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