Padrick/Smith - 2nd Place At Redfish Shootout Series Championship

by Lee Padrick, October 13, 2014

On Saturday, October 11, 2014, Dwayne and I (the Redfish Guys) had the honor of fishing in the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series Championship, an event the top 10 teams in the series qualified to fish.  We checked out at 6:45 AM out of Fulcher Landing in Sneads Ferry, NC, and had until 4 PM to get back to the scales.

With a rising tide and relatively light SW winds, Dwayne and I went north for ~60 miles to fish.  We stopped off at our first stop, a low tide spot that usually produces a few fish.  I had a topwater blowup, and a few minutes later, Dwayne hooked up on a nice fish on a popping cork rig.  

Our next stop produced our second fish of the day, a mid-slot red that snatched Dwayne's topwater lure off of a grass bed.  The wind was increasing, but easily fishable.  We got no more bites, so we headed to our next spot, a series of remote marsh islands.  We fished three good spots, but did not have a bite.


So we headed to the back of a coastal river and fished a couple of spots.  The first stop produced a fish, but no upgrade.  We then fished a nearby creek bank and Dwayne caught a handful of fish, but we upgraded by a few ounces.  


With time getting short, we made our way to the gas pump for the ride back to Sneads Ferry.  We did not think our weight was going to be enough to win against our fellow competitors, some of the toughest in the state.

Our two-fish aggregate weighed 10.07 lbs, good enough for 2nd place, but a long way from the winning weight of Captain Mike Pedersen and Captain Lee Parsons, who weighed in 2 big fish for a total of 11.9 lbs.  Congrats to Captain Mike and Captain Lee for their championship win, and congrats to Captain Jason Dail and Captain Wayne Crisco for their 3rd place finish.

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.  And big thanks to Mike and Vickie Pedersen, Daniel Sbrocco, and all the folks involved with the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series for putting on a great tournament series.  


Our next event is the CCA Inside/Out Tournament on October 18th at Portside Marina in Morehead City, NC.  We are looking forward to it. - Lee


Video of our day


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Redfish Guys Win Carolina Redfish Series #3

by Lee Padrick, September 29, 2014

On Saturday, September 27th, Dwayne and I had the opportunity to fish the third and final event in the Carolina Redfish Series, held at Chasin' Tails Outdoors in Atlantic Beach.  Nineteen (19) teams entered and competed in the blustery northeast winds.

Dwayne and I headed eastward a few minutes after 6:45 AM.  The wind was forecast to blow 15-20 kts out of the northeast, and high tide was around noon.  So because of the incoming tide and the strong north winds, we would have plenty of water in our fishing spots.

We arrived at our first stop, a marsh in Back Sound, and spent about an hour blindcasting an area where we had caught some low tide fish in practice.  We didn't catch anything, so we headed to our next spot, a grass island/oyster bed in southern Core Sound.  The wind was increasing, and this area was exposed to the northeast winds, so we PowerPoled down and started casting popping cork rigs.  Dwayne caught the first fish of the day, a small 4.5 lb red.  He quickly followed that fish up with a 28.5" fish, that was outside of the 18"-27" slot limit our target fish had to meet.  I hooked up, and we had about 10 lbs in the livewell.  There was a school of reds around this particular grass island, as we slowly picked our way through them and upgraded the fish in the livewell.  

The wind continued to increase, and the waves were literally lifting the boat up a few feet at a time, and the PowerPole was bouncing, as we kept drifting closer to the oyster bed.  Several times, we repositioned the boat, only to have the boat bounce along again toward the oyster bed.  We caught about 10 fish in this spot, but decided to leave, as the wind and waves were making it difficult to stand up in the boat.

Our next stop was a remote marsh along Core Banks.  A very wet, rough boat ride got us to our spot, but the fish were not in their regular haunts, so we decided to head to a wind-protected bank in Core Sound.  When we arrived, the tide was high and fishing the area was going to be difficult with all of the excess water, so we decided to ride out the rest of our time in the back of one of the local coastal rivers.

When we arrived at our next stop, the wooded shoreline offered us protection from the wind, so we were able to fish in relative comfort.  We caught a few fish, but did not upgrade our 12 lbs in the livewell, so we moved to another nearby spot.  This area yielded the best fish of the day, as we found a steady bite and slowly upgraded our fish, until we had what we thought was around 13.5 lbs in the livewell.

We headed back to the 4 PM weigh-in, and weighed in a two-fish aggregate of 13.82 lbs, good enough for 1st place in the tournament, and enough points to give us the coveted Team Of The Year title.

Congratulations to all the competitors that fished the series this year. 

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.  And big thanks to John Moore, Jay Feimster, and Matt Lamb, and all the folks involved with the Carolina Redfish Series for putting on a great tournament series.  


Our next event is the Riley Rods Championship Shootout on October 11th at Fulchers Landing in Sneads Ferry.  We are looking forward to it. - Lee

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Redfish Guys Win Riley Rods Fall Shootout 2014

by Lee Padrick, September 22, 2014

On Saturday, September 20, 2014, Dwayne Smith and I had the opportunity to fish the Riley Rods Fall Shootout in Surf City, NC, one of three stops on the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series.  Ten teams entered the tournament and made their way to their fishing spots at 6:45 AM.

Dwayne and I had spent some time fishing Sneads Ferry, New River, Swansboro, and Morehead City, but the best fish we could find were in a remote marsh in Sneads Ferry.  We had a falling tide all morning, with a low tide 12:30 PM, so we decided to run about 15 miles north and fish two areas that were holding good fish at low tide.

The morning was cloudy and the wind was blowing 15-20 mph out of the northeast, so it was a good day to fish popping corks.  Dwayne and I arrived at our first stop and started fishing a marsh point where we had caught fish in the past.  Dwayne quickly boated a small undersized red, followed by a 3 1/2 lb fish that went into the livewell.  About 20 minutes later, I caught an undersized red.  So we moved down a marsh bank, hoping to pick up some better fish.  As we neared a post on the flat, I looked down and saw several mud boils.  We continued down the bank without success, so we slowly made our way back up the flat.

Culling fish

We started fishing our original marsh point again, and I hooked a quality fish, a 26 3/4" red.  So we were sitting at a little over 10 lbs, when Dwayne caught another fish that upgraded our smallest by 2 ounces.  We're around the 10.5 lb mark at this point.

Another hour or so of fishing brought more wind and some rain, but once the rain stopped, the wind backed down and we took advantage of the calmer conditions, trading our popping corks for topwaters and gold spoons.  

As we neared the post where we had seen the mud boils earlier, we decided to PowerPole down and fish this area hard.  After a couple of casts, I hooked up on a nice fish that inhaled my topwater, and when we got the fish in the boat, it was a 26 15/16" red that was a few ounces lighter than our bigger fish.  So we released our smaller fish and we knew we were over 13 lbs at this point.

We fished for another few hours, then moved to a marsh where I had seen a few fish and caught a 6+ lber in practice.  Dwayne hooked up on a mid-slot fish on a topwater lure, but we didn't upgrade our weight.  Around 3 PM, we started heading back for the weigh-in at 4 PM.

Our two-fish aggregate was 13.30 lbs, good enough for 1st place.  We got lucky, especially when the relentless wind died down for a ten minute period, where we were able to cover more water and when we caught our kicker fish.

Congratulations to all the guys who fished it.  Great job by Damian James and Bill Driggers for second place, and Allen Jernigan and Tim Chavez for third place.  The competition was as stiff as the wind on Saturday.

The Redfish Guys in 1st place with 13.30 lbs

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.  And big thanks to Riley Rods, Mike Pedersen, John Moore, and Daniel Sbrocco for putting on a great tournament series.  We look forward to fishing the final event of the season, the Riley Rods Championship Shootout on October 11th at Fulchers Landing.

Our next event is September 27th at the Carolina Redfish Series Event #3 in Atlantic Beach.    The Carolina Redfish Series really puts together a premier event, so this should be a lot of fun.  We are looking forward to it. - Lee

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Video of our day

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Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong

by Lee Padrick, August 11, 2014

For the too long, didn't read (tl;dr) folks:  We skunked.

"Something has gone terribly wrong," I told Dwayne Smith, one-half of the Redfish Guys at 10 AM on Saturday, August 9th.  "Horribly wrong," Dwayne chimed in, not a hint of emotion in his voice.  Dwayne and I were fishing the Swansboro Hook and Bones Redfish Open, the second stop on the Carolina Redfish Series and we were in a remote marsh system along the southern Outer Banks, a long way from, well, ... everything. 

The Swansboro Hook and Bones Redfish Open is our Super Bowl.  While its one of three stops on the Carolina Redfish Series, thanks to the generous prize money guaranteed by the Town of Swansboro Parks and Recreation Department, this is the tournament where tournament anglers have the best shot at bigger payouts.  Winning this tournament, or at least doing well, has been our goal all season.

Practice makes perfect,
except when it doesn't

Dwayne and I had done some extensive scouting leading up to the event, and we had found good numbers of quality fish about 45 miles east of Downtown Swansboro, the checkout site for this tournament.  We had found good fish in other areas, but the remote marsh area held the most fish we had found, so it was not a hard decision to roll the dice and fish this area hard, particularly with a high tide around 9 AM in this area.  

We ran from Swansboro toward Morehead City.  The wind was light out of the northeast at checkout, and the ride east was not too bumpy.  But as we exited the Goat Island shortcut, we were hit right in the face by a stiff 20 knot northeast wind.  The weatherman had missed the wind forecast by at least 10 knots.  The next 20 miles offered 2' chop and an old fashioned butt-whipping.

One learning experience we took away from the tournament is to always wear your rain gear for long runs, because by the time our boat came off plane at our first stop, we were both soaked.  For some reason, I had a gut feeling that something did not look or feel right about our fishing spot.  Apparently Dwayne had the same feeling, but neither one of us vocalized our apprehension.  

We fished hard for the next three hours, and as the tide started to drop, we both felt that our fish just were not home today.  By 10 AM, we both realized that it was time to do something different, so we ran the boat about 10 miles west to a backup spot, but after fishing for an hour, we still had not caught any fish.  Our fishing window was quickly closing as the tide started to drop significantly.  At this time, we decided to call an audible, so we secured everything in the boat and headed to the back of one of the local river systems.  

Not home on Game Day

Our last stop was a wind-protected bank, and Dwayne stuck a nice fish on topwater around 1:30 pm.  We didn't have much time left to fish and get back to the weigh-in site, but at least our luck was improving.  Unfortunately, this fish was 28", too big to fit within the required 18-27" slot in North Carolina, and we caught no more fish as the clock wound down.

Where did this fish go?

"At some point in the next few hours, I'm going to have a good cry," I told Dwayne as our fishing time ran out.  And later that night, I did.

The old cliche is that luck is best defined as the intersection of preparation and opportunity.  Unfortunately for us, while the preparation was present, the opportunity was not.  While we searched hard for opportunity, it was not to be found.  Just a long road of disappointment, sorrow, and failure.  And some good-hearted laughs at our predicament.  So we made the reluctant phone call to the Tournament Director that we had no fish and would not make it back to the weigh-in.

Congratulations to Rennie Clark and Drew Arndt for bringing in an impressive aggregate weight of 14.07 pounds for the win.  And great job by all the anglers that weighed fish and competed.

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.   And thanks to Hook and Bones, the Town of Swansboro Parks and Recreation, PointClickFish.com, and Chasin' Tails Outdoors for putting together the Carolina Redfish Series. 

Our next event is September 20th at the third stop on the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series, that will be held out of Surf City.    After a disappointing tournament day, an opportunity to catch and weigh fish is exactly what we need.  We are looking forward to it. - Lee

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Padrick/Smith Place 2nd at Carolina Redfish Series #1

by Lee Padrick, June 2, 2014

Courtesy of Carolina Redfish Series

On May 31st, Dwayne and I had the opportunity to fish the inaugural event of the Carolina Redfish Series, a new tournament trail that consists of three events over the course of the season.  At safe light, 18 teams competed for the 1st place prize of $2,000.  

Dwayne and I had done a fair amount of scouting in the weeks leading up to the event.  We had spent a few days in Swansboro, but did not find enough fish or a pattern that we could rely on, so we decided to focus our practice efforts in eastern Carteret County.  We found an area about 20 miles from takeoff that was holding good numbers of fish, and decided to fish there on tournament day.  

We checked out as Boat #17 on tournament morning and took our time getting to our fishing spot, since the tide was low.  As the tide rose, we were able to get to the area holding fish.  Found fish after a few casts, and caught fish in flurries of chaos during the day, ending up catching around 45 fish.  The fish were in an odd mood and seemed to prefer topwater lures, versus our Salty Bay Red Devils or gold spoons that we had caught them on in practice.  While we would have preferred to fish the single hooks of jigs/Red Devils or spoons, we listened to the fish and threw topwater, although the treble hooks cost us a few fish over the course of the day.

The wind increased to a solid 15 knots during the morning, but the fish still cooperated.  We culled fish most of the day, making half-pound upgrades here and there.  As the sun reached its midday point, the fish started to prefer gold spoons instead of the topwater lures.  We fished until 2:45 pm, then packed up our gear for the ride back to the 4 pm weigh-in at Chasin' Tails Outdoors, on the Causeway at Atlantic Beach.  We thought we had somewhere between 12.8 and 13.1 lbs of fish.

Courtesy of Carolina Redfish Series

It was a good day of fishing for most of the teams in the event, as 15 out of the 18 teams weighed in fish.  Our fish ended up weighing 12.94 lbs, just a hundredth of a pound less than Team B & G's winning bag of 12.95 lbs, putting us in 2nd place.  Congrats to Dave Bernstein and Daniel Griffee of Team B & G for their win!  And great job by all the competitors.

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.  

Our next event is August 9th at the Hook and Bones tournament, part of Carolina Redfish Series Event #2 in Swansboro.    The Hook and Bones folks and the Town of Swansboro really put together a premier event, so this should be a lot of fun.  We are looking forward to it. - Lee

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6th Place For The Redfish Guys

by Lee Padrick, March 30, 2014

The Redfish Guys competed on March 22, 2014 in the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series at the West Beaufort Regional Access ramp at Event #1, (3 events, and a Championship Shootout).  Directed by Captain Mike Pedersen, and Daniel Sbrocco as the Weighmaster, ten (10) teams competed.

Dwayne and I had been scouting for the past few weeks, and we spent an entire day in Swansboro on a cold, windy Saturday with water temps around 43.  We saw 3 fish and caught none during practice in Area Code 910.  We had found some fish locally, and we thought we could catch between 9.5 - 11 pounds, with our two-fish limit.  Last year, 10 lbs of two redfish would get you in the money, so we stayed with the local plan.

The field headed toward the No Wake Zone at 6:45 AM, and a shotgun start sent boats heading different directions.  Four teams headed across Bogue Sound toward the Swansboro area, the rest of the field stayed in the 252 area code.

In the local area, Dwayne and I were fishing a slick calm morning with a 7:22 AM low tide, and rising throughout the morning.  We fished out of Dwayne's 18' Shallow Sport Bahia, and jacked the motor up to the 4 mark on the jackplate.  Took a few short cuts, then Dwayne gave me the honor of running a shallow flat toward our fish.  I bumped twice on the ride into our spot, intending to set the boat down in 2' of water.  Pulled back on the throttle as we arrived in deeper water, and fish scattered.  Uh oh, I think I just ran across the fish.

After rigging up for a morning of fishing, Dwayne and I started to fancast Salty Bay Red Devils (in gold flake and lime jello) around the boat.  We fished slowly, but kept spooking the fish in the shallow water.  Finally, I hooked up on a mid-slot red, and we had a 3.8 lb fish in the livewell.  The bite was slow, and the wind increased to 15 knots.

Dwayne caught a 4.9 lb fish to round out our limit, then it was time for an upgrade.  We had a few bites, and tried several techniques.  Jigs/Red Devils, weedless soft plastics in Pro-Cure and scented baits under popping corks.  Dwayne hooked up with a nice fish, and handed me the rod as he grabbed the net.  We boated a 5.7 lb fish, and upgraded our smaller red.  We had about 10.6 lbs of fish in the livewell, and we thought our weight was enough to cash.  

Pulled a hook on another fish, then it was time to weigh our fish in at 4 PM.  We loaded the boat on the trailer, and grabbed a basket to put our fish in.  There was already 4 teams with 11+ lbs on the board!  These guys brought their 'A' games.  Our bag weighed in at 10.67 lbs, good enough for 6th place in the event.


Had a great time fishing with Dwayne and fishing against some great competitors.  Captain Robbie Hall and Jon Morton won with 12.30 lbs, a well deserved win!  Captain Allen Jernigan and Tim Chavez weighed in 11.94 lbs for second place, and Captain Johnathan Garrett/Prestidge came in third place with 11.81 lbs.  All of the top three teams fished south of the Hwy 58 bridge.  

I want to thank Hook and Bones, Salty Bay Baits, Temple Fork Outfitters, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Fins Premium Superlines, No Slack Tackle, Bubba Blade, and PointClickFish.com for keeping us on the water.  

6th place with 10.67 lbs

Our next event is May 31, 2014 at the Carolina Redfish Series Event #1 in Atlantic Beach.  Looking forward to warmer water/weather and more aggressive fish. - Lee

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