3rd Place in Savannah GA IFA Redfish Tour event!

We started off the IFA Redfish Tour tournament season Saturday with a big 3rd place finish in Savannah GA.  We fished all week in just about every condition from sunny skies and light winds to 30mph wind and rain.  We found about 12 schools of redfish in one general area but the bite was very slow with cool water temps and crystal clear water.  Not to mention patterning the fish with the big 6 to 7 foot tides.  The morning was slow going with several over the slot fish but we managed a 23 and 21 inch fish.  We headed to our last spot knowing they would be eating on the high tide and were able to pull out over 20 fish and upgraded our 21 incher twice to give us reds measuring 23 and 22.5 inches.  They ended up weighing 8.89 lbs good for 3rd place and only .02 lb behind 2nd.  A great start to the '11 season and our quest for a 3peat as Division Team of the Year.  The Charleston SC event is next in June and then Surf City NC in September.  Congrats to all the other NC teams that represented down in GA!

2010 IFA REDFISH TOUR NATIONAL TEAM OF THE YEAR!!!

Captain Rennie Clark and myself finished off the tournament season with the IFA Redfish Tour championships in Orange Beach, Alabama.  We went down a week ahead of time to locate some fish and have a good time only to get one nice day on the water.  The rest of the week we fought through 20-35 mph winds and cold weather...there was ice on the boat on the mornings of the tournament!  The first day was epic out in Mobile Bay.  We spent the day chasing reds in the 35-50 inch class busting menhaden as far as you could see.  Ren was even lucky enough to hook a few Jack Crevelle's which is like hooking a truck going down the freeway.  With the terrible conditions the rest of the week we gameplanned to stay close to checkout and hope nobody could cross Mobile Bay.  The plan somewhat backfired as the postponed the tournament a day and allowed our competitors to get to the better fishing in Mississippi.  We were surprised to find out we were 14th after day 1 and only trailed 1 team for the National Team of the Year award which is given the top finisher out of the 6 divisional points champions.   The team ahead of us was making a grueling 180+ mile round trip so we decided to stay close again the 2nd day and just stay consistent like we had all year.  The plan paid off as we weighed in 2 fish again and moved up to 13th place while the team ahead of us for team of the year did not weigh in.  We are the first team from the Atlantic Division to bring home the Cabela's National Team of the Year award and a nice $5,000 bonus to our 13th place check.  We will kick off the 2011 season in Savannah GA next March and hope to defend the Atlantic division title for a 3-peat!

Here are a few pictures from the trip and check out this Redfish action I caught on the camera...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIwiV_168qE

Topwater Redfish from Mobile Bay

Rennie with a Jack Crevelle

Big Alabama Redfish

Getting our Atlantic Division Team of the Year Plaques at the Captains Meeting

Day 1 Weigh In

Day 2 Weigh In

Cabela's National Team of the Year!!!

BACK TO BACK TEAM OF THE YEAR

We finished out the IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division in Georgetown SC with an 11th place finish.  We had very high hopes for this event after a good week of prefishing and were going for the win.  We got a perfect slot fish to start the day but then it was slim pickins until a 19 incher came in the boat.  We made a long run to go for the win only to catch oversized fish.  We managed 11th place which was a bit of a let down until we found out it was good enough to earn us Team of the Year for the Atlantic Division for the 2nd year in a row.  Next up is the Cape Fear Red/Trout Celebrity tournament which is put on each year to raise money for finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.  The very next morning we will leave for Orange Beach, Alabama to compete in the IFA Redfish Tour Championship.  This will be our 2nd year going to Orange Beach so we'll be better prepared as we go for National Team of the Year.

IFA Redfish Tour Victory!!!

May 22 we fished the IFA Redfish Tour event held in Surf City NC.  45 teams showed up to compete in perfect weather conditions.  I prefished all week long looking for the perfect tournament fish covering waters from Southport to Swansboro.  Found a bay holding 40-50 redfish in the 25-28 inch range that were lazy and fat!  Caught one that was 27.5 inches and weighed 8.75 lbs which is huge.  We caught over 25 reds on tourny day mostly on topwaters quickly putting 2 redfish weighing over 13 lbs in the livewell only to see the water suck out of the bay much quicker than anticipated so we got stuck there...for 4 hours.  It turned out to be our good fortune because as the tide rose we put another perfect 27 inch fish in the boat to upgrade our weight to over 14 lbs.  We knew we had good weight but you never know what everyone else had.  We ended up weighing 14.46 lbs and taking the win.  We took home a certificate for a fully rigged Ranger Banshee Extreme flats boat, a nice Angler Advantage check, and the Cabelas Angler Cash award.  Taking home the points for 1st place puts us in 3rd place for team of the year after our 15th place finish in Charleston.  The 3rd and final event is in Georgetown SC in September where we will attempt to repeat as Team of the Year.

  

Redfish Action Series Cup #1 May 15th Beaufort, NC

May 15th we fished the first of three events in the Redfish Action series held at Town Creek Marina in Beaufort NC.  We had decent weather but the hard winds lately had blown all the water off the flats in the area so we struggled to find the right fish to win the tournament.  We fished hard all day upgrading several times and ended up with 10.88 lbs which was good for 9th place out of 48 teams.  We have a lot of ground to make up if we want to repeat as team of the year.

May fishing has been hot!

May has been excellent so far.  Running a few trips here and there and the warm summer weather has finally hit.  Here are a few pics including one day out on the beach with hardly a ripple on the ocean.

HT Redfish Series - Savannah GA - 4th Place!

Headed to Savannah GA for the HT Redfish Series event on April 10th.  First redfish tourny without my usual fishing partner but Hylan Furniss filled in and we had a great time.  Conditions were windy and rough before the tournament but we were able to get sunny skies on Saturday and the bite turned on.  We worked several schools of redfish in less than a foot of water at times with their tails and backs out of the water feeding on tiny shrimp.  We had a great day catching several oversized fish and culled up a few times until we had our 2 redfish limit(max 23" in GA).  In the livewell was a fat 22 1/2" and a skinny 22 1/4" that weighed in at 8.27 lbs which was good for 4th place and just off the leaders at 8.9 lbs.  Congrats to Brian and Neal on their win.  The HT Redfish Series will be in Morehead City June 19th and Charleston on Aug 7th.