I first got the idea to catch a redfish with fowl play back in 2007, when I pulled a baby nutria rat out of a redfish’s stomach. I promise this story has a happy ending, so please stay with me here. When I found the baby rat in the red fishes belly, I called my old friend Captain Brandon Ballay. Brandon literally grew up in Venice, LA, arguably the redfish mecca of the world. When I say he grew up there, his family used to own the Venice Marina. I would be hard pressed to find a fisherman in the northern hemisphere that has caught more redfish than Ballay. So, it was only natural that my cocky little behind called this living legend, to brag about finding the rat. The phone call went something like this.
Me: “Dude, I bet you’ve never pulled a baby nutria rat out of a red fishes stomach?”
Brandon: “Bruh, call me when you find a baby duck in one.”
Yes, Brandon took the wind out of my sails pretty quickly. It seems they not only find baby nutria inside of redfish, but they have also found baby ducklings! Sure, I got served a nice piece of humble pie, but that phone call gave me the idea about catching a redfish on a duck. The problem for me was not going to be finding a redfish, it was going to be finding a duck lure…
Almost 10 years later, my silly dream looked like it was going to become a reality. Turns out, SAVAGE GEAR had developed a life-like swimming duck lure, apply named the “Suicide Duck”. The bait literally looks like a live duckling. It floats on the surface, and on the retrieve, its little feet rotate, making it one hell of double bladed buzz bait.
It truly is a marvel of engineering; I mean it really looks just like a baby duck trying to fly off of the water. The Suicide Duck has been very well received with the pike and muskey 
fishermen up north. The bait even won “Best of Show” at ICAST 2016. For those of you that don’t know, ICAST is the largest fishing industry trade show – IN THE WORLD!!!
Seconds after I saw the lure, I was on the phone with Savage Gear. I ordered 3 of them, just in time for our insanely good fall red fishing in Biloxi Marsh. When the conditions are right in the fall, you can get dozens and dozens of shots sight casting to redfish there. Now that I had the baits, it was just a matter of finding the right time to use them. I got to say, it was hard convincing paying customers on my charters to throw a hard plastic duck. If the fishing was really good, most customers didn’t really mind if I made a few casts, as they were finishing up their limits. If the fishing was slow, the poor little duck received no love. I only got to use the duck on a couple of casts. I had fish explode right onto the lure. I didn’t want to take away from my customers’ experience, so I had to wait patiently for my chance to really put that little duckling to work.
Enter my crazy friend and good customer Mike Marshall from Madison, MS. Mike has been fishing with me for several years. He has fished with me the last two Halloweens, and truth is told, we both wore costumes on the boat both times. If Mike could wear a unicorn or a psycho clown mask while catching red fish (both really happened), I figured he would be a shoe-in for letting me fling that duck right at a tailing redfish.
One perfect day in November, it finally looked like my duck dream was going to come true. Mike wanted to get a couple of reds on his fly rod first, and a couple for dinner first. He got a couple of reds on his fly rod and boxed several on the spinning rods with live minnows. Once he got his fly “fix” and some supper in the box, Mike insisted we only throw the duck.
I was on the bow, and Mike was telling me a hunting or fishing story from some far away land he has traveled when we heard the red. Unfortunately, the fish was about 50 feet away from us, on the opposite side of the little pond we were sight fishing in. To complicate matters even worse, the fish was swimming away from us, into the sun. We couldn’t see the fish, all we could see was the wake and the bait scattering, as he swam away from us. We had one shot before the fish was gonna be out of range. The red stopped inside of a little bathtub pocket along the bank to terrorize some bait. I hurled a “Hail Mary” as far as I could, and the duck landed perfectly against the bank. I cranked on my Okuma Inspira 40 spinning reel, and the little duck’s feet got to spinning. The red was not going to let the possibility of a gourmet wild waterfowl lunch get passed him. Then, the red engulfed the lure and it was game on. I gotta say, it was one of the most nervous fights I have ever been a part of. The treble hooks held true, and Mike scooped up the fish less than a minute later.
We took our pics, did our high fives, had a few laughs. Mike said, “I don’t know how we are going to top that one. Let’s head on in, partner.” I put the rod with the duck on it near the front of the boat. The little white duck’s feet spun like mad in the wind, the entire way home. Since the compass was pointing at an almost dead 0 it seemed our little, feathered friend was heading north for the winter?
Captain Sonny Schindler
Shore Thing Fishing Charters
Bay St Louis, MS
www.shorethingcharters.com
1-(228)-342-2295