First of all let me apologize for my long delay in between fishing reports. I have been quite busy finishing up a new Chew On This Saltwater Fishing Show named "Midday Monsters." This episode of Chew On This is the best one yet. The "Midday Monsters" show has some of the largest Snook you will ever see caught on a fishing show. You will not believe the bait that I used to catch the monster Snook. It is really quite amazing.

     This year I was invited to fish the Redfish Tour by my good friend Chuck Cash. I gladly accepted his offer and immediately had delusions of grandeur about winning the first leg of the tournament. I have never fished in a Tour before. I have only fished scattered events here and there so this was a whole new ballgame for me. Even though I had absolutely no experience fishing the great Redfish waters of Louisiana  it didn't stop me from believing I could go to another state for the first time ever and catch the winning Redfish. All I could think about was what we needed to do to take our new Ranger flats boat home.

     We lodged at a wonderful place in Lafitte, La called the Lodge of Louisiana. The lodge is actually an old Mississippi river boat that has 40 or so rooms with boat dockage right at the front door on the water. Our service was absolutely outstanding from Mike who was our host, cook, and local area fishing guide.

     The first couple of prefish days were near miserable. The wind was howling, the waters were rough and stirred up. Fishing was terrible. We only caught three Redfish over two full days of fishing. Eventually we smartened up and realized we would have to make the long runs to find fish. Once we had driven a good 35 miles plus to some good Redfish grounds we began to find what we were looking for. The Redfish in La. are plain dumb and I love them all the more for it. On this one shoreline Chuck and I saw these big wakes coming down the shoreline. Chuck tossed out his Terminator spinner bait hooked into a huge Redfish. I knew there were more than one fish with the one he had on so I tossed my Cocahoe gig towards the same area where Chuck just hooked up. Sure enough we doubled up. These were big, extra big Redfish. When we finally landed each fish and weighed them on the Boga, Chucks fish went 15 pounds and my fish went 16 pounds. The 16 pound Redfish was the largest one I had ever caught.

     We continued to work down the shore and began to spot tailing Redfish up and down the canal. There were tails wagging all over the place. Chuck would take his spinner bait and through it right on top of a running Redfish's head and it would eat it in stride. These fish were amazing at how well they would eat. We both landed 4 or 5 more fish apiece in the 8 to 9 pound slot range. Chuck and I were high fiving each other. We were on tournament winning fish.

     Once we realized what we had, we quickly vacated the area not to return until tournament day. The next couple of days we spent searching for new fish in more uncharted waters. We found several spots with nice heavy Redfish, not to mention some very big oversized fish. Chuck and I decided to concentrate on long manmade canals that cut through the marshes and the shallow flats. Our theory was the Redfish would be prone to the deeper waters because they held more heat. Chuck and I came across a very big Redfish down one of these canals. Chuck tossed his bait to the fish first but it didn't take. I tossed my bait a few feet past his and Fish On! He was huge. I fought him for a good 5 minutes before landing this awesome 16 pound Redfish.

      Once tournament day arrived we knew exactly what we were going to do and where, with what, and how we were going to fish. We managed to catch a little over 13 pounds for the day but we were docked 2 pounds for being two minutes late in the fastest boat on the tour because of low oil problems on the 300X.

     On the second day we were all over the fish. We were culling 8 pounders one after another before we decided to go in weigh our catches. When we returned to weigh ins on time, we began to notice there were some outstanding fish caught that day. We also began to understand it is nearly impossible to come in as a rookie and win a tournament of this caliber with all of the great fisherman that are out there competing.

     To conclude, tournament fishing is tough. There is nothing like it and the pressure to put high quality fish in the well when your team has thousands of dollars riding on it is more nerve racking then you could  imagine. One last thing don't forget my Shearwater Tower Boat is for sale. Here is the link [Shearwater Tower Boat For Sale] to find all of the info on it. Offers are flying in and my new boat will be ready very soon.         

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