Sebastian Inlet Redfish 2/2

I went down to Sebastian Inlet to fish with site member Art who lives in Melbourne Beach. We left from his house in his 23' Pathfinder Bay Boat for a twenty minute ride south to the inlet and then out into a crowd of boats fishing the incoming which still had an hour or so before slack high tide.
There were snook and redfish congregating in a hole that was monopolized by at least a dozen boats so it was impossible to get into a spot for a decent drift and we went fishless for the remaining incoming and made a short move to the south beaches for some blues and jacks which provided a lot of action but not why we were there.
Prior to the tide change Art moved us back to the inlet and set up in a spot that would give us a good drift on the outgoing. When the tide changed, so did our action and we proceeded to get bit. I started with a slot red and Art brought to net an over slot red that probably went 20lbs. His son also was in on the action with a couple of slot sized reds all of which were C&R action.
No snook in our boat but boats on either side had snook that looked to be in the upper teens in weight, all of them over slot and C&R'd.
One exciting moment was when a Manta Ray picked up my line or my bait, could not tell because once hooked he bee lined it for the open ocean and was in the process of spooling me until I tightened down on the drag and broke him off losing the rig and maybe 100 feet of line. When he broke off he jumped clear of the water and was maybe 100 pounds. Other mantas were jumping around us and there is always the worry one will land in someone's boat and create havoc.
Along with the reds were more jacks, blues and some big sheepshead. A good day in the afternoon outgoing.

Art with a big red. I am the bottom picture with a slot red.

 

For baits we had live crabs, live mullet, live pinfish and fresh dead shrimp. What they really wanted was live jumbo shrimp based upon what we saw other boats do and what the papers have been reporting.