TEAM CNS Corpus Christi TRS Recap

By: Wgilmore Mood: SALTWATER FISHING Date: 04/25/2008 00:03:05 Music: None

Well even though the first stop of the Texas Redfish series is complete and the results posted, I thought I would provide everyone with a little tournament recap.

Prefishing:
It's always a challenge to find enough time to prefish correctly for these events, and for a team that lives 3 hours inshore, slipping out for a quick scouting trip is not an option. So needless to say, for us, when you get the chance to prefish it's "go hard or go home"..

Day 1: After getting in late to Seadrift wed night, Thursday called for a 4am wake up to make the drive CC. Of course the drive was made all the more interesting by the super strong coffee, my partner made before the drive. The man has perfected the art of making coffee without the aid of a measuring device. The end result is coffee that redefines the color black... Despite the late night and early call, we make it the CC by first light and splash the Lake and Bay, with the intent to head South. After about a 30 min run, were on a good bite in protected waters... Things were off to a great start. In fact we were so preoccupied catching fish, that we paid little attention to the building wind. By noon we were leaning horizontally into 40 mph gust all the while trying to cast from a boat that was drifting just shy of being on plane. Even though conditions turned extreme, we were still seeing signs of encouragement from the area. So to this point in prefishing, Day 1 was shaping up well despite the wind. Now the task of heading back to the ramp across unprotected waters in sustained 40 mph winds. As expected as we broke out across open water, it resembled a scene from the discovery channels "Most dangerous Catch". Now I know under those conditions there are protected routes, but hey life’s an adventure right ? Day 1 prefishing left us shaken but not stirred, as we were optimistic about the fish we found.

Day 2: The plan was to head North, on what was a polar opposite day from day 1 weather wise. We were greeted by light winds and calm water, and immediately sight fishing was all I could think about. The day started a little slower as we patrolled a back lake from the boat. Lots of bait, but the few fish I saw wouldn't eat, or at least wouldn't eat what I was serving. We saw a few mid slot redfish cruise by us parallel to the shoreline but ultimately getting them to eat was not to be. We bounced out to the shoreline of a primary lake and found a few 5 pound fishing cruising that were willing to mix it up a bit. Running in doubles I don't know if they were hungry or really competitive. Twice within a 100 yard stretch doubles cruised straight toward the boat and resulted in hook ups. The remainder of the day North was lackluster to say the least. We pulled the boat out headed back to CC and splashed it again at Marker 37 just to check a few areas that historically have served us well. Funny how that works really, you spend countless hours running new water only to fall back on something familiar.

The captains meeting was interesting as usual. The tournament field ended up being 128 teams, in fact I think it was announced that it was the largest field in the history of professional redfishing in Texas. The field would be cut from 128 to the top 50 for day two. After receiving all our instructions, the when, the where, and the what ifs. It was off to the room to wrap up the prep work and try to get some sleep.

Tournament Day 1: Seemingly the check in and start fly by, and before you know it we’re rooster tailing down the channel in a pseudo boat race. Which in itself is a tournament within a tournament. This comes in handy when your sitting in the stands after zeroing and watching your competitors weigh in 15lbs, as you can say “Hey isn’t that the guys we blew by this morning in the ditch??”… So in short order we were in our predetermined location and out of the boat. In today’s tournament boat there is little reason to ever leave it, however in this case, with little wind and spooky fish, we felt it best to spend a little time with our feet on the bottom. Within the first two hours of the morning we managed to locate the school we intended to target and the culling ensued. After several trips to the boat and a few lost fish that would have justified yet another trip, the weigh-in was nearing. Day 1 saw us weigh in 12.90 and resting comfortably inside the cut line at 32^nd. In hindsight the day went as well as planned, aside from the lost fish that might have improved us substantially. After looking over the weights, you’d have to say it was a very strange day. I believe the cut was over 10lbs which is extremely stout. There have been many tournaments over the last few years that would be handing out a check for a weight over 10lbs. Little did we know, more of the same would be seen on day 2.

Tournament Day 2: The plan was to start where we finished, as we felt the right bites were there to improve us by a few pounds. Almost to within a few feet, we located the fish from the day prior. Two back to back cast and we were stinging 12lbs. A third consecutive cast ans were upgrading to 14+ pounds. The area cooled due to recreational pressure, so we elected to make a small move. As it turns out, the move was the right one, as we were able to upgrade several times over the course of the day. Again, in what seems as fast as the tournament started, it was over and we were off to check in, not knowing exactly what our weight was. After check in we received a police escort to the HEB parking lot for weigh in. Again, we stood there waiting to weigh-in watching crazy weights hit the scale with regularity. Finally we get to hit the scale, two fish, 27 ½” for a total of 15.58lbs, pulling us into 15^th place for the tournament. A check, a hand shake, a picture, and it’s game over. Happy, but far from satisfied. Without our sponsors, none of this would be possible and for that we owe them a great debt of gratitude. Lake and Bay boats, thanks for building what in my mind, is the best boat in it’s class, your support has been instrumental in our success. Laguna Rods, absolutely the best fishing rod I’ve ever had the great pleasure to use, Catalyst Financial without whom we couldn't afford to do what we do, and Castnshoot.com for giving us the forum within which to communicate to the masses.

Wes Gilmore
Team Castnshoot