# Red Fish Tourny



## SkunkApe (Dec 9, 2006)

TugCapt and I fished the local Red Fish tournament starting Fri (8/9/07) @ 1900. We fished throughout the night and into the breaking morning. I didn't take a lot of pix as we were focusing on stringing up a few good fish. We must have caught at least 10-12 nice Reds each out there before we crapped out. Here's highlights of the trip: 
-Don't forget your bait in the cooler in your truck. Cast netting up bait is productive, but is time consuming and the Reds don't seem to care if it's frozen or fresh. 
-Try a Redfish Magic Spinnerbait (Pumpkin Seed / Chartruse tail). It works. Thanks Ruthless.
-When your buddy goes off cast netting into the darkness, and he says "Watch my Rods", watch them because karma dictates that the biggest fish of the night is going to get on your friends line, not yours. It did. 
-When a drag burning Red comes right at you and goes under the anchored kayak and gets wrapped in the anchor line, get the net and deal w/ the birds nest later. Do not attempt to mouth the fish .
-Oyster beds are pointy, sharp, nasty slicing platforms. Try not to go to your knees when handling a decent Red on this stuff. However the blood streaming from my knee might of turned on the aquatic life, as we caught more fish when wading w/ blood in water. 
-Speck Trout are some voracious sight feeders. I crossed Tugs line in the darkness so started reeling as fast as I could w/ a cut mullet head on the end of a fishfinder rig. The bait was skipping on the water a 15-16" Speck crashed the bait about 5 feet from my legs. Very hungry fish. I might have to try that technique in the future .
-Nor'easters arrive in a neat way. It was still, stagnant and muggy around 3am. A visual front moved in w/ tree ring layered cloud, and at 3:03am, the wind was blowing NE @ 20knts and the temp dropped from Hot to nice. 
-Don't try to grab a skate w/ plyers in murky water. You miss and he's at your feet (not a happy skate)
Here's a few pix I did manage to get: 



















Tug & my stringer after a hard nights work: 










-One side note on this, and I'm not really happy about it. I caught a Red on the Redfish Magic and turned out this dude had 17 Spots. The Tourny had a "Calcutta" division for the Red w/ the most Spots. I measured him and he came out @ 18 1/16, barely legal. I measured him right side up, upside down, North, South, forwards and backwards. Each time, right out of the water he was 18 & some. I even had TugCapt do an independent measure, he agreed that it's a keeper. Well, we crapped out and went home, put the fish on ice for 6hrs and napped until the weigh in. I awoke, grabbed the fish out of the cooler, and low and behold, the SOB shrunk to 17 3/4". No stretching or creative measurements would make that guy 18 again. Well, I didn't even bother taking that fish to the weigh in as I'm sure some sore competitor would be dialing the VMRC behind my back. Oh well, it was legal when I boated it, so it found my friends skillet. This is the fish in question: (and yes I've had beers and I'm not happy w/ the shrinkage)










So that's the Tourny report. I'm headed back out for a less stressed round of fishing here in a few. 

Good Luck All!!! :fishing: :fishing:


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## TugCapn (Jun 18, 2007)

NICE REPORT SKUNK....I agree fully with the watch my rod theory....But I would never ask you to watch my beer because I know the results of that :beer:. Had a blast we need to hook up again soon ......PEACE OUT M8


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## ruthless (Sep 5, 2003)

It was good to see more yakkers going head to head with motor boats. We were going to yak, but decided that we would join efforts and fish from Boat's flats skiff. We ended up with 9.2 oz with our biggest fish at 5lbs. We also managed to keep our fish alive (Thanks Fish Flo2) and they were kicking at the weigh in. 

See ya on the water.


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## becoyote (Aug 1, 2007)

*Hey*

Nice work! Looked for you out there today.

3 flounder. 2 about 18 inches 1 barely legal right at 18.5


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## SkunkApe (Dec 9, 2006)

All right! Nice Flounder. I'll be pretty busy this week, so no telling if I'll make it out. I'm gonna target the flatties next few trips.


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

*Great job guys*

congrats on the catch.


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## lipyanker (May 31, 2006)

nice report thanks for the photos


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## fingersandclaws (Oct 17, 2005)

Nice job guys!!! Flatties in VA huh? Interesting . . . :fishing:


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## AL_N_VB (Apr 3, 2002)

fingersandclaws said:


> Nice job guys!!! Flatties in VA huh? Interesting . . . :fishing:


there ain't no fish in VA.....just pre-turbed anglers.


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