Tails from the Tour
Hello, and welcome to Tails from the Tour. My name is Kasey Mock of Team Hookset Marine Gear, and I am going to be bringing you a weekly or bi-weekly update on the tournament scene and our tour experiences. Now in our third year on tour, my partner Jayson Arnold and I are excited to be working with Hookset Marine Gear, and are looking forward to a very exciting year.
We have had a little success in our young careers finishing 11th overall in the IFA Texas division for 2008, several top ten tournament finishes in 2007 & 2008, and winning the 2007 Shallow Sport Owners Tournament in South Padre Island. This year, Jayson and I will be fishing the entire Texas Redfish Series, the Texas Redfish Kayak Series, and the entire IFA Redfish Tour.
As much as I love chasing Redfish, tournament fishing is a business that we work very hard at. Jayson and I are proud to be promoting AC Delco, Castrol, Hookset Marine Gear, Plains Capital Bank, and Power Tackle as our 2009 core sponsors. These are great companies that do a lot for our sport, and we appreciate your loyal support by shopping at Hookset Marine Gear.
I’m excited about the Tails from the Tour feature, and welcome you to check in often to see what’s happenin’.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
09/12/09 – IFA Redfish Series – Port Aransas, TX
Jayson and I fished the final stop of the IFA Redfish Tour’s Texas Division in Port Aransas, TX. 72 teams dodged thunderstorms and rain showers for a chance at the title, and valuable team of the year points. The redfish are schooled up and in migration mode this time of year, so ambitions were high all week. My Grandmother passed away on Labor Day, so we had funeral activities all week which left us with a rainy Friday to do some scouting. Jayson had a great pre-fish the previous weekend however; a week of strong thunderstorms caused the barometer to go crazy and water temperatures to fall. These conditions pushed the fish off of the flat and encouraged the migration process. It’s a simple concept; Redfish don’t like lightning, and shallow water offers no protection.
As simple as it may be, we just didn’t grasp it. We should have moved off the flats and targeted the deeper edges were fish will fall off and move, but we just didn’t. With questionable weather conditions and less than desirable scouting reports, we elected to stay close and hope to find the right school. We did find several schools of juvenile fish, and managed 8 lbs in our first hour of fishing. We knew we couldn’t afford a mistake under the given conditions, and we fumbled twice. We hit a good school early, and I pulled the hook on a great fish. Later in the day, we had a huge school rise up beside our boat and we didn’t see them. Three other teams near us saw the school push from our boat, got in position, and all placed in the top five. That will make you mad right there! It was a slim weigh-in with only five teams bringing solid weights to the scales. We finished 33rd with 8.6 lbs. Sorry guys, but no free stringers.
I’ll post our yearly finishes and team standings next time along with a recap of the 2009 season. There are some very exciting new things coming to the sport for 2010, and I’ll touch on some of those next week as well. Thanks for following Tales of the Tour, and for supporting Hookset Marine Gear.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
08/08/09 – Texas Redfish Series – Port Lavaca, TX
Port Lavaca hosted the final stop of the 2009 Texas Redfish Series. The city of Port Lavaca consistently sets the bar for hospitality, and as usual they rolled out the red carpet for the anglers. The Lavaca/West Matagorda system is very different than most others in the state, and can get real mean real fast. The marsh and pond systems in the area are very limited, so teams usually make some of their longest runs of the year from this venue. The top six teams ranged from a 6 to a 260 mile round trip, with less than a half pound separating us (6th) from the win.
We’ve been on some great fish in Corpus, but we elected to stay close and maximize our fishing time. It just made sense to fish this area. There were some large schools of mullet that had pulled out of the ponds, and though we couldn’t really see the redfish, slicks and large mud boils under the mullet schools send up the flags. Playing the tide has been a vital factor in our success this year as we’ve dealt with very low water levels all summer. Our peak tide movement wasn’t until noon, so it was very important to preserve the area early so the fish would feel comfortable moving onto the flat later in the day. We caught our first weigh fish early, and like clock work the first school showed up at 12:01. We boated ten fish all day, and half were over the 28” slot limit. We finished a close 6th place with 14.28 lbs, exactly 0.5 lb shy of the win. I believe we had the winning weight in our livewell, but we had a fish get sick and lost a lot of weight. Congratulations to Demetric Wells and Leslie Littles for the win, and Team of The Year honors. They are great fishermen, and great guys. We’ll be in Port Aransas next month for the final stop of the IFA Redfish Tour. The fish are schooling in the Laguna, so it should be a fun one.
- Be looking for the release of the new Power Tackle Thinwater Series rods. Jayson and I have been demoing them for a couple months, and these things are sweet! I set the hook on a 30” 12 lb redfish yesterday and jerked it out of the water! Super light, super sensitive, and bullet proof.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
08/01/09 – 1st Annual Majek Owners Tournament – Bluff’s Landing, Corpus Christi
Jayson and I finally got the guys from Hookset to get on the boat with us for a competitive day of fishing. Hookset’s Chris Yost & Taylor Pagano joined us for the first ever Majek Boats Owner’s Tournament out of Bluff’s Landing Marina in Corpus Christi. After a shrimp boil and some good conversation that lasted half the night, the alarm rang at an early 4:15 AM and we had props turning at 4:55 AM. I think Yost and Taylor were trying to catch up on some sleep as Jayson and I navigated a solid 40 miles in the dark with no spotlight, and we were waist deep by 6:00 AM. The four of us set up a wade along the edge of a large flat where we’ve been on a lot of fish that have been relocated due to the low tides. We are targeting schools of mixed reds and drum, and there have been some large Trout hanging close to the schools taking advantage of the easy feeding.
The plan was to fan out until one of us located the school, and the others would wade over to them. Jayson and I have fished two tournaments here and have run several client trips on these fish, so we’ve got their number. We needed three species for the stringer (Redfish, Trout, & a Drum or Flounder) and had all three by 8:30 AM. Yost caught a nice 25” Trout on top, and we can’t figure out who had the Redfish, but it was a solid 28” fish. We’ll give it to Taylor! The kicker was the sweet drum we stumbled upon. We were back in the boat, and I thought I saw a perfect FAT Redfish swimming down a prop scar. I threw to him, dropped it in the trail, and he inhaled it! 27” hump backed ugly ol’ Black Drum….. 8 lbs! Huge upgrade! We ended up 3rd in the team division behind the Watkins team in 2nd, and David Pena who fished solo finished 1st. The Majek family, along with the TX Saltwater Series directors did a great job putting on the tournament, and we’ll be back next year to win the boat.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
7/11/09 – Texas Redfish Series – Corpus Christi
Jayson and I fished the 4th stop of Texas Redfish Series in Corpus Christi this weekend, and were able to slip back into the Top 25 out of a full field of 135 boats. We had the opportunity to have a camera man with us on tournament day, and put on a sight casting clinic catching 30+ redfish! Tides were low, and pressure was high making it hard for a lot of teams to get on good fish, but numbers of fish wasn’t our problem; weight and length was! After working two huge schools with several other boats, we switched to a drift pattern and targeted big singles that were scattered throughout the potholes. We caught 10 or so fish that weighed 8+ lbs, but they were all little too long, and 20+ more that were in the slot but light. We had a 27.5” snake of a redfish that only weighed 6 lbs. It was a great tournament, and should make an awesome TV show. You can catch the action on the Texas Saltwater Series TV Show on FSN SW. They said it should air in as little as three weeks, and it will be worth watching.
We are hoping to fish the 1st ever Majek Boats Owners Tournament out of Bluff’s Landing in two weeks with the Hookset staff so be looking for that report. Our next tour stop is Port Lavaca for the final Texas Redfish Series event on August 8th. Rough bays and long runs should be the story there, so it should be exciting.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
6/20/09 – Powder Puff Ladies Tournament
Port Aransas, TX
Needless to say this was an exciting day. I am yet again proud of the Hookset Women’s Team “Hook This”. The Girls gave it another good running, placing Second in two categories. The day started early for the women again. Lines in the water at 6:30, so we made the run south to the LLM. Picked up Eight Trout in the first 30 min on the Mid Coast MOJO’s, and as we were sitting there I noticed another boat get up. When they ran out of the cove a small School of Redfish got up as well. I tied the girls up with Gold Spoons and 4” gulps and off we went to find the school. On the first go all three of the girls doubled over, and the action never stopped all day. The girls landed 30 to 40 Redfish form 26”-34“with only one fish under 26”. I finally had to cut off the action to try to go catch a hardhead, needed for the stringer. I know, and yes I said hardhead, but keep in mind the hardhead pot was worth almost a $1000 so we put our pride aside and off to the cleaning tables we went. We caught over 100 hardheads in the last hour with the last one weighing 1.96lbs which was good enough for second place. They also had the runner up redfish of the tournament weighing 7.03 lbs. They just never could catch one with a big belly on him. But I am so proud of the women once again they have proven themselves to be true anglers. So, Happy Fishing and look for the girls again in September for the Saltwater Sweeties. Check out http://www.gulfcoastfishing.com/ for all the information on Powder Puff.
Jayson Arnold
Team Hookset Marine Gear
06/06/09 – IFA Corpus Christi
Oh the IFA in Corpus Christi. This has traditionally been our best tournament every year, and 2009 was no exception. We were pumped to get back home in the Laguna where we can get in the air and go find ‘em. The tower boat down for repairs, so we had to get creative; Note the twelve foot little giant step ladder on the bow of my Newwater Avocet. It get’s hairy riding up there at 35 mph, but coming from Freeport we were dying to see some fish.
I fished Corpus Thursday, and didn’t really find anything that excited me. We’ve got an algae blooming in the ULM that has stained the water making it hard to see fish, but I just didn’t see much activity at all. Friday was a slick calm morning, so Jayson jumped in the ladder and we headed south. We went to an area about 50 miles south where we love to sight fish and found some fish that were big and hungry. As soon as we got a little wind and could drift we started sorting through them, picking our fish and catching probably 80% of what we threw at. It was an awesome day, and Saturday followed suit. We caught 25 fish Tournament day, seven were too long, and only two were under 26”. Good thing we had the Boga, because we probably culled ten times. Late in the day we were just having fun trying to catch the fish that looked oversized, and I finally caught one of those hump backed ones with a short tail that we’d been looking for. That upgrade put us back in the top ten, and were were able to finish seventh out of 84 with a total weight of 14.39 lbs.
We had a chance to try out some awesome new rods this weekend. Can’t let the cat out of the bag yet, but keep checking back with us. We are back in Corpus July 11th for the Texas Redfish Series. We’ll be back in the Majek Illusion, and looking for another payday.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
05/30/09 – Freeport TRS
Freeport…… Mud, shell, dirty water, more mud and shell, dirtier water, Ike debris, more mud and shell. Freeport, TX was host to the third stop on the Texas Redfish Series on May 30th. If you’re thinking mud and shell, you’re right, and it is Midcoast cork heaven! As the last tales article noted, we had a limited, but good pre-fish, and being unfamiliar with the area we planed our day around the spots we’d hooked or seen fish the week before. We fished the Bastrop Bay area, and keyed in on scattered shell pads and pond shorelines in and around the bayou.
Pond fish don’t replenish very quickly, and I guess they just got sore mouthed all week. The Redfish Cup was in Kemah the same weekend, and it was a fight to get a spot on Saturday. When we pulled in and counted the boats that had beat us there, we knew it was going to be a long day. When I was coming off plane we pushed a toad off of the shoreline, so Jayson dropped the troll motor and we started fishing. I hooked up quick, but we didn’t get our second bite until late and couldn’t cull. We ended up 37th out of a full 125 boat field. I don’t know about Jayson, but I was happy to catch two. Freeport is a great place to fish, and Bridge Harbor did a wonderful job of hosting the event. Next stop, HOME. The IFA in Corpus Christi, we’re looking forward to that one!
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
05/17/09 – Scouting Freeport
It’s been a while, so this one is lengthy.
Team Hookset has been busy this month between Redfish Series stops. I just returned from scouting the Freeport area, and Jayson has been busy being a good husband taking second place in the Babes on The Bay Tournament. It has been a long month, and we aren’t slowing down any time soon with back to back tournaments starting in two weeks.
The Texas Redfish Series will be in Freeport May 30th, and we are looking forward to proving ourselves up north. Freeport is an awesome fishery with an abundance of fresh water influx. The bayou system is home to some big nasty toads, and teams have the opportunity to weigh extremely heavy stringers. Jayson is a bass fisherman gone salty, so he’s chomping at the bit to get on the troll motor and fish some structure. I had 15lbs on the boga in about an hour Sunday popping the Midcoast Evolution. They are resident fish in the pond so hopefully they don’t get filleted between now and then. We did find a little Ike debris and only put one hole in the boat, so I figured it was a successful weekend.
Immediately following Freeport, we head to Corpus Christi for the IFA Redfish Tour. The water in the Laguna is clearing up and the fish are beginning to get on a pattern, so it should be a fun tournament. It’s a long way from the mud holes of Freeport, and we are hungry for a good showing in our home waters.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
04/25/09 – Texas Redfish Series – Rockport
Hats off to Capt. Aaron Loomis and Gary Harvey on a second consecutive win in the TRS. I bet you can get a deal on a Majek TX Skiff! The trout guys and hard core wade fishermen have dominated the early season events. Conditions have been terrible for locating fish in the Laguna, and it has played right into their hands. I’m hoping the water clears up in the ULM before we head back south in June.
Jayson and I were swamped at our real jobs last week and couldn’t get away to scout, so we went blind. The tournament was out of the Rockport beach park, and once again we made the 45 mile run south to Corpus. When we got to the JFK bridge we almost kept on going to the Baffin/Lancut area, and probably should have. That’s just a long freakin’ way from Rockport!
I still think we had a good plan to be in the mix. We just bounced around and hit the spots where we had consistently been seeing some good singles, but they just didn’t show. Last week’s high pressure system created a very strong offshore tidal flow that relocated a lot of fish. Maybe that had something to do with it, but the fish just didn’t show up for us. We started north of the JFK and worked our way south to the area where we had fished the first two tournaments. Got a look at a couple of those big loners, but couldn’t get one hooked. Chasing singles is a tough plan to execute and we knew that, but with no time to pre fish we went with what had worked the week before.
Our next stop on the TX Redfish Series is scheduled for Matagorda on May 30th, but tournament officials are in the process of relocating the event due to construction on the Colorado River locks. Looks like Freeport, but nothing is final yet so be sure and check back for schedule updates. Should give us a chance to do some serious Midcoast Poppin in the dirty waters of the north.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
04/18/09 – Too Long in Rockport
If you bring ‘em too long, they won’t weigh ‘em. That was our story Saturday as the IFA visited Rockport for the first stop of the 2009 IFA Redfish Tour. Jayson and I decided to make the run back south to Corpus Christi where we had been having huge stringers pre-fishing, and we knew it was going to be a “hero or zero” day. I put two fish on the Boga for 17.5 lbs in a total of thirty minutes Thursday, but I knew we’d have a lot of company Saturday.
We were the first boat on the flat Saturday morning, but the posse quickly arrived, and at one time I counted twenty boats fishing within a half mile radius. The fish were BIG, and we just didn’t get the number of bites necessary to sort through and find two ‘small’ enough. I really don’t think the pressure shut the bite down. I just don’t think we had the fish patterned good enough to follow their movements throughout the day. We had two that weighed about 18 lbs, but we knew they were a little long…. it’s just an eighth right! I guess if you want to win you’ve got to push it, and we made the call to roll the dice and bring them.
Congratulations to Capt. Jay and Jay Ray Watkins for the win. The stringers were huge, and Stake Out Stik’s Brian Little was right in the mix. Check out the IFA web site for more information. Team Hookset will be in Rockport again this week for the second stop of the TX Redfish Series. See you on the water!
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
04/04/09 – Scouting
Spent the weekend on the water, scouting. Hoping that we would have had a surge of fish into the bay system, due to the strong tide fluctuations that we have been having for the last week. No Such luck!!! Covered lots of water, to find very few concentrations of fish. Looked at water from the South end of the land cut to Corpus Christi Bay and north to Estes Flats in Rockport.
Good news is for you Trout Guys that enjoy the Hookset wade gear, there are some nice Trout and oversized Redfish showing up in 9 Mile Hole as well as the south shore of Baffin Bay. Now the water south of Bird Island Basin is still very off color so tie on a MidCoast Evolution corks and pop’em hard. Small concentrations of typically oversized Redfish were found in Corpus around the causeway but they are tough to locate and stay on due to the prevailing strong North wind. Lots of small Redfish are coming in Redfish Bay and Estes Flats on MidCoast corks, with Gulps.
Team Hookset Is taking the week off for Easter but we’ll be back next week, so check back as we get ready for the IFA Rockport on the 18th.
Jayson Arnold
Team Hookset Marine Gear
03/31/09 UPDATE
Texas Redfish Series Port Aransas Results
With winds forecasted to blow out of the NW at 40 mph on Saturday, it was a little tough to make a game plan for this one. Jayson and I had the same conditions burn us at this time last year which cost us a top ten finish for team of the year points in the IFA Redfish Tour, so we wanted to be sure and make the right decision.
We located an area Friday that was holding the largest concentration of upper end slot fish that I had found all week, and decided we needed grind on that spot all day for the tournament. The fish were moving into a slight depression in a large flat to stage for the coming cold front, and I figured they’d hold there to get below the high pressure. The setup was going to be a wade fishing deal so the first few teams could lock it down, but we needed a faster boat than our Majek Illusion, so I drove to San Antonio at midnight and borrowed a friend’s Majek Extreme. Several other teams were on these fish including last year’s champs and team of the year, and it was going to be a brutal boat race crossing Corpus Christi Bay if the winds blew as forecasted.
You have to do a little “Gut Check” and figure out how bad you want it before making the call to cross that kind of water, because getting there is just part of it. Once you have crossed the seven ft waves headed south, you have to catch two good fish and get back. We stayed on that one area pretty much all day, and ended up with 12 lbs which was good enough for 15th place out of a full 125 team field. Jayson had a big fish that weighed over 10 lbs, but we just couldn’t make him lose a quarter inch to fit in the slot. That one would have put us first or second. Most of our fish came on spoons, but we had a few fall for a Gulp under the Midcoast Inticer.
Congratulations to Capt Aaron Loomis and Gary Harvey for the win. Aaron and Gary fished very close to us all day, and were able to get two that fit the slot and weighed in at 16.52 lbs. Click here for a full list of results and more information. We’re looking forward to the IFA Redfish Tour out of Rockport in two weeks along with the rest of the stops this season. See you there!
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear
03/23/09 UPDATE
Scouting Report
So here it is. Jayson has been on the water for the past three days scouting for the Port Aransas TX Redfish Series. We like to start far and work our way closer to the venue as we get closer to the event, so he stayed about 70 miles south. He has been catching a lot of fish, but none of them have stretched the Boga Grip to the 8lb mark yet. I don’t believe the mass of mature fish have moved into the ULM yet, so we’ll have fewer of them to work with. When the fish are in this type of pattern, they become very difficult to catch out of the boat, so we’ll probably be breaking out the Hookset Wade belts and Pro Series Stringers and gett’n wet baby!
It looks like we have a small front coming in Friday night that we are hoping will stall out. It is important to watch the barometer, because as it rises the fish will tend to slip off into a little deeper water and get lock jaw. I am headed down tomorrow and will be targeting fish around structure that are moving up out of depressions to feed. I’ll have the weigh in results next week.
Kasey Mock
Team Hookset Marine Gear