Tails from the Tour
2010 SEASON
Greetings! Welcome to Tails from the Tour. My name is Josh Bryan of Team Fight ‘em Fair and I am going to be bringing you updates on the 2010 tournament scene and our tour experiences. My partner, Robert Rathkamp and I have been fishing back lakes and shallow flats together for over 20 years. In 2009, we decided to put our skills to the test to see how we stacked up against other tournament anglers on the Texas Gulf Coast. As it turns out, we cast our way into the Top 13 in our first four tournaments with 2 Top 10 finishes. In addition, we reeled in 3rd place Xtreme Redfish Trail “Team of the Year” honors in our team’s first full saltwater tournament season, fishing against several of the best angling teams on the coast.
Needless to say, we caught the tournament bug…it is addictive! For 2010, our team, Fight ‘em Fair will compete in various tournaments along the Texas Gulf Coast, with focus on the Xtreme Redfish Trail series and Team of the Year honors. The Xtreme Redfish Trail encompasses 9 venues from Sabine Lake to South Padre Island, and the tournament is hands down the BEST redfish tournament on the coast! To learn more about the Xtreme Redfish Trail, please visit www.xtremeredfishtrail.com.
Currently, our team is sponsored by Charlie’s Custom Rods, Fishgillz Sunglasses and Hookset Marine Gear! We are thrilled to be a part of Team Hookset Marine Gear and look forward to gaining a competitive advantage over other tournament anglers by using Hookset’s awesome products on the water!
This year promises to be an exciting year so please stay tuned and check back often to learn more about the tournament and our tournament experiences. We promise to share great tips and good reports. Our goal is to bring you closer to the saltwater action. Thank you for your support of Team Fight ‘em Fair and Hookset Marine Gear.
See you on the water!
Josh Bryan
Team Fight ‘em Fair
*Xtreme Redfish Trail – Matagorda*
Two terms that are not generally associated with one another are Transport Baby Cat and 120 mile round trip. Well, put them together and that’s what we had to do this tournament. The weekend previous to the tournament we went scouting around to our favorite locations in the Matagorda area and soon saw that the tide had ripped the water out from underneath our feet. Some of our favorite fishing spots were now nothing but mud flats with not so much as an inch of water covering them. You know we fish skinny, but we need just a little bit more water than that….
We started looking around in what is usually the deeper water now less than a foot deep. We started seeing reds everywhere. So we put down the trolling motor and took out our Charlie’s Custom Rods to do a little sampling. Right away Robert was hooked up on a nice red, drag screaming, rod bowed, and a smile ear to ear. Finally the red ceded and Robert muscled it to the boat. It was a decent red around 25-26 inches but we needed to find bigger fish if we planned on winning this tournament. We stuck a few more just for good measure and they were all about the same size. It was time to make a move. At the next spot that we tried, the fish shrunk a little on us. On average, they were 21-23 inches so we decided to put a few in the ice box for dinner. A little redfish on the halfshell never hurts anybody. We tried several of our other Matagorda spots but none of them were holding the kind of fish that we needed. Contemplating a run to Freeport in the Baby Cat was far fetched but that’s exactly what we were going to have to do.
The day before the Matagorda tournament, Robert ran through our spot in Freeport just to make sure that there was going to be enough water for us to get in. It was close. If the tide dropped at all overnight we probably wouldn’t be able to get in and we didn’t have a backup spot. It was do or die. It was going to have to work. The Baby Cat was going to have a hard day at work on Saturday.
Saturday we were the 10th boat out of the harbor, so naturally we were passed up by every boat in the field. We were in it for the long haul, we just sat back and relaxed and watched the sunrise as we cruised to Freeport. We finally arrived in Freeport and decided to wait to get fuel to keep the boat light, we knew it was going to be skinny. Later, that decision almost turned out to be the wrong one. We pulled into the spot that we were going to fish and it was shallow, barely enough water for the boat to float in. Right away Robert hopped down on the front of the boat and started “flintstoning.” He sits on the front of the boat and walks us around because it is too shallow to run the trolling motor. We started our stalk and we could see reds everywhere; just out of our reach. The problem was there was so many mullet in there, they were giving us away. As we were going along the mullet were going crazy and spooking the reds. It was really frustrating. Finally Robert spotted a red that was just in his reach and the mullet hadn’t spooked yet. That red was so shallow he was sitting there with his whole back out of the water. It was a perfect cast Robert put it right in front of him, twitched it once and THUMP! There it was, fish on, it was a stud. We knew it was big, but we weren’t sure how big. Rod bent and drag screaming, the whole pond erupted when this fish took off. Robert finally got the fish to the boat and I netted it with our Ego Net from Hookset Marine Gear. It was huge, definitely an oversized fish. This fish was probably pushing 38-39 inches and fat, caught in a couple inches of water! If there was ever a testament to Charlie’s Custom Rods, this was it. We hadn’t done any prefishing in these ponds but we knew that there were some good fish here. Robert’s very next cast THUMP! He was hooked up again! He got it in and I scooped it up into the net. It was a 23 incher, not what we were after but we’ll take it. As we moved on, I got up on the platform and saw some reds schooling in the pond next to us. Robert maneuvered the boat into position where I could make a cast onto one of the schools. As the lure flew through the air I could tell that it was going to be a good cast. It hit right on his nose and he inhaled it. Fish ON! I never got a good feel on the fish so I couldn’t tell how big he was. He pulled a little but then he turned and came right at the boat, I was reeling as fast as I could to keep up with him. Robert scooped him up and looked over at me… This one was going to be close. I put him down on the checkit stick and swiped the tail, 28” on the money! Both of us grinning we knew that we needed just one more good fish. We saw a few more fish in the pond so we took to walking around the pond, both of us in opposite directions so that we could try and push the fish to each other. The mud was so soft and silty that we had to scoot around on our knees. About 20 min into the walk I heard some commotion on the water, I looked over and Robert was hooked up with a nice fish. I was pumped, I knew that we were going to have a chance at this one. I still had my eye on a fish sitting in the grass just in front of me. There wasn’t a good way to cast on him, he was too close to the grass and not really moving but I had to try. I cast and put the lure right beside him, all I saw was a splash as he whirled around and took off. I spooked him. I looked over at Robert to see the progress he had made on getting his fish in and all I see is him sitting there with his head down shaking his head side to side. I later found out that he was reaching down to grab the fish and it spit the hook. We decided to make a move to another area to one of our other spots. This is when we looked at the fuel tank and we weren’t sure if we were going to have enough fuel to make it back to Bridge Harbor to get some. We went anyway. We got into the pond and there were redfish everywhere. We thought this is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel… You know tournament day it never turns out that way. They wouldn’t touch a lure. Anything that we threw at them, would just make them even more skittish. So we just put out the Stake Out Stik and waited them out. We ended up dead sticking some gulp shrimp and finally entice a couple of them to bite. We hauled in a 25” and a 26”, a nice little upgrade to go along with our 28”. We knew we had a long haul back so we picked up and started back. Coming into Bridge Harbor we were running on fumes, I couldn’t see any fuel in tank. We took on enough fuel to make it back and headed out. We stopped a couple of places on the way back with no luck so we headed on to Matagorda Harbor to weigh in. We ended up with 13.4 lbs which was good enough for 8th place. It also improved our Team of the Year standing to 3rd. We are a little over half way over with the tournament so we are going to have to step up our game a little bit if we are going to take home that new Baby Cat at the end of the season.
Another outstanding job by Jen Green and Team Xtreme for putting on another great tournament. The Xtreme Redfish Trail is a great tournament to fish. If you ever have a chance to fish an Xtreme event, you definitely should! Team Fight Em Fair can’t wait for the next Xtreme tournament in Port O’Connor, TX on July 10, 2010.
Thank you to all of our awesome sponsors including Hookset Marine Gear, Charlie’s Custom Rods, LB Outfitters, and Fishgillz Sunglasses. Because of your incredible products, Team Fight Em Fair is successful on the water!
Keep Tight Lines,
Josh Bryan
Team Fight’em Fair/ Team Hookset
05/01/10 – Xtreme Redfish Trail – Sabine
Two words come to my mind when I think about Sabine: FAT REDS! Wow! Robert and I reeled in 14.9 lbs…expecting to place in the Top 10, but we thought wrong. Before I go any further, let me tell you a little about the weeks leading up to the tournament.
In the weeks preceding the tournament, Robert and I studied lots of maps and researched various forums about the Sabine Lake fishery. We were really pumped up and ready to hit the water. Having practically no knowledge of the area, Robert and I decided that it would be best for us to split up to enable us to cover as much water as possible in search of tournament reds. We learned quickly that this was not going to be an easy feat. Everything about Sabine was different from our home waters. Robert and I run skinny…but this tournament would have us running deep.
The first weekend that we scouted fish, we were only able to boat a handful of fish between the two of us; and the fish that we landed were not enough to contend in a tournament. We were amazed to see more alligators and alligator gar than anything else. Needless to say, the maps and the forums were not much help. We needed another plan.
Knowing that we didn’t have the endurance to make a long run to Galveston, we knew that we were going to have to grind it out and locate fish locally. Fortunately, the weekend before the tournament, Robert and I located two different spots that were holding some really good tournament sized fish. Yes! We had a shot at this one! The day before the tournament, Robert and I returned to one of the two pre-fishing spots to ensure that the fish had not moved. In less than 20 minutes, we boated 5 reds – two of them over 27 inches. However, the fish were skinny so we agreed that this spot would be our back-up spot.
Next, we pulled up on the 2nd spot. Robert shut the boat down, and I gently placed the trolling motor in the water…we started hunting. Right away, Robert hooked up on a little rat red. Immediately thereafter, I felt an unmistakable THUMP on the end of the line, and my Charlie’s Custom Rod bowed…the fight was ON! As the fish got close, she decided to make one more run. When we saw the swirl, we knew she was a pig. I put my thumb on the spool and popped the lure out of her mouth. We knew the reds were there, and couldn’t wait for the tournament to start the next morning! We pulled out of the spot and went trout fishing for the rest of the day!
On tournament morning, the wind laid down nicely, and we had a feeling that some nice stringers would be weighed in. We knew that we had to be on our A game. We pulled up at our first spot…nobody was there. Running the Tran Sport Baby Cat, we may not be the fastest boat, but we can get in to a lot of places that other boats can’t. We noticed that the water level had come up a few inches, but the bait was still there. It looked like it was going to be a great day. True to our tournament fashion, we went the first hour without so much as a bump. We stuck it out for another hour and a half without a nibble before we decided to pack it up and head to the second spot. We pulled in, anchored up, and got our lines wet. About the second cast, THUMP, the line tightened and Robert hooked up with a nice 26 inch red! He brought it up beside the boat, and I netted it with an EGO net from Hookset Marine Gear. What a relief! We had one nice fish on the boat. As Robert drew a bath for his fish, I continued to fish. Not two casts later, I reeled in a 25 inch redfish! Whew…what a relief…we had two fish in the boat!
Tournament day is nothing short of a roller coaster ride of emotions. We went a little over two and a half hours without a fish, not knowing if we would catch a fish – to two fish in the live well in less than 10 minutes…now looking to upgrade. We continued fishing for a couple of hours and caught several trout and redfish, but we did not catch any bigger reds than what we had in the live well. So, we headed back to our first spot as we had caught good fish there in the weeks and days prior to the tournament…surely there were a couple more to be found. To our demise, our first drift didn’t produce a fish. On our second drift, we went out a little deeper than we had before. Robert climbed up the platform on the back of the Baby Cat and spotted a wad of shad flipping around in one little area. He said, “When we drift over this spot, one of us is going to catch a fish”. Sure enough, we got close enough to the spot and WHAM…I was hooked up. Robert ran over and put out the Stake-Out Stik that LB Outfitters provided us, and the fight was on again. I quickly got the fish aboard and measured him…a little over 26 inches. We finally caught a nice little upgrade for the live well.
We had an hour and a half left before we needed to head back. So, we continued fishing the second spot. About fifteen minutes before we needed to leave, I started cleaning up the boat and Robert kept fishing. After I got everything put away, I told Robert “Last cast.” We both cast, the lures hit the water and we let them sink to the bottom. As soon as the lure hit the bottom, I twitched it a little and thought that I hung a piece of oyster. Not a split second later, I felt something grab it and a head shake. I reared back, set the hook, and the fight was on one last time. The drag was screaming! I knew this was a stud. After we got her to the boat, I could see that she was barely hooked in the corner of the mouth. All I could do is grit my teeth and close my eyes as she took off for one more run. A few minutes later, we finally got her in the net. She looked oversized so we quickly measured her on the Check It Stik, and lo and behold…27 and 7/8 inches! Time to weigh in!!!
It turned out to be a pretty good day. As we headed back to weigh in, we felt confident that we had two decent sized fish. Boy were we wrong! As Robert stood in line waiting for a weigh in bag, he kept hearing teams weighing in…16.6 lbs, 16.15 lbs, and 16.75 lbs. He got our bag and headed back over to the boat and said “Man…I don’t even think we’ll make the Top 10.” I thought to myself, “Wow! These guys brought back some heavy stingers!” Seven teams brought back over 16 lbs. Quite impressive! Robert and I weighed in 14.9 lbs which landed us 11th place in Sabine and 3rd place in the Team of the Year race. Over all, we were satisfied with our performance. However, we are always hard on ourselves for not doing better, but hey that’s just tournament life.
Another outstanding job by Jen Green and Team Xtreme for putting on another great tournament. The Xtreme Redfish Trail is a great tournament to fish. If you ever have a chance to fish an Xtreme event, you definitely should! Team Fight Em Fair can’t wait for the next Xtreme tournament in Rockport, TX on May 15, 2010.
Thank you to all of our awesome sponsors including Hookset Marine Gear, Charlie’s Custom Rods, LB Outfitters, and Fishgillz Sunglasses. Because of your incredible products, Team Fight EM Fair is successful on the water!
03/20/10 – Xtreme Redfish Trail – Corpus Christi, TX
On March 20, 2010, we participated in the Xtreme Redfish Trail at Bluff’s Landing in Corpus Christi, TX, and let me tell you…if you really want to know what it takes to be a tournament fisherman, this is what it is all about. Sit down and strap in, because it was one heck of a ride!
Robert and I launched the boat early on Saturday morning. We did not have a slight clue what the day might bring. We idled over to the dock, tied up, and started talking to some fellow tournament anglers as we waited to launch. A few of them asked, “Have you heard about the weather?” Hmmm…
So, we flipped on the weather band on the radio and listened as they announced the forecast for the day…small craft advisory, chance of heavy thunderstorms, chance of hail possible, strong 30 mph winds with gusts up to 45 mph. Robert and I looked at each other with blank stares on our faces. The writing was on the wall…today was going to be a grind!
As we approached the spot that we had pre-fished, we saw not one, not two, but six other boats in the same general area. So, we knew that the other teams had the opportunity to catch “our” fish. It was time to bring the A-game. There was absolutely no room for error with this much competition. So, we jumped out of the boat and started wade fishing. We picked up several nice trout measuring 22-25“…any other day we would have been more than happy to be catching good trout, but not today! We were hunting reds.
About an hour into the wade, the bad weather starting stirring but we stayed focused on the task at hand…lo and behold; there she was…that unmistakable THUMP on the end of the line! My Charlie’s Custom Rod bowed, the hook set, and GAME ON! Once I got her to the net and realized how big she was, I could barely get a hand around her to pick her up! I was not sure if she was oversized or not so I put her on the Hookset Pro-Series Stringer so that I could take her back to the boat and get a good measurement on her. She measured 27”. One down…one to go! Whew!
For the next two and a half hours, we continued to wade – landing nothing but trout; and then Mother Nature spoke up. About 12:00 pm, we started to hear the rumbling of an incoming storm, and we knew that it was just a matter of time before the storm would get to us. We gave ourselves about 20 more minutes to fish before we headed in to shelter…10 minutes later, that turned out to be the wrong decision. The storm was on top of us. Lightning was flickering in the sky, so we hurried back to the boat and headed to the harbor. After we tied up at the harbor, we found ourselves amongst most of the other tournament anglers…standing on the patio of the Laguna Reef Restaurant, so we decided to sit down, have a shrimp po-boy and wait out the storm.
An hour later, the storm had passed and the lightning stopped so we jumped back in to the Tran Sport Baby Cat, and headed back out. When we arrived back at our spot, the wind had changed directions and the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees. UGH! This was a whole new ball game, and here comes the rain again, and the wind picked up to 30-40 mph. At one point, it was raining so hard that we could not see each other standing 40 feet apart, but we continued the grind. We needed a second fish in the live well. As the rain pounded the back of our hoods and we endured getting pushed around from the wind and the chop, there it was again…THUMP! At last, we had a second fish in the live well, but we kept on fishing…hoping to upgrade our smaller fish until time ran out, but we were unsuccessful. We only caught two reds all day. So, we headed back to the weigh in.
Anxiously we waited to weigh in our fish. The weigh master, Chris Barrett flagged us to step to the scales. Fish 1 measured a hair over 27” and weighed 8.5 lbs. YES! We held our breath as he measured Fish 2…she measured 23.5” and weighed 5.25 lbs. Our total weight was 13.75 lbs. We earned 9th place overall at the Xtreme Redfish Trail in Corpus Christi. The tournament was awesome. Kudos to the Xtreme team for putting on a great tournament in tough conditions, and hats off to all of the awesome anglers that fished through the storm like we did…that is what separates the men from the boys! Now, it is time to start pre-fishing for the Port Neches tournament on April 17, 2010.
Thank you to all of our sponsors including Hookset Marine Gear, Charlie’s Custom Rods, and Fishgillz Sunglasses . It is your products that enable us to emerge successful on the water!
Keep Tight Lines,
Josh Bryan
Team Fight’em Fair/ Team Hookset
PAST SEASONS
2009
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