IFA Team Riley Rods report

[gottaflylee]

First I want to say Congrats to Rob Koraly and Dustin White for their win in the IFA Savanna division.



Second went to Team Riley Rods Mike Pedersen and Lee Parsons



Third place went to Rennie Clark Jr. and Drew Arndt (Hurricane Drew on the board here)



Eight place went to Mike Taylor and Jeffery Cronk



All these guys were from NC and in the Wrightsville Beach and Swansboro area, great showing from the NC crew. Congrats to all, we all were up against the best on the circuit in the Atlantic Division.



Ok, now on with the pictures from Mike's and my pre fishing.

We had the toughest fishing conditions Mike and I have pre-fished in yet. Winds were 15 to 25 all week long and cold, very cold. Sunday we both were wondering what we were doing on the water and looking for a place to hide out of the wind and cold as much as we were looking for fish, neither were to be found.

Heading to Savanna...



First full day, morning at the ramp...



And when the Sun peaked through...



It seemed that every where we looked, there was muddy, coffee colored water and no fish to be found. The hunt was on to find cleaner water and after a couple of days, we found it about an hour away from where we were staying. After that we concentrated on looking for fish in that area.

It always amazes my how a simple twist of fait awaits one sometimes. Mike and I were working down one of the first banks we looked at when I got a line loop and he broke off, He power poled down while we got things fixed. While we were there, Mike spied some fish working a marsh edge with water flowing over a Oyster rock, fish with their backs out of the water and pushing water. Soon we were trying to get to where we had a shot at them and Mike scores first with the Gold spoon...

Frist fish in the boat...



Soon we had the second fish in the boat, I would have gladly gone to the scales with these 2...



The second spot we looked at...







I Blurped this guy...

[gottaflylee]

From there we looked for more fish finding a few fish here and their and then we found our "A" spot where we ran to fish the tournament and it was on with fish after fish coming to the boat, over , in and under the slot...

















The next day the wind was blowing even harder and the day was spent looking more that catching eliminating water and trying to hide out of the wind. No fish was found but we made a game plan from there for the next day witch was blowing harder than they said it would. After some looking we found a couple of fish...














This was a spot that we thought that the fish would be, lots of Oyster mounds, and great looking marshes, with birds working bait, When we got there, the water was to low for us to get into it so we left and came back on the 1/2 tide, the water was the clearest we found this trip, looking like the islands...





We found a bridge in the middle of no where with a couple of fish on it...







On the way back to the ramp, we hit one more spot where we found about a couple of hundred fish the day before that we could not get to bite and Mike, caught 1 more in pre-fishing. At this point, I was wishing that we had another day to pre fish, but it was over and tomorrow would tell the story of how good we did our homework...





On tournament day, we got off to a shaky start and had to get the boat pulled to get the plug we left out, put back end. I looked at Mike and told him that our bad luck was over for the day and it was. We pulled into our "A" spot that we had never fished on low tide and started down the bank, I looked up and saw a fish "tailing" and then with it's back out of the water, calmly feeding. I zeroed Mike in to them and he positioned the boat so we both could cast. We fired out baits to them and he hooked up instantly, soon we had the first fish in the boat and it was on. We caught slot sized fish and over as hard as we could go for the next 2 hours as the tide rose. As it got above the Oyster mounds, we moved to the marsh and picked off a few more.

We looked up and saw Rennie and Drew coming our way as they had found this spot on a high tide. They staked out and we did also, pushing the large school of fish between the boats with each boat catching their share of over and under sized fish. Soon it was time for Mike and I to head back as we were the slowest boat in the tournament and had almost a 2 hour run back to the weigh in. It that time I had no Idea that we would be in the top 10 with the fish we had, much less have a second place finish.

We hit the dock and saw sacks that I thought were bigger than ours and the long wait started as we watched many more teams come in, but we held on to second place...

[HurricaneD]

Well deserved Lee. Great writeup and pics! I was too cold most of the time to even pull out the camera. Glad you caught more of the action. I really thought after the day we had and with the pretty weather those guys running even further were going to bring in 9+ lb bags but goes to show you just never know. Oh and I still can't get over how clear that water got late in the week! It was unbelievable...I've fished down there several years and never seen it that crystal clear!

[clt_capt]

Awesome - Nice to see you and Mike on the podium...


Question - is there any correlation between hatchery raised redfish and the number of spots on the fish?

[gottaflylee]

Awesome - Nice to see you and Mike on the podium...


Question - is there any correlation between hatchery raised redfish and the number of spots on the fish?

Fred, as far as I know there are not many or any hatchery raised Red Drum. The spots seem to be like freckles...some have none and some have many. I have caught them with as many as 20 + on one side and sometimes, none at all...
I know who to ask and will this weekend. Hope some others will chime in here.

[brandon558]

Pretty work guys..great pics Lee.

[Agitated88]

Thats awesome...congrat's to you guys!! Excellent read and amazing pictures as well...thanks for sharing!!

[Robja]

Congratulations Lee and Mike.

[worthless]

Great report, and congratulations on your strong finish.

[SeaBiscuit]

Nice report and pictures Lee, well done!
Once again congrats to team Riley and all the rest of the SE NC teams. Y'all did the Cape Fear proud!
SeaBiscuit