Tournament Report: Cy’s World Rodeo
While many gather to overeat and relax over the Thanksgiving weekend, for those that eat, sleep, and breathe fishing, it was only a short wait after the holiday before the Cy’s World Rodeo kicked off for its 13th year. Ocean Isle Fishing Center again played headquarters for Tournament Director Ned Garber to gather an intimate field of local and traveling fishing teams for competition in support of a great cause.
Team Kook Tacos, made up of Tim Disano, Tripp Hooks, Jimmy Dever, and Hunter Williams, took first place for the second straight year with a two-fish total of 13.80 lbs. The team ran out that morning with the intention of first landing a large speckled trout, similar to specks they had been producing in recent weeks. They were loaded up with live shrimp, but after bouncing around for hours with only a couple dozen smaller trout, they realized they were wasting time with the original plan. The tide was now lower, so they flipped course to go find an upper-slot red drum.
Finn Clark (age 8) and Wyatt Clark, from Georgetown, SC, finished in third place in the 2023 Cy’s World Rodeo with a two-fish weight of 11.75 lbs. Both fish came from a feeder creek off of the ICW using soft plastics.
Running to a spot in the ICW that has produced before, Hooks immediately landed a 26.5” red drum using a live shrimp rigged on a jig head. That one redfish was the only one at the ICW spot that wanted to cooperate, so they ran back into the creeks in search of a second. With little fishing time left, Hooks came through with a slightly larger red drum (27”) that hit a live shrimp under a slip cork.
Team Strong Time included Indianapolis, IN Nathan Sandy, Ocean Isle “Little John,” and South Carolina Mike Arnette. After hearing for years about the tournament, the friends decided at the last minute to sign up. The team’s plan was to target holes that have produced for them in previous years, and they even chose to fish all artificial baits, primarily “purple death” MirrOlure MR-52s. The team made several moves throughout creeks in the Sunset Beach area with not a lot to show for their efforts, but as fishing time was running out, they found a nice pod of reds.
Kook Tacos, made up of (l-r) Jimmy Dever, Tripp Hooks, Tim Disano, and Hunter Williams, defended their title in the 2023 Cy’s World Rodeo with a two-fish aggregate of 13.80 lbs. They weighed two red drum that were landed using live shrimp.
Strong Time put almost 30 red drum in the boat, but it was Nathan’s and Mike’s two fish that were weighed in for a total of 12.25 lbs. Third place, with a total 11.75 lbs., was brought in by Wyatt Clark, from Georgetown, SC, who was joined by his 8-year-old son Finn Clark. They came into town with the same plan they use in other redfish tournaments—fish areas that have produced and maintain the flexibility to change tactics up as needed. The team soon found a school on a flat inside a feeder creek off the ICW, almost exactly where they had found reds a few years before.
Finn wasted no time enticing a strike from their biggest fish, using a chartreuse-colored Gulp shrimp rigged on a Fathom Inshore jig head. Soon after, they boated their second fish. Wyatt makes sure to leave every event they fish with one new lesson for young Finn, and this year Finn learned about giving by donating the team’s winnings back to Cy’s World.
Pictured are the top three teams in the 2023 Cy’s World Rodeo: Wyatt and Finn Clark (left two) in third place, Kook Tacos (middle four) in first place, and Strong Time (right one) in second place.
The non-profit organization Cy’s World was created and functions with one main focus—to promote the expansion of lifelong outdoors adventures through fishing, hunting, boating, and more in youth and underprivileged persons. The Cy’s World Rodeo is always the weekend after Thanksgiving. You can learn more about supporting their great movement and the Cy’s World Rodeo by visiting CysWorld.org.
