The 2018 Redfish Series: Round TWO

Greetings once again from the tournament circuit!

My Team SeaDek tournament partner Jose “Pepi” Vidal and I competed this past Saturday, April 28th, in the second round of the East Coast Division of the Power-Pole Florida Pro Redfish Series held out of Saint Augustine, Florida. This was the maiden voyage of Pepi’s new Bossman Boats Extreme 20 skiff, so it was time to hopefully slime it up with some tournament-worthy redfish. Of course, I was told I could not put the first fish on his new boat.

At launch time we were greeted with perfect weather with the only factor being a dropping tide throughout the day. This called for having our two fish in the live-well as early as we could before our spot was high and dry. After a little over an hour run to our spot, we were pleased to see no other anglers had decided to share the area we were targeting. With the tide peaked and getting ready to drop we began to work a shoreline we’ve fished in the past with the hopes it would be holding fish. Pepi got his wish and landed the first fish in his new boat. Not one for the live-well, but the boat had now been christened by a small redfish and hopefully some positive mojo for the day.

Getting on the Board!

As the morning progressed we boated several other small redfish, but not what we were hoping for. Finally, as we approached a marshy creek fed shoreline things began to look promising as we could see baitfish nervously being chased by what we were hoping to find. Within the first few casts we boated a nice +25″ redfish for the live-well… And we were on the boards. Within three to four more casts… BOOM… another upper-slot redfish for the well.

The stress of tournament angling had now been lifted as we had two respectable redfish for the afternoon weigh-in. The remainder of the day proved to be little less productive with the dropping tide with only a couple more small redfish and a decent flounder that may have made the trip home with us as a dinner guest had we brought a cooler.

Weighing In

The time came to head back to the weigh-in with the hopes our two fish would be what we needed to put us in contention and possibly a paycheck for our efforts. We were one of the first teams to weigh-in at a respectable 11.74lbs so we kicked back with a cold beverage and watched the remainder of the teams bring their fish to the scales. Some came in under us, but, as tournaments go, some bumped us lower on the board. We ended the day sitting in 15th place out of the 60 or so teams competing. No check, but we were happy with our accomplishment competing against some of the best redfish tournament teams from around the State. Our season is wrapping up until the Fall with only the Strike-Zone Central Florida Shootout and RCI Optics Invitational tournaments left before our Summer break.

Many Thanks

We would like to once again thank the staff of the Florida Pro Redfish Series for all their hard work in organizing another great tournament as well as our sponsors. Without them we couldn’t do what we do. Huge thanks to SeaDek Marine Products, St Croix Rods, RCI Optics, Power-Pole Shallow Water Anchor, Strike-Zone Fishing, Florida Fishing Products, Frogg Toggs, and Slayer Inc., Lure Company. You guys rock!

Tight Lines!
Alan and Pepi / Team SeaDek