IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Champs 2010

Georgetown pig 30" taken on a popping cork w/ soft plastic

Last Saturday we finished up our last IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Tournament. We pre fished from Georgetown to Charleston and everywhere in between. We found fish on every piece of water we fished and found new fish in several differents spots and water bodies. There is so much productive water down there and some of the most beautiful rivers anywhere with all sorts of wildlife on the banks. We saw several bald eagles up close and too many alligators to count. Some gators were up to 12 ft long and some were just babies. I snagged one little gator and brought him on the boat and released him unharmed. What aggressive little reptiles.














Little gator backing me in the corner

On game day we struggled to find the right sized fish as the tide was not in our favor early. We started out with some undersized fish then I got a 22 3/4 inch red (23" is the top of the slot in SC) then we struggled to find another fish in the slot for an hour or two. Then Drew got a 19" fish in an old standby spot. Then we made a long run to finish the day in a spot that we found numerous slot fish willing to eat earlier in the week. We popped two fish as the water was much siltier and stirred up than the conditions we faced earlier in the week. We both got an oversized fish each then headed back to Georgetown. We were behind one team by one point/place and another one by 3 points going into the tourney. After everyone had weighed in we found out we had just edged out the second place team by one point to capture our second IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Title in a row. Now we have the IFA Championship in Orange Beach, Al where we will compete against the other 4 divisional winners for the national team of the year.

Tight lines,
Capt Ren

Perfect Georgetown slot Georgetown Green Fish

Good prefishing tough tourney

Hurricane Drew and I finished the Redfish Action series with about as poor of result as the previous two tournaments. We finished last season as the Redfish Action Team of the Year and Series Champions and were runner up the previous year. Hopefully next year will be better fishing on the flats up there. Thank God we are done with redfish tourneys in MHC this season. In years past we have been able to roll up to MHC for a day or two of pre fishing and wack 40 to 50 fish on game day. Those days did not happen this year for us. Yes there were a few teams that cashed in fishing a few areas like the haystacks, Core Creek, and the beach but overall MHC as well as our area have not been what they have in the past. I cannot say for sure what has happened this year to the numbers of redfish inshore but I can tell you the obvious answer lies in the cold water temps for extended period of time the past two winters the last one being the worst. I am not saying there have not been any fish inshore. I have had several 30 fish days this season on trips but they have been the rarety instead of the norm as in the past few years. Ok enough of that. We caught about six fish on game day and my first two fish were overslot and Hurricane pulled a fish and had a breakoff on his first two. I knew going into the day from our prefishing that if we did not pull two nice upper slots early in the day the fish would start moving and it would be hard to get anything besides lower slot fish out of the school. We saw several overslot fish in the school we targeted on game day earlier in the week but could not catch anything but slots then. A

We are only 3 points out of the IFA Atlantic Division points race for team of the year. The final tourney in Gtown will determine team of the year. We are striving to defend our IFA Atlantic Division title so we can compete at the IFA Championship for national team of the year once again.

Fun family fishing

Took the girls out for an afternoon beach/fishing trip yesterday. The girls found sand dollars and other shells until the flies about took us away. The surf was flat and the temperature was beautiful but when the wind blows over the dunes the flies are horrible. We decided to do a little fishing in the ocean since the conditions were perfect. The bait is so thick out there right now it has everything eating and following. The mullet run is in full swing as they head south. There are also millions of glass minnows and a lot of menhaden as well. We had spanish macks all around the boat as we came out of the inlet but decided to go a little further offshore to tangle with some real fighters-false albacore. They were so keyed in on little bait that I had to go through about 12 different baits to see what color, size, sink rate, etc. they were in the mood for. I finally found a bait that they were crushing a small suspending twitch bait. The girls and I fought false albacore until sunset and then headed to the dock. The sunset was beautiful and we were content with sore arms and big smiles as we came to the dock.

Sizzling September

To stay September started off with a bang would be an understatement. The trout have showed up in great numbers and they are not dinks. I went out late yesterday afternoon to hit some tailing flats. The reds were there. I pitched baits to several fish and hooked up with a few of them. I erased the pics by accident last night. As I awaited the tide to flood the flats I caught a few trout on the edges of the grass. They were hitting the top all around me.
This morning I greeted several tailing fish on several different flats trying to hit flats I had never fished. I was rewarded for prospecting new areas-reds were all over the flats I hit. Some were crawling through spartina grass with half their backs out of the water. I fished the tide out in several old and some new spots. I saw several fish at low tide and caught 6 or so but most were shut down and not interested in any of my offerings. On the way home I hit a not so "secret" flounder area. I pulled up a nice 21 inch flatty for the grease on a 7 inch jerk bait on a jighead. Caught two other flatties earlier in the day on plastic and spinnerbaits. The reds ate spinnerbaits and plastic. No topwater reds today in the hard southwest wind. Saw several reds crawling at low tide with hald their backs out of the water.
Bedtime now-more redfish stalking in the skinny tomorrow morning.

Tight lines,
Capt Ren

August 2010 Recap

August was another good fishing month. Lots of mixed bags during the month on topwater lures, spoons, hard and soft plastics. The bait was everywhere during this month. Mullet, shrimp, crabs, menhaden were all thick and the fish were aggressive.

July fishing recap

July was a good month for me. My little girl entered the world with good health and no complications for her or my wife. The fishing was good as well. The topwater continued to be strong through the upper stages of high tide. Also had some good days at dead low tide as large schools of fish moved onto several flats in our region.
Hurricane Drew and I struggled our way to a top ten finish in the Redfish Action tournament out of MHC although we had some battery issues that only allowed us to fish for 3 hours during the tournament. We were forced to come back to the dock at 9:00am to work on the battery cables that were fried when we gave a friend of ours a jump before tournament hours as his batteries were dead. Hopefully our next tourney will be less eventful and allow us to fish the entire day.

Long overdue update

Peyton with her 26 incher at HT3 weigh in

Gator trout 29" caught a 25" same day on spinnerbaits and three others around 21"

Nice slot pulled out of a super skinny clear water flat-weightless baits were the ticket

Jody with a nice 30 incher-one of several landed on this day

18 nice sheepshead caught to finish a trip up this day

Well it has been a while since I updated my blog. The short version of why is that I have been busy with charters, tournaments, TV work, and my beautiful baby girl Alexis Cameron entered the world in July. I have been fishing a lot since the past post so I will give an update with pics now.
June was a good month although the mercury was so high the fish were lethargic most days in the early afternoon. The topwater bite was good in the mornings and evenings especially when the cooler ocean water cooled down the flats during the upper stages of high tide. My stepdaughter Peyton and I fished the HT3 Redfish tourney June 19 and finished 10th place. We had a camera on board as we got some nice fish early-most overslot on topwater. That episode of Carolina Fishing TV can be seen at www.carolinafishingtv.com. Were stuck most of the day due to the tide falling faster than I had calculated.
During June I landed several gator trout, flounder, and redfish from Morehead City to Southport and everywhere in between. The sheepshead bite was outstanding during June.