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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