GREG HILDRETH AND THE BIG BULL REDFISH
Catch and Tag Bull Redfish
 QUESTION:
What’s the most-fun redfishing trip you’ve
taken?
HILDRETH: I fished for three days with my wife, Delana,
who works for Georgia’s Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources. We were catching and tagging
redfish. Each day, we’d go out and catch 15 to
20 redfish, bring them to the boat, tag them and then
release them. We were both working together having fun
catching and tagging reds and releasing them. As fast
as we could cast our rods out, we were catching those
redfish.
QUESTION: Delana, what have you learned from your tagging
program?
DELANA HILDERTH: We’ve learned
a lot about the bull redfish’s  spawning
habits and other information regarding this particular
species of fish.
QUESTION: What have you learned about
their spawning habits?
DELANA HILDRETH: We’ve learned that bull redfish
generally go into the same inlet to spawn where they
spawned the year before. We’ve also learned that
they have a spring spawn and a fall spawn. Too, we’ve
learned that generally more fish come in during the
spawn in the spring. It seems the fishermen seem to
target the bull reds more in the spring than they do
in the fall. We’ve also learned that the reds
traveled further than we’ve ever thought they
do. Greg caught a redfish that was tagged in South Carolina,
and we also had a redfish that was tagged here in Georgia,
that was recaptured in Cape Canaveral, Florida. We’ve
learned that bull reds move about 30 miles or  more
offshore where they stay until it’s time to spawn.
QUESTION: What’s the longest you’ve ever
had a redfish tagged out in the water? DELANA HILDRETH:
Greg has had some tagged fish that were out five years
without having the fish recaptured.
 QUESTION:
Greg, how many redfish have you tagged, and how many
have you recovered?
HILDRETH: I’ve tagged several hundred, and so
far haven’t had any recovered. This is another
advantage fishermen have when they fish with us. If
they want, we can tag the redfish they catch for them
and if any of those redfish are caught and are recovered,
we can let them know where it was recaptured, who recaptured
it, and how much it weighed.
QUESTION: What rods and reels do you use to catch these
redfish?
HILDRETH: I use a Pflueger Contender G30 reel with Cajun
20-pound-test line and for a rod, I use a 7-foot Pflueger
Medalist with 2 medium-fast-action rod.
|
