We had just anchored off of a point where the Little Granny Creek meets a cut- threw to the Gulf of Mexico. Little Granny Creek is a small creek that is the channel into Westport, Florida. Even at high tide a boat that draws more than 18 inches of water can get stuck in there when the tide quickly changes. You have to get there a little before high tide and get out before its too late to make it back to the Gulf. We were anchored in the cut-threw, the bow of the boat was facing Little Granny. The tide just started to go out, so we knew we only had a limited time to fish there or we'd be there for the next 6 hours or more. Mangroves line the banks of the creek and the cut-threw and small pools and cuts along the banks are where trout and red fish cruise. I flipped a live shrimp on a # 3 circle hook over the grassy point near the mangroves into Little Granny. I used a small splitshot placed about 16 inches from my hook to help keep the shrimp on the bottom because of the slightly strong currant at the point and to let the shrimp bounce off the bottom. Almost at once I felt my rod bend like a piece of spaghetti and I felt the weight of a large fish on! The guys with me immediately yelled, "shark on!" When I started to reel in, my first thought it was a shark, then, from experience, I knew it was a red fish, and a big one by the way my rod was bent and the way the fish was fighting and moving. The fish made a run around the point for Little Granny Creek to make the turn toward the mangroves.We were anchored in the cut-threw and I had to maneuver this hog back toward the boat if I was going to land him. He thrashed into the edge of the mangroves so I lowered the end of my rod to the water and pulled as hard as I could to keep him from going into the creek to use the mangroves on the point to cut my line as I tried to reel my Penn SS4300 for all It was worth. My 7 foot medium heavy action Tsunami rod bent and held him on the point. It seemed like hours but it was only several minutes when he started to tire a bit but the hog still had enough left to make a run in the other direction up the creek. I began to reel a bit harder, stopping to adjust my drag to get more out of the Penn reel, I finally had him coming to me. He wasn't going to give up easily though, when he saw the boat he made one more powerful run for the creek but by this time he was mine Finally he lay on his side next to the boat, tired from literally, the fight of his life. He was only 6.5 pounds but what a warrior! If I hadn't been able to move him off of the point, he would have surely used the mangroves to cut my line and get away. He was a smart fish and used all of his instincts to fight me. We boated him with a net and I gave thanks for the meal my wife and I enjoyed that night for dinner. It was battle with a fish that I won't soon forget.