The last few trips of 2011

Here are a few pics from the last few trips of 2011. What a another great year. Drew and I won another IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division title for the third straight year and we ended the tournament season with a trip to Louisiana. Fishing was great again in 2011 and I can only hope that our winter will remain mild. We need a couple mild winters to get our trout back from the past three bitter winters and massive fish kills. Thanks to all of my loyal patrons and my sponsors for their support in 2011. Hopefully 2012 will be a great fishing year as well.

Tight lines and happy New year!

Capt Ren

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Trout Smackdown

Hit the water at 2:30 and wacked about eighty trout in a very short trip. Off the water by 5:30. We caught 40 or so trout that were between 18 and 22 inches. Kept our limit for the grease. I caught all of my fish on Category5 suicide croakers and shrimp minnows. All of my bigger trout swallowed this lure. Steve was throwing my old standby DOA cals. Glad to see DMF cut the bag limit on trout down to 4 per person. We have had two cold winters in a row with huge trout kills each of those winters, so stricter guidelines are necessary.

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Back home fishing again

After a week hiatus from the cape fear region I hit the water Wednesday in the late afternoon and caught a nice 21 inch speckled trout and three nice reds on Category5 shrimp minnows on weighted hooks. Man it was good to be back on the water at home. It is much more beautiful here than the Louisiana delta and a whole lot more convenience. The fishing is not bad either.

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IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Champs 3 Years in a row

Capt (Hurricane) Drew Arndt and I were presented plaques in Chalmette, La. for capturing the IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division title for the third year in a row. We had a stellar year on the tournament trail this season with a 3rd place finish I Savannah,Ga to start the season, a 6th place finish in Charleston, SC, and a 1st place finish in Surf City, NC to finish the season.

BTW-We won a Ranger Banshee Extreme in Surf City And it is for sale. If u r looking for a flats boat totally tricked out and with a Yamaha four stroke we will give u a sweet deal on our brand new Ranger Banshee Extreme. Email: Captainren@live.com for more details.

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IFA Championship Chalmette, Louisiana

Drew and I had only four days to prepare for the IFA Championship in Chalmette, La. On the way down owner of CATEGORY 5 soft plastic lures met us in Slidell, La. to give us some plastics to try. That is the only thing we threw in Louisiana. We threw the white/chart tail shrimp minnows on jigheads, weighted hooks, and Spinnerbaits. We also threw the suicide croakers in every color matched up to jigheads and wacked trout, reds, and flounder on them. We also threw the segmented paddletails on jigheads and Spinnerbaits. Overall I was most impressed with the action on the shrimp minnows. I have never thrown a paddletail lure of any manufacturer that has the perfect balanced movement and action of these lures. Nothing that I have ever thrown on a 1/16 oz weighted hook has this much action. U can buy these fine lures at: www.category5outdoors.com. Ask for them in your local tackle stores.
We spent the first day close to Chalmette then we headed to Venice to spend the last three days of prefish. In Chalmette we wacked bass, reds, trout, reds, and flounder. Drew caught about 12 largemouth as I was wacking reds on the Category 5 shrimp minnow. He could not keep the bass off the spinnerbait. On day two we headed to Venice. We knew the Venice area pretty well from a previous Redfish Cup event we fished down there. We started catching fish right away in Venice but did not get on the right ones until later in the day. The water level was much lower than the previous trip and we were unable to get into the spots we fished on that trip. At the end of the day I had remembered a spot we wacked fish in that I knew we could get into. It was a good call then because we were greeted with fish tailing, busting bait, and cruising the banks with their backs out of the water. We wacked fish two at a time until dark with a lot of our legal fish over 8 lbs. The next day we fished an area we had never fished 40 miles in the opposite direction. We found the motherload early as we were greeted by 40 to 50 inch redfish schooled up busting 2 to 3 lb mullet on the outside of the ponds. We went into our ponds and found pods of perfect fish all over the place. There were also pogies in the pond with 23 to 50 inch reds floating up on the surface feeding. The water was clear, the pond was protected and full of fish and bait. This pond was also unlike the other areas we fished the day before-it was deep. We knew if the water stayed clear we would have at a minimum 17 lbs a day. I caught one fish that was 25 inches and 8.75 lbs. We fished the next day in some other spots and found a few fish. Day one we run over 100 miles to our a spot to find our clear water pond in the Lee of the wind completely muddy like coffee. What a buzzkill. After a three hour run one way we caught several fish about 23 inches and some overslots. We did manage one 8 plus pounder before we had to make the long run back to check in. We ended up with 13.45 lbs the first day. We were completely out of the championship due to the one baby we weighed on day one.
On day two we decided to go fun fishing and stay close to Chalmette. That was a good call because we ended up having motor problems. We decided to head back to the weigh in at noon with 15.58 lbs while we were on the fish. Had a decent day chunking category 5 shrimp minnows on weighed hooks. Ended up 35th out of 101 boats with 29.03 lbs. After a great year this was a very disappointing finish but we'll be back next year.

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Bait Saver Hooks

I got to spend todays on the water with founder and president of Bait Saver Hooks-Newsome Corbitt. We fished hard for two days catching over 30 reds and countless trout over two days. We even got a few flounder as by catch each day. All the fish were caught on artificials. If u have not checked out bait Saver Hooks u need to. Check out their site at www.baitsaverhooks.com or simply click on their logo on my sponsors page.

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Cape Fear Red Trout Tournament

With high winds and weather systems moving through our area all week it made it difficult to find fish. I fished several areas throughout the week from New river to the cape fear and everywhere in between. I found a few trout just about everywhere I fished but no big numbers although most of what I found were nice fish. Only targeted redfish for one day before the tourney and we found them thick in a few areas pushing shrimp all over the pace with their backs out of the water. Had a good day on those fish then I checked some of my favorite rising water spots and wacked 7 fish in a row on a piping cork soft plastic combo. These fished were 25to 29 inches. Also got a black drum. On Saturday morning (day one of the tourney) we had motor issues at the ramp and ended up checking out late for the tourney. We hit our first spot and hung one fish and as he was lifted over the gunwale he fell back into the water. Well we made a run and ended up hiring the same area we found fish eating shrimp and cruising down the banks with their backs out of the water the previous day. The night before the tourney the winds switched out of the North from all week out of the southwest. Needless to say the bite was less than stellar. We ended day one with 6 reds and one 4 trout. We caught several undersized reds as well. On day two my luck started like it did on day one. I dropped my Costa sunglasses before we checked out and shattered one of my lenses. Thankfully I had a back up pair in the boat. We started Day two like day one and went empty handed at spot # 1. We made a run and found some nice trout at a spot I didn't fish all week. Scotty and George were double hooked up every time they hit the school for 15 minutes. Having a few on the books we decided to search for some reds to round out our points. We found a few reds bit they were finicky and only managed three for the day. We headed back to the weigh in and see how we did. As we hung out with our wives and kids enjoying good food and some cold uns we awaited the paperboard to update. To our surprise we won the overall tournament, Dr George Brinson won grand champion angler for the second year in a row, Dr Scotty Gould won runner up grand champion angler, and we won the spin (artificial bait) division. Congrats to Scotty and George to stick it out on two slow fishing days. That is two years in a row we have won the Cape Fear Red Trout tournament and multiple divisions.

Wednesday Fishing

Got out after the rain today and picked Steve up at the dock right before noon. We got some nice trout at our first Two spots. Got a small red and few more trout as the hard sw wind increased.

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Trout fishing Monday and Tuesday

Got on a few small trout in the river Monday with southwest winds of 20 mph. Got my inshore boat back Tuesday and took Drew out for some trout fishing. We struck out at the first four spots we tried. Then we hit one of my super secret spots and put a beat down on them. We caught several nice trout from 16-21". Dropped D off at the dock and hit a couple more spots. Got a few more nice trout and called it a day. I kept a few for the grease released the rest.

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Nearshore Trip

Had a good nearshore trip Saturday. Seas were a little sloppy but manageable. Got a mixed Bag of bottom fish early then decided to make a run a little further offshore. Ended up getting into several schools of false albacore. They were very picky as they were keyed in on one inch bait. Finally figure out a lure they would eat and got a couple to the boat at the end of the trip.

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Friday fishing

Got out on the water with Scotty and George for some pre fishing for the upcoming Red/Trout tournament. We covered a lot of water in the whaler. Found a few trout and a nice redfish on topwater. Wind was howling and the water was dirty. Hopefully the water will clear up before the tournament.

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Catfish in the Cape Fear. The past three days I was able to hit the upper Cape Fear River for some catfish action. As a kid I fished the fresh waters of the Cape Fear with my dad and grandfather. both of which taught me to fish and always took time to take me fishing. all of the catfish I have caught have been on soft plastics and jigheads. I got a fifteen pounder yesterday. today fished 30 minutes and hooked 6 fish on 6 casts. The first fish was too big to get him up the wall I was fishing. he was an estimated 20 lbs. landed three and the biggest was 12 lbs. heck of a fight on light tackle. this was a very peaceful trip up the Cape Fear. I will be planning a trip with my dad and uncle in the near future to the same waters.

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More tailing reds

Today I had the pleasure of having 4 loyal CCA members on my boat. We were greeted early this morning by upper slot redfish waiving their tails at us as they cruised the short grass. We had many shots on tailing fish. As they came out of the grass we started hooking up with some nice reds. Had a few blow up topwater lures but none stayed hooked up. Got one trout as well. Over the past couple of days have caught Spanish macks on topwater plugs, reds on spoons, spinner baits, plastics from Carolina beach to morehead city and everywhere between. Picking up lots of flounder as by catch.

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