish (Apr 3, 2011)

Looks like an awesome trip! Nice report


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