Redfish Action Tournament
Capts. Jeff Cronk and Mike Taylor with the pair of red drum weighing 13.53 lbs. that earned them the win in Redfish Action Cup Three. They hooked their fish on Gulp baits in a marsh behind Bear Island.
A pair of red drum weighing 13.53 lbs. was enough to earn Capts. Jeff Cronk and Mike Taylor, of NC Charter Fishing, their second win of the year in Redfish Action Cup Three, held August 4 out of Beaufort’s Town Creek Marina, but not enough to wrest the Team of the Year Honors from fellow Capts. Rennie Clark and Drew Arndt—the Dingbatters Fishing Team.
Cronk and Taylor returned to the school of reds that secured their victory in the Cup Two event, feeding in a marsh channel between Swansboro and Bear Island, but they had some competition.
“It took us about 15 minutes to find them,” Cronk explained, “and then we had a couple local boats converge on us and spook the fish.”
The fish disappeared from view as the crowd showed up, but the other anglers didn’t stay long.
“Those fish went down into a little channel and the other people moved on,” Cronk continued.
The captains kept hunting for the school, and they were able to relocate the fish after the crowd dissipated.
“It was low tide and a calm day,” Cronk said, “and I saw a little movement in the channel. We got them cornered up on a shoal and were able to catch eight fish out of them.”
Casting 4” Gulp shrimp and pogies, the anglers were able to cull a pair of fish between 26-27” out of the eight before a new kind of competition arrived.
“Two porpoises showed up and encircled the school,” Cronk explained. “They pounded on them for 10 minutes. It was crazy—they were throwing drum up into the air out of 3-4’ of water.”
The porpoises eventually left, but the fish didn’t return to feeding.
“I don’t know if they left after that, but we didn’t get any more bites,” Cronk reported.
The larger of their two fish wasn’t doing well in the livewell, and, concerned about the penalty for weighing a dead fish, Cronk tried to resuscitate it.
“It just wasn’t feeling good,” he explained. “It was really fat when we caught it, but it puked up a lot of crab parts in the livewell and lost some weight. I ended up nursing it by putting its mouth on the water inlet for the livewell for a while.”
The trick worked, and not wanting to stress the fish further, Cronk and Taylor headed for the scales as soon as they could.
Topping the event’s single big fish TWT on their way to second place, Jeff Smith and Joe Murphy scaled a pair of red drum weighing 13.08 lbs. to finish second.
Third went to the Dingbatters, and the finish was enough to push them over the top for Redfish Action Team of the Year.
A summer of motor trouble forced Arndt and Clark to fish several tournaments on a borrowed boat, but Clark had his Carolina Skiff rigged and ready for the Cup Three event.
Knowing that the skiff would limit their effective range during the event, Clark covered an enormous amount of water pre-fishing in the two days leading up to the tournament.
“I fished all the way from Morehead City to Cedar Island,” he explained. “Then came up Long Bay, fished all over the Neuse, and finally in Adams and Core Creeks.”
Though he ran across scattered fish all over the area, Clark only found two schools of the upper-slot fish he was looking for—both near Ophelia Inlet in Core Sound.
He and Arndt set out for the area on the morning of the event, but they had trouble locating their school at first as well.
“I finally saw their backs pushing water against a bank,” Clark explained, “and they swam under the boat. I threw into them and told Drew to too.”
Casting Gulp baits, the anglers both hooked up immediately, Arndt with a near-perfect 27” fish and Clark with a 21” version.
“I couldn’t see where they went after that,” Clark continued, “but I threw back where they were and caught another 27.”
Their two early big fish were the best they could muster for the rest of the day, but it was plenty to secure their spot as Team of the Year.
