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. 

Thank goodness its finally here. The weather has finally gotten warm and with a few 80 degree days the flats fishing is starting to heat up. The bite gets better as the day goes on and water warms up in the afternoons. Tony and Christian joined me on 4/1 under sunny skies and very little wind. The fish were still schooled up tight and the bite was tough to start the day but the bite got going and we had a good time. We had similar conditions on 4/2 and I got to stick a few later in the day. Lots of mullet stirring in the creeks and my favorite way to fish...with topwater baits will be the go to lure any day now.

IFA Redfish Tour - Charleston, SC

Saturday March 20th we fished the first stop in the Atlantic Division of the IFA Redfish Tour in Charleston, SC. We couldn't have asked for better weather and everyone seemed to be on the fish. We were looking for 23 inch fish to fit South Carolina's slot size and we had a good bit of success. After a few 24 inchers, the bite finally turned on just before we had to get back to weigh in. We were feeling pretty good about our 2 fish which measured 22 and 23 inches and weighed in at 8 lbs even. This would have won the tournament in previous years but with great weather and a big turnout it only got us 15th out of around 70 boats. 1 lb seperated the top 15 boats. Next stop is our home tournament in May out of Surf City, NC.

March 7-9 Perfect Weather Charleston

Had a couple perfect weather days in Charleston where it usually blows every trip down especially come tournament time. This trip was different and the fishing was awesome. The reds were in schooled up by the hundreds on the mudflats. It was all sight fishing. Poling and being stealthy was necessary but most of the fish ate. The 70 degree days got one group of fish so excited they were hitting topwaters in 55 degree water! Caught a lot of 21-23 inch fish which is what we are after next week in the IFA Redfish Tour event out of Charleston. Also, just for fun caught a bunch of 30-35 inch fish that weighed 10-15 lbs! Praying for this type weather March 20th but reality is it will probably be 50 degrees, cloudy, and the wind blowing 20-25 making the fishing difficult at best.

Yes, thats a topwater plug hanging out of his mouth!


Easy target



A small school sitting near the grass