by Lee Padrick, June 6, 2016 Dwayne and I had the opportunity to fish the Carolina Redfish Series Event #1 on June 4, 2016, held at Chasin' Tails Outdoors in Atlantic Beach. We checked out as Boat #22 in the 24-boat field at 5:45 AM. Our gameplan included about 10 different spots where we had caught fish in practice, so we were in run-and-gun mode all day. Our first stop yielded 5 fish, and we had about 8 lbs total weight in the livewell. We hit 3 more spots, and caught no fish. Our next stop gave up 2 fish, both upgrades, so we knew we had about 9 lbs. Stopped at 2 more spots, caught nothing, then made a run to a place where I had caught a perfect fish the day before in practice.
The new moon low tide pulled all the water out of the marshes in the afternoon, and the fish we were looking for were obviously pressured, so we would find the school, pull a fish out, and they would disappear again. Caught 4 fish at this spot, but couldn't find any upgrades, so we headed back for the 3 PM weigh in. Ended up in 7th place with 9.5 lbs. We caught 11 fish over the course of the day, the weather was nice and hot (like summertime should be), and it was an enjoyable day on the water.
by Lee Padrick, April 24, 2016 Dwayne and I had the honor of fishing the Carolina Redfish Series 2015 Championship, that was rescheduled until this spring because of a hurricane warning last fall.
Grundens, baby
We both had fished a lot in practice, and neither one of us had caught fish. So, since the tournament was Winner-To-All, we decided to roll the dice and fish a place we had never fished before. We checked out Saturday morning as Boat No. 6, and ran to our new spot. I put the jackplate up and we drove into the spot on a rising tide like we had been there before. When we came off plane, we were in 1' of water. And apparently, we had just run across a mile of 1' water. We fished the area hard. It was overcast and windy, but we made a bunch of casts, and there was no fish home. So, at 11:30 am, we decided to scramble. First stop was a place I had caught some fish Easter Weekend, but nothing since. And we caught nothing.
Our last stop was a creek where I had caught some rat reds on Easter Weekend. We ended up catching 6 fish, and weighed a bag of 6.85 lbs, good enough for 7th place.
Dwayne and I finished in 6th place at Carolina Redfish Series Event #2, held out of Chasin' Tails Outdoors on June 13, 2015. We checked out that morning as Team #14, and tried something different than last tournament. We took Dwayne's Shallow Sport 18' Bahia, and it performed beautifully in the 15-20 knot southwest winds that greeted us that morning. We ran about 15 miles from the checkout, and while the conditions over open water that we had to cross were some of the roughest I can remember in a tournament, the Shallow Sport earned its keep and did a fabulous job getting us there safely.
Early morning hookup
We got to our spot and it was dead high tide. After putting 3 fish in the boat early, our bite slowed down. We had a 5 lb fish, and another fish that was around 3 lbs, for an 8 lb aggregate weight. Not enough to compete against the caliber of competitors in this tournament. We boated 3 more fish, but every fish was 2.9 lbs, cookie cutters.
Upgrade
We decided to stick to our best spot throughout the extreme low tide, and we averaged a bite about every 45 minutes. Finally, as the tide started to fill in, we found our school and put 8 fish in the boat in a chaotic flurry. Dwayne caught a 6 lber to upgrade our bag, and we thought we were around 11 lbs. Given the windy conditions and low tide, we figured we were in the top 5. Our fish weighed 11.07 lbs, good enough for 6th place. Apparently, the top teams on the day caught some nice fish in rough conditions. Good job to all of those teams!
Our first stop yielded 5 fish, and we had about 8 lbs total weight in the livewell. We hit 3 more spots, and caught no fish. 
The new moon low tide pulled all the water out of the marshes in the afternoon, and the fish we were looking for were obviously pressured, so we would find the school, pull a fish out, and they would disappear again. Caught 4 fish at this spot, but couldn't find any upgrades, so we headed back for the 3 PM weigh in.
Ended up in 7th place with 9.5 lbs.
