Redfish Action Challenge
“We lived up to the name early on,” Capt. Rennie Clark, Jr., of the Dingbatters Fishing Team, explained. “We found about 300 fish early on, caught a 25 incher, and dropped it back in the water when we were measuring it. Then we chased the school off the flat; we screwed it up bad.”
Fortunately for the Dingbatters, Clark and partner Hurricane Drew Ardnt recovered, finding another big school of reds and landing a pair of 27” fish weighing 14.45 lbs. to earn first place at Redfish Action Challenge’s second cup event, held July 11 out of Beaufort’s Town Creek Marina.
“We went to another spot about 5 miles away behind Topsail where I’d been looking at some fish,” Clark continued, “and caught a quick 18” fish on a topwater. About 20 minutes later, Drew pointed and said ‘Are those fish?’ I threw a topwater over there, and it got crushed by a 28 incher.”
After Clark hooked the first fish, the anglers enjoyed consistent action from the school for the next hour, landing a pair of fish around 26” before Clark had another topwater hookup.
“That fish bent all the hooks on a Skitterwalk straight, and I replace all my hooks with 4X strong ones,” Clark said. “I don’t know how it stayed on. It must have had the plug caught in its mouth sideways.”
As Clark got the red close to the boat, neither angler thought it would be under NC’s 27” maximum keeper size for red drum, but when it hit the deck, Clark’s hopes soared.
“I said, Dude, that fish is going to measure, and he was a perfect 27,” he reported.
The fish fooled the anglers at first because it was so fat it looked larger, an ideal tournament red.
“I knew it was over 8 lbs. at that point and that we’d be strong in the TWT (for the heaviest single red),” the captain continued.
With an absolutely perfect red and another over 26” in the boat, the Dingbatters kept at it, hoping to upgrade their second fish. The school milled around the boat, enabling the anglers to pick off specific fish, but they didn’t get the second fish they weighed until after losing the school for a moment.
Vikki and Mike Pedersen, Team Riley Rods, with the redfish that earned Vikki the Top Lady Angler honors in evetn two of the Redfish Action Challenge Cup Series, held out of Beaufort July 11th.
“There at the end, the school bounced off us, then bounced off another boat and came back,” Clark explained.
“Then I threw a Deep Creek Razor Beetle and popped the lead fish. That one was another 27” fish, not nearly as fat as our first, but it still let us upgrade from a 26.5” red.”
With a pair of 27” reds in the boat, the Dingbatters did something they rarely do—headed to the scales early.
“We were checked in at 2:00 and were the third boat to weigh in,” the winning captain explained, “but when Drew opened the livewell, he said, ‘You’re going to be sick, dude’.”
Apparently prone to motion sickness, the team’s porky TWT fish had spat out a 10” flounder and a pair of 8” pogies on the ride from Topsail to Beaufort. Fortunately, the red still weighed 7.56 lbs., enough to top the TWT by just over a tenth of a pound and carry their two-fish aggregate to victory.
The Dingbatters would like to thank sponsor Riley Rods for their role in the team’s success.
Southport, NC’s Fin Chaser/Long Bay Boats team of Capt. Todd Streeter and Darin Strickland were right on the Dingbatters’ heels, scaling a pair of upper-slot reds weighing 14.09 lbs. to finish second.
Running 62 miles from Beaufort to a flat behind Topsail Island, the Streeter and Strickland team found instant action and culled their way through 18 reds between 7:30 and 9:30. Nearly all hit topwaters except the big fish, which fell for a copper spoon.
Eric Powell and Jason Nelson, of the New River Marina Fishing Team, took third in the second Redfish Action event of ’09 with two reds weighing 13.63 lbs. that they hooked in the ICW near Sneads Ferry on a Gulp bait and a topwater plug.
Swansboro’s Outlaw Anglers Lane Hurst and Jamie Riggs finished fourth with 13.17 lbs., and Matt and Ray Lamb, of team Chasin’ Tails Outdoors, weighed in 13.12 lbs. to round out the top five.
A 7 lb. even red earned Vikki Pedersen, of Team Riley Rods, the event’s Top Lady Angler honors. Kyle Tobin, of Fishers of Men, topped the Junior Angler competition with a 6.43 lb. redfish.
