Redfish Guys Finish in 7th Place at 2016 Carolina Redfish Series #1

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.


Congrats to Jonathan Garrett and Matt Littleton for winning the event with 12.8 lbs.  

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 for all they do to keep us on the water.  

- Lee

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I'll have video of our day up soon, still working on a lifestyle video from Memorial Day Weekend that I'm going to publish first.

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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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Padrick/Smith Finish in 3rd Place at Carolina Redfish Series #1

by Lee Padrick, June 1, 2015

Dwayne and I finished in 3rd place at Carolina Redfish Series 2015 Event #1.  We had practiced in all the spots we knew between Drum Inlet and New River, and the biggest schools of fish were south of the Highway 58 Bridge.  So we planned to fish the biggest schools of fish we found.

First fish

We drew Team #25 out of 26 teams, so we were next to last at checkout on May 30, 2015.  The tournament was held out of Chasin' Tails Outdoors in Atlantic Beach.

Upgrade fish

Dwayne and I arrived at our first stop after a hard run.  It took a little while, but we figured out the pattern of our fish, and started putting fish in the boat.  We caught a few smaller fish and had two in the livewell, but we didn't have much over 7 pounds.  Then Dwayne stuck a nice fish, close to 6 lbs, so things were looking better.  I stuck a nice fish on a gold spoon, and we upgraded to a little over 10 lbs.  Then Dwayne put another nice one in the boat, a fish around 6 lbs, and we had an aggregate weight that was close to our target weight.  A few minutes later, I made a cast to where I thought the fish were, but no takers on my gold spoon, so I was retrieving it pretty fast so I could cast back to the spot.  A fish hammered the spoon close to the boat, and after we netted it, we saw it was a thick one.  We measured it a few times, but couldn't get it measure under the 27" mark but once, so after flipping it a few times, we released it.  

So close, but too big

We had around 12 pounds in the livewell, so we went to another spot to fish low tide, and found our school in some shallow water.  I stuck one immediately, but broke the fish off.  Big mistake on my part.  We got another shot at the school, and Dwayne boated a 28" fish on a gold spoon.  

Then we spent the next few hours trying to find our school, which disappeared with the extremely low tide.  Still have no idea where those fish went.  Ended up catching 15 fish on the day, just not the right ones.

3rd Place with 12.12 lbs

We headed back to the scales with what we had, and ended up with the 3rd place weight of 12.12 pounds.  

Congrats to Captain Mike Taylor and John Roberts with a big winning bag of 13.42 lbs.  Captain Jeff Cronk and his wife Kellee finished ahead of us in 2nd place with 12.45 lbs.  We ended up in 3rd, just ahead of our Hook and Bones teammates On Point Fishing, the team of Garrett and Littleton that finished in 4th place with 11.77 lbs.  Big congratulations to all the teams that weighed fish on a tough tide.

Leaderboard

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.

We had a lot of fun and look forward to next event in the series on June 13th.
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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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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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