Our Dad is an extremely passionate bass fisherman, and he has been all of his life. So fishing just came naturally to us. We started out fishing in bass tournaments with our Dad. We also fished in our neighborhood lake and pond as much as we possibly could, holding tournaments of our own between a group of us kids in the neighborhood.
By the time we were in high school, sports had taken the place of fishing competitively. We did still manage to go bass fishing a good bit, just not as much as we did when we were younger. Outdoor tv shows and channels other than TNN or ESPN started to become more and more popular when we were in high school. We began watching a few different shows that featured people fishing for Redfish, Red Drum, Spottail Bass; this fish was completely foreign to us even though apparently our South Carolina coast had some of the best fishing there is on the Atlantic coast. The part that intrigued us the most was that bait presentation wise: there were a ton of similarities to bass fishing!
So, not wanting to take a bass boat out in the saltwater and being too green to understand the tides, my Dad decided to book a guided trip out of Georgetown with Captain Tommy Scarborough who is a great guide and still guides today out of Georgetown, SC. By this time Nick was in college and I was still in high school. This was in the spring of 2006. My Dad took Nick and I separately on our spring breaks. If I remember correctly the weather was not good at all but, we still caught a good many fish. At this point the three of us were hooked, no pun intended. It was sight fishing for bass on steroids and a fight to match. There is nothing like a 30" or 36" redfish almost knocking the rod out of your hand then stripping 20 yards of line before you can even start to reel.
So, here began our great journey into the world of the redfish....
We went fishing quite a few times with another great guy and guide Captain J.R. Waits out of Isle of Palms, SC where we continued to learn more and more about the sport of fishing for redfish. We also took trips to Buras, Louisiana and fished with Paradise Plus Guide Service and Captain Anthony Randazzo. We got spoiled in Louisiana catching 36" fish until our arms no longer worked. I distinctly remember catching fish left and right and having to take a break to eat a sandwich and let my arms recover because they were so tired.
After taking multiple trips to Louisiana we began to want to fish on our own. We had a 16' War Eagle jon boat that we duck hunted out of that we started off fishing from. The War Eagle was great to hunt with maybe not so great to fish from. With three people all trying to fish in current that was tossing the boat around and around like it was nothing was not fun. Add on top of that that when we started fishing we had no idea how to deal with the tides. The tides mean everything when it comes to redfish and there is a very steep learning curve. We began to watch every redfish show/video that there was and read books, maps and tide charts. After a couple of years we began to fish with some decent success. We could go out and catch a couple of fish almost every time that we went. Our problem was that we felt our boat was limiting our ability to catch fish. So in April of 2011, we bought a 2012 Ranger 184 Ghost. The first time we took it out to fish we realized it was the bee's knees compared to the jon boat!!
Having the Ranger has allowed us to access many areas that previously were not accessible. The Ranger has a 150 Yamaha 4-stroke, dual power poles, a polling platform, a casting platform and drafts 9" of water. This allowed us to fish the high tide flats much more precisely and also be able to run across larger bodies of water in less than ideal conditions. Since 2011, we have been constantly fishing and learning new water from Georgetown to Beaufort.
Also, during this time Nick, who is a youth minister for the First Baptist Church of Belton, SC began to get some help with fishing from one of his church members, Glen Finley, an very accomplished fisherman in the competitive redfish world. Glen has won numerous IFA tournaments and was the 2008 IFA Redfish Tour Champion. He has proved to be an extremely valuable resource for us.
In October 2011, Nick and our Dad fished in our first competitive tournament in the Low Country Redfish Cup out of Georgetown, SC. They did not catch any slot limit fish. We continued to fish as much as possible and in September of 2011, Nick and our Dad came in 5th place in the Low Country Redfish Cup tournament out of South Charleston. Top 5 in a tournament with over 50 boats that was also only our second tournament!!
We realized that we might just be on to something.
Unfortunately, as seen in our third tournament that we just fished in Charleston, SC with the Low Country Redfish Cup, we still have a long way to go. But, our desire to improve and to be a competitive team has not wavered. It has only increased. We look forward to what is to come for us and our fishing team.
Personal Bio's
Thomas Kirby
Thomas is 24 years old and currently lives in Clemson, South Carolina with his wife Brooke. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology from Clemson University in 2011 and is currently pursuing his masters degree in Forest Resource Management at Clemson as well. His wife Brooke, works at Clemson Elementary School. Although Brooke and Thomas met at Clemson, Brooke is a diehard Gamecock fan and has been her entire life. They love doing anything they can outdoors and Brooke goes hunting and fishing with Nick and Thomas as much as she can. They also have a dog, Pepper Anne, who is Thomas' hunting dog.
Nick Kirby
Nick is 26 years old and lives in Belton S.C. with Whitney his wife. After Graduating from Anderson University in 2007 and 2008, Whitney and Nick moved to Belton where Nick is the youth minister at Belton First Baptist Church and Whitney teaches at Belton Elementary. Nick is currently working on his Masters of Ministry at Anderson University.
looks like you have enjoy fishing
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