IFA Redfish Tour event Charleston S.C. June 8, 2013

As Thomas and I prepared and planed for the IFA tournament out of Charleston we had no idea that an uninvited guest would be making an appearance the day before the tournament...............Andrea.

Tropical Storm Andrea, blew into the coast of South Carolina late Thursday night and early Friday morning with heavy rain and strong winds.

The after effects of the storm moving out were no better. Thomas and I decided to sleep in a little Friday and try to get a half a day of practice in after the winds died down. We knew it was going to be rough when a south wind at 20 mph meant the winds were calming down... We were only able to fish four new spots on Friday and that time was more frustrating than fun. The only good thing that came of Friday was that we found 2 new schools of fish using the same flat area on low tide. The water was chocolate milk at best and at worst it was just pure mud. After a couple of difficult frustrating hours we called it a day and headed to the hotel to get cleaned up for the captains' meeting.

At the hotel we met a couple of other guys that were fishing the tournament and talked about the conditions and how tough of a day it was.

The Inshore Fishing Association puts on a great event; the check in process for teams is quick and easy, they don't waste time talking about things too long, and they have awesome raffle prizes. We drew take off number 17 for the next morning, better than we have ever drawn before! After the captains' meeting and talking with some of the other teams about the weather and water conditions and joking about how loud and shiny our lures would have to be the next day, Thomas and I headed back to the hotel for an early bed time.

Tournament morning came with more wind than we hoped for... The weather man said it would be subsiding by 2 or 3 am but, it didn't. We put the boat in at Remleys point with most of the other teams and make the slow trek from the ramp to the Charleston Harbor Marina for take off. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but couldn't make up its mind as to which direction to come from so the water was just choppy, no big rollers thank goodness....

I had the privilege of saying the prayer for the tournament before the national anthem was played and the event started. That was really neat to be a part of!

As we wait with the 48 other boats in the tournament, jockying around in the tight area between docks waiting for our number to be called I go over and over our game plan in my head. Each spot we were going to has produced fish, but what has the weather done to them? Are they still there? Will they eat anything? 17 is called over the speakers and we are off.

The run gives us a little time to relax and get our minds focused on simply fishing. Nothing else matters, we can't control the conditions or other teams, all we can do is stick to our game plan and fish hard.

The day is slow to say the least, with dirty water and a large influx of fresh water into the area the fish were just not interested in eating anything. We fish harder and harder, eventually moving to our second spot, and finally around 10:30, Thomas catches our first fish! It measures almost 22 inches, awesome! One more of those and we will have ourselves a top ten finish!! We keep fishing, feeling confident and re-energized after catching the first fish. We knew it was going to be a tough day, but we never thought that at 11:00 am we would have only had 2 bites and one fish in the boat.

We leave spot number two to try spot number one again. Nothing. We go back to spot number two, I miss another one. I had a bad day with the whole catching process.

With only an hour left to fish we decide to run to the new area we found on Friday. We know there are fish there, but we have no idea how big or small or if they will even bite. With nothing else working we go for it. We pull up to the top side of the area and begin working our way down the bank, after being there 5 minutes we see the school pushing! They are here, now we have to take our time and convince them to bite... First pass, nothing. On the second pass we see a single that has broken off of the school, perfect! Thomas makes a cast out in front of the fish and it nails it. Finally we have another fish on! We get it into the boat, unhook it and measure it... It's borderline too long... With only one fish in the boat we don't have a choice, he goes into the live well. Another pass, no more fish and it's time to go.

We get back to weigh in and wait our turn to weigh our fish. Thomas takes the smaller fish, it measured in the slot and weighed in at 3.24 lbs. I carry the big fish up, after a lot of work and triple checking the length the official tells me it doesn't measure in the slot. 23 1/8 inches.

I release the fish, Thomas gets a picture with his fish and just like that we went from a chance of winning to a top 15.
A tough day topped by a fish that doesn't measure.

We watch as a few other teams weigh in fish and then decide to start the 4 hour ride home.

Ultimately, only 20 of the 49 boats weigh in fish. We finished 15. If our fish would have measured, we would have finished second, so close.

Thomas and I learned a lot and even though this was just our 6th tournament we were able to hang with the best fishermen on the east coast! We are learning and this tournament only fueled our drive to get better!


Here are a few pictures from the weigh in and the results sheet from the IFA:

The Captains' Meeting

Team Kirby at the weigh in

Thomas with his fish

The top 20 results page

http://www.ifatours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/charleston_redfish_2013_final.pdf



You can check out more pictures from the event at the IFA's Website: ifatours.com

Lowcountry Redfish Cup: 3rd Place Finish!

On Saturday May 18th Nick and I fished in the Low Country Redfish Cup Edisto Shootout and placed 3rd with 2 fish weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces! 

Here is the story of the tournament:

We made our way to the coast in the pre-dawn hours of the Thursday before the tournament. We arrived at the ramp at around 8 AM after a long drive and hit the water. After a few hours fishing, to no avail, structure (docks/trees) that we thought fish may be staging on as the tide was changing, we decided to give up on that tactic and move on to an area we fished before. Now, I will say that fishing structure when the tide is in the process of changing can be a very successful way to catch redfish. But, it can be a long and tedious process to find the right dock or tree that is holding fish.

So we moved on to our next spot which was a long bank with oysters and a defined grass-line. We have found that these are the areas that we can pattern the best and usually will hold fish. Another key that we have found is that there needs to be multiple small points along the bank and scattered sparse grass between and on the points. These areas may not result in tournament fish but, they will usually result in fish. We got to our area of interest and started fishing. We saw a couple of fish cruising that we knew were close to being slot fish. I was throwing a gold spoon and Nick was throwing a Z- Man Fatty-Z on a flutter hook (more detail on this rig to come). We made it about 25 yards down the bank throwing parallel to the grass-line to make as natural a presentation as possible. I was looking up ahead of the boat when a small mud cloud caught my eye close to where I had just cast, and before I could react, I almost had my rod yanked out of my hand!

As I began to fight my fish, Nick said a school spooked out and threw his rig well in front of the school and he quickly hooked up on another fish. He quickly reeled in his catch and measured it to be about 19" - a mid slot fish. My fish took a little longer to get in and measured 24 1/2". Between these two fish and the multiple other fish that spooked out when we were reeling the fish in we knew that we had found the right fish (and we only fished 25 yards of a 300 yard bank)! So, we quickly left the area and knew that we would be back the morning of the tournament. We had one more place to check and it was getting late in the afternoon. We have caught tournament fish before at this spot and just wanted to check to make sure the fish were still where we thought they were. We arrived to the spot, another bank similar to the one we just came from, and it took about 5 minutes to spot a school pushing along the bank. Nick and I cast in front of the school, both got hooked up, caught and checked the fish and left in the span of about 10 minutes. We try our absolute hardest to not molest the fish or catch too many out of a school.

That was the end of our practice fishing on Thursday. Long story short, we fished Friday as well and while we found some good flounder, we did not find anything that we thought was worthy of coming back for during the tournament.

On the morning of the tournament, we were the first boat to blast off. We blasted off at about 6:15 AM, and it was off to our first spot. This is the spot that we quickly fished Thursday evening that we knew had good slot fish on it. The tides matched up right and that is where we wanted to start. We start fishing and watching for fish to be pushing along the bank. We saw a few fish pushing but nothing like what we saw Thursday during practice. We were not getting any bites but we decided to stick it out and see what would happen. After fishing for over an hour I finally got a very light bite on a jig head with a pearl and chartreuse Gulp shrimp. Nick netted the fish and it was an 18" slot fish. Small but, a start. We continued to fish for another hour with no more bites. Just as we were discussing leaving the spot, Nick got another bite and once in the boat we had another 18" fish. We had a limit, now it was time to start culling. We fished a little longer and decided that the tide was right for us to move to the new spot that we had found on Thursday. We arrived at the spot and began to fish. The water was decently clear and we were looking for cruising fish. After fishing for about 15 minutes, I was reeling my Gulp shrimp in when a nice slot redfish almost came out of the water and swatted at it.

This told Nick and me two things: 1) these fish were actively feeding and 2) We needed to back off, slow down and pick this area apart. So we pulled back from the bank and ate a sandwich, drank a Gatorade, re-tied some baits, got the rods ready that we knew we would need, and started meticulously fishing the bank. We were hitting every area of sparse grass, every indention in the grass and any area that looked remotely like a fish could be on it or cruising by it. I made a long cast with my Gulp shrimp across a sparse grass point and felt the familiar knock of a redfish. I set the hook and knew that this was a good fish! I horsed the fish in a little to Nick's discontent, but we got it in the boat. It was a little over 22" a solid fish. So, we culled out one of the smaller 18" fish and started fishing again knowing that one more fish like that and we would be in good shape for the weigh-in. We continued to fish the bank and caught a couple of fish that were just a bit too long. We were beginning to run out of time when Nick spotted two fish cruising very close to the boat. He was fishing with a Z Man FattyZ on a flutter hook. Here is the rig:

We like this rig because it is something different that the fish may not

have seen before. The FattyZ also floats so with the flutter hook weighted 

towards the front, the tail floats up off the bottom. The color is California Craw 

and is a very natural color.

The two fish instantly locked on to his rig and within 10 seconds of flipping at the fish, Nick was hooked up with another nice fish that was about 10 feet from the boat. We got the fish in the net and knew it was another good one. It was not quite as big as the fish I caught but it was almost 21" and we culled our other small fish. We knew that we had a decent bag of fish but, nothing to get too excited over. We continued to fish the area and picked up a couple more fish that were over the slot. We decided to go back to our original spot and try to pick up one more fish. We arrived back at the spot and the wind was blowing into it very hard but, we decided to give it a shot. I was throwing a popping cork with a Gulp shrimp and a gold spoon. Nick was throwing a spinnerbait with a pearl paddle-tail swim-bait. We did not have much time left when Nick had a fish on. We knew that the fish was going to be close to 23", and unfortunately when we got the fish in the boat it was 24 1/2".  

We headed to the weigh-in with a decent bag of fish and hopes of a top 10. We got to Red's at Bohicket and weighed in our fish for a final weight of 6 lbs. 13 oz. which put us in 3rd place for the tournament and we won a few hundred dollars. 

This was only our 4th Lowcountry Redfish Cup tournament and our second top 5 finish. We feel that we have accomplished a lot in the short time that we have been tournament fishing and can't wait for the upcoming IFA tournament out of Charleston. We hope to place well in the tournament and know that we have the right fish to possibly win the tournament. This would open up a ton of opportunities for our fishing team! 

Beaufort, SC Practice Fishing Video

Here is our first video in what will be many more to come! We want to give lots of good fishing tips and pointers to help you catch more redfish!

-Thomas

Fishing on a Full Moon

Just want to give a quick update on my last fishing trip down on the coast. I decided to check out some new water south of Charleston Friday and Saturday April 26 and 27. The weather man promised decent wind and partly cloudy skies Friday and Saturday morning. By mid day Friday the wind was blowing 15-20 mph steady....

The good news is that before the wind kicked up too bad I was able to get a little fishing in. My first stop was on a little flat with some flooded grass. The full moon Thursday night left me hoping to see some tailing fish on high tide. I got my wish ,well, kind of. I found plenty of fish up in the grass, but I think because they had eaten on the full moon high tide the night before, they were not interested in anything I had. I saw 20-25 fish in the grass, but they were not interested in biting anything I had on the end of my line. The fish were cruising around enjoying the warmer water with full bellies from the night before.

I was only able to catch one mid slot red that was around some structure I found near the flat. Friday's fishing was fun getting to see all of those fish up in the grass but it was also very frustrating not being able to do anything with them!

Once the wind picked up a little after lunch the water got muddied up and I decided to call it a day.

Saturday started with gray skies and light wind. I thought this would surely be a good day on the water as long as the wind held off. Again, we had good weather until around lunch time, when the wind kicked back up. Surprise, surprise...

Saturday I decided to fish in the Charleston area, I started the day of with the high tide and followed about 12 or 15 red fish up into the grass. with the full moon high tide I was hoping to be able to find some more fish tailing, this time they were feeding big time!! There was just one problem, I could not get to the fish. My Ranger Ghost drafts 9 inches, the fish were in 6. It was fun to watch, but I just could not get to the fish.

The next spot I tried was a stretch of 10 or 12 docks in a small creek, after an hour and a half of "eliminating water" or as most would call it, wasting time I decided to try one more spot.

By the time I made it to my third spot for the day the tide was starting to pour out pretty good and I was hoping this would finally pull the fish out of the grass. Sure enough the fish were moving out of the grass, but their mood was lazy at best... The water was dirty thanks to the full moon high tide and the fish were again not interested in eating... I had 3 or 4 blow out under my boat before I finally hooked the one fish of the day. It was a good fight and the fish weighed in right at 7 lbs.

After a little time to assess the trip and how everything went I learned a couple of things I want to share that might help next time you face a full moon high tide.

There are several important elements that are our of our control that have to be accepted:
The outgoing tide water is going to be much dirtier than normal.
If the skies are even relatively clear, fish will feed at night.
The low tides will be lower than normal, which usually means the fish will be more exposed to dolphins at low tide. With this danger, they will be less likely to feed on low tide.

Of the things that we can control I think the key is to slow everything down. When reds are actively feeding they will chase bait down, but with a full belly from feeding all night they will not be very aggressive. You have to put the bait in front of the fish and let them eat it on their terms.

Be patient! If you are seeing fish stick with them...

That is one of the more challenging things about fishing for me. If I am on fish that are not aggressively feeding I will leave them and try to find other fish which may or may not be the right decision.

- Nick

Getting Ready!

This coming weekend Nick and I will be heading to Beaufort, SC to practice fish for the upcoming Low Country Redfish Cup tournament that will be held on April 6th. We are looking forward to getting down there. The weather forecast looks great, a heck of a lot better than our last outing. During this trip we are going to be trying new areas, a new technique and new equipment!

We have never fished out of Beaufort before so this trip will definitely be a learning experience for us. We plan on fishing a variety of areas that range from the far backs of creeks to bays almost in the Atlantic Ocean.  Hopefully somewhere along the way we will be able to find some slot fish. One thing that is posing a bit of a challenge for us is the vast amount of fishable areas that are around the Beaufort area. There are about 10 rivers, 2 massive sounds and hundreds of thousands of acres of marsh to fish. Obviously, there is no way to fish all of the areas that we think fish might be so we have to do a lot of looking at charts long before we ever get to the boat ramp. Preparation is key to fishing a new area when there is limited time. Another thing that helps Nick and I is that we practice fish with a different mindset. If we catch a few fish in the same area, using the same technique and the fish are slot fish or close to slot fish we will make a note of what stage the tide was at and we head to the next spot on our agenda. When you are practice fishing, as fun as it may be, there is no need to sit in an area and catch 20 fish. This allows for more spots to be fished in a day.

The new technique that I want to try is one for those low/slack tide fish that do not seem to want to hit anything. This weekend I am going to try throwing a very shiny/reflective suspending jerk bait. I want to try and get the jerk bait out in front of the schools as they cruise and when they are only a couple of feet from the lure, give it a few quick pops to see if I can get a reaction strike out of any fish in the school. It may be a complete waste of time but we'll see!

I also have a new rod and reel combo to test out this weekend. I will be fishing with Abu Garcia's newest spinning rod the Volatile. The rod is a 7.5 foot med action rod. Although it is a medium action it seems to feel more like a medium heavy action. The tip has great action in it and the rod also seems to have great backbone to it. This is something that we think is very important for a good redfish rod. It needs to have a very responsive tip and a lot of backbone and this rod seems to have it all. This weekend will hopefully put the rod to the test! The new reel is a Penn Battle 4000. It is a sweet feeling and smooth reeling and will be able to handle those reds without a problem. One neat feature of the reel is that it has a rubber ring on the middle of the spool that allows you to put braid directly onto the spool without using any backing. I can't wait to get some fish on this new combination!

Lastly, we will hopefully be getting some great video and photos and we look forward to sharing them with you! Hopefully our next post will be about all of the 23" reds that we caught!

- Thomas

Low Country Redfish Cup Charleston, SC Tournament Recap 2-23-13

To say the weather was tough would border on an understatement... The rain conveniently spent all of Friday falling, took the night off and came back to spend all day Saturday soaking us again. Thankfully we took time a few weeks before the tournament to scout out a few places and I (Nick) was able to make sure that the fish we finished fifth on last September in the Low Country Cup tournament out of Charleston were still there and hungry! Friday was a short practice day for us, we really just wanted to get on the water, get a few gps tracks laid down and maybe find some new fish.

Fortunate or not we caught a fish that was 23" on the button and was almost 5 lbs, in a spot we had never fished before. So after getting everything we owned dried back out, rigging up for tournament day we had a decision to make... Would we run to the fish that had produced for us before or try a new spot that produced one great fish, but had a major question mark on it?
Thomas and I didn't talk much at dinner that night, I think we were still trying to warm back up and figure out what to do in the tournament at the same time.

The Captains meeting went well, all except for us drawing check out number 69 of 100, we were in the second wave of boats to get to takeoff...
I want to take a moment and give a shout out to the guys that run the Low Country Redfish Cup. They bust their tails to put on a professional, organized event! Everything they do is high quality!

After a restless nights sleep trying to figure out where we were going to fish, tournament day was upon us. After much deliberation the decision was made to go to the fish we knew, it was the safe bet. We knew the fish would be there, the only question would be if they would bite...The rain was generous in waiting until we got to the boat ramp to start.... On a side note, the weather channel reported that Charleston got between 2 and 3 inches of rain Friday and Saturday. Everything got wet.

Check-out was smooth, the run to our spot was as easy as could be expected in a steady rain storm. The best part was, we got to our spot and the fish were there. We watched a few push up and down the bank until an unexpected competitor pulled up and ruined our day! A pod of 5 or 6 dolphins came into our flat and proceeded to wreck our fish. The dolphins were able to eat several slot sized redfish right in front of us. We watched the dolphins gang up on school after school of reds and push them up against the grass and in many cases completely out of the water before they ate the fish.

We were able to manage one 24" redfish out of the school before they completely shut down. we tried several other spots, where we saw fish, but just could not get them to eat.

The day was long, wet, cold and tough. We were one of the 21 teams that were unable to weigh a fish that day. However, the tournament was not a complete loss. Every time I get on the water I learn something new and that was certainly the case with this tournament.

I learned that when dolphins crash the party you need to leave, especially if they are aggressive as the dolphins that we saw during the tournament. We also learned the value of quality rain gear.
No matter the weather there are always fish to be caught, you just have to be smart enough to figure out how to catch them.

Only a little over a month until the next Low Country Cup event out of Beaufort! We are ready to give it another go!!

- Nick