Rodeo Redfish Win!

The winning check presentation

 I don't do a lot of tournaments, mainly because it takes a different mindset to be successful, but as the saying goes, "even a blind squirrel can find an acorn" once in a while! Yesterday Team AnglersMark won the biggest Redfish category in the Nassau Sport Fishing Association Rodeo! I was fishing with friends Chris Bremer and Brian Parent - we met early down at Sawpit Creek boat ramp and launched at 6:30am with a ton of live shrimp and mud minnows and we made our way up the Nassau River to make our first stop at Twin Creeks on a high and incoming tide. We were all drifting float rigs, mixing the bait between the shrimp and minnows, but I don't think we got a real bite. We

Chris center, Brian on right

then ran down to Pumkin Hill where I've been getting some nice Redfish the last couple of weeks and we drifted that edge. We were all joking that if it was a "Garbage Tournament" we might place because we were catching Jacks and Ladyfish and Catfish the entire day. But both Brian and Chris had some nice hookups and landed keeper sized Seatrout to go in the box. Unfortunately, there wasn't a Seatrout category in the tournament!

The Pig Fish!

We moved down the way where we've caught Reds in the past, but not lately. We have caught some huge Trout there recently and I was hoping we'd at least get one for the box, but after a good handful of drifts I was thinking "time to move", but then a big fish hit and Fish On! It was a team effort, Brian cleared the deck, Chris manned the net and after a a good battle we brought to the boat a THICK 22" Redfish. Boy what a fish. We called him a "Pig" - he had a big hump at his tail like it had been broken  years ago, so he grew think instead of long! But due to its length, I thought it might place but surely not win -surely a 26.75" fish would be brought in, right?

We fished back thru Horsehead over at Poteat Point and picked up more trash fish and small Trout, we fished back in Jackstaff and picked up another Slot Red for the box, then we came back thru Horsehead and fished Middle River, then we fished back down the Nassau with jigs, picking up some smaller stuff, here and there.  Brian did hookup and expertly play to the boat a keeper sized Flounder which we planned to enter in the Flounder Category. 

The earliest Check In was at 2pm, up at the City Marina, so we headed north and made a stop at the bridge where we fished with the jigs. I thought I had a huge Flounder on, but my hopes were dashed when I brought to the surface a big old Toad Fish - another junk fish to go with our others! After trying to get in a small creek and thinking it might be too shallow, we made one last long run around to the outside of Tyger in hopes for a bigger Flounder - we'd been catching them there all week. I had my eye on the bank, but not on the depth finder and....right up on a mud bank we ran! Brian said I was kicking up a rooster tail of mud 20' high! Oh  Lordy, we were stuck! Luckily the boat was still floating somewhat. Chris balanced the boat out with his weight while Brian and I got out -Brian pulled and I pushed and we backed the boat off the mud... and called it a day! That was a sign! We ran back to Check In and weighed that big Slot Red in - 6.2lbs and it turned out to be the biggest brought to Weigh In for the Tournament.  Boy it was a long day but we went home with First Place in the Redfish Category!

Chris on left, Nik on right

Note! There was a "back story"! Chris's son Nik, owner of Amelia Island Bait and Tackle, was fishing on another boat, so we had a little bit of a competition in that regard. Chris said one of his goals was to "just beat Nik". We did have the biggest Redfish but Nik and his team brought in THREE big slot Reds, with one of them placing 2nd in the Redfish Category, and they had the biggest Flounder of the day to take first in that Category. It was a great day of fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida. 

The bottom three photos were provided by Michael Kanik, High Exposure Visuals,  thanks Michael!  If you every wanted to capture the memories of that family fishing trip, or maybe what could be the last fishing trip with your parent, or teenage kids - have it professionally produced by High Exposure Visuals!