Padrick/Smith Finish 6th at Carolina Redfish Series #2

by Lee Padrick, June 15, 2015

Checkout

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!

Congrats to Captain Tom Roller and his partner, John Hadley with a big winning bag of 13.30 lbs.  Jake Gainey and Jerry Burns finished  in 2nd place with 11.99 lbs.  Captain Rick Patterson and John Hislop finished in 3rd place with 11.59 lbs.  Big congratulations to all the teams that weighed fish on a tough tide.

We want to thank Chasin' Tails Outdoors, PointClickFish.com, Crystal Coast Graphics, and Hook and Bones for putting on a great tournament.

We also want to thank Salt Life Optics, Grunden's, Salty Bay Baits, Deep Creek Lures, Captain Gary's Marine Care Products, Fins Superbraids, Pro-Cure Bait Scents, Bubba Blade Fishing Knives, Tsunami Air Wave Rods, Bimini Bay Outfitters, Buccaneer Bait Company, and Power Pole Swallow Water Anchors.  

Check out Randy Nelson and Explore Inshore for footage of the event.  We're going fishing with Randy and his video camera at the end of June and we're excited about the trip.

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