Riley Rods Redfish Shootout
Jon Morton and Capt. Robbie Hall, of Team Reel Outdoors, with the 12.30 pair of red drum that earned them victory in the Riley Rods Spring Redfish Shootout, including the 6.56 lb. fish that also topped the Single Big Fish TWT.
Taking home the top spots in both the tournament’s main leaderboard and Single Big Fish TWT, Capt. Robbie Hall and Jon Morton—Team Reel Outdoors—scaled a pair of red drum weighing 12.30 lbs. on their way to victory in the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series Spring Shootout.
Held March 22 out of the West Beaufort Wildlife Access, the event attracted nine two-man teams who set their sights on upper-slot red drum throughout the waters of the Crystal Coast.
Hall, of Swansboro’s Hall’Em In Charters, and Morton chose to run from Beaufort back to their home waters to some schools of fish they located in the weeks leading up to the event.
“I had some charters and pre-fished on a couple days off,” Hall explained. “We’d found 5-6 big schools of fish and one smaller school with 50 or so that were all 25”+.”
With the smaller school of quality fish inaccessible until the tide rose later in the day, the duo began targeting the larger groups they’d located, and the morning conditions proved ideal for locating and hooking the fish.
“It was pretty calm that morning,” Hall continued, “so we had some good sight-fishing conditions.”
Casting Salty Bay Baits Redfish Minnow and Red Devil soft plastics, Hall and Morton connected with numerous reds while they tracked their first school through a Swansboro-area bay. Hall landed the first fish they hauled to the scales around 9:45 that morning.
Tim Chavez with one of the red drum he and Capt. Allen Jernigan–Team White Latinos–landed on the way to their 11.94 lb. two-fish aggregate and second place finish in the Riley Rods Spring Redfish Shootout.
The anglers continued working schools of reds in the same general vicinity until early afternoon, when the tide rose enough to get Hall’s 20’ Pathfinder to their smaller school of upper-slot fish.
Morton added the next upgrade to their fish in the livewell around 1:00 when he landed the 6.56 lb. red that topped the Big Fish TWT.
As often happens in the spring, a pretty morning had turned into a windy afternoon, and the crew elected to head for Beaufort soon after Morton landed his fish to ensure they made the weigh-in.
“I knew we had 12 lbs. in the boat, which is a pretty good weight for this time of year,” Hall reported. “I know there was a 13 lb. pair of fish in that smaller school, but we’d catch a 26-incher and then one that was 27.5. I still felt fortunate to have what we had and figured we’d be in the top three at least.”
The decision to leave early proved solid, as the pair made the scales with 15 minutes to spare. When the scales closed, Hall and Morton’s fish were the only pair topping 12 lbs. weighed in the event, and their 6.56 lb. big fish topped the TWT by a third of a pound.
Sneads Ferry’s Capt. Allen Jernigan, of Breadman Ventures, and Tim Chavez—fishing as the White Latinos—were rewarded with a pair of reds weighing 11.94 lbs. to secure second place in the event.
Jernigan also located some large schools of fish around Swansboro while on charters leading up to the event, and he and Chavez chose to make the run to that area as well.
“There were some big schools with 600-800 fish in them,” Jernigan reported.
Like the winners, they were on fish under prime conditions almost immediately after they began casting weedless-rigged TTF Killer Flats Minnow soft plastics.
“We had fish on our first and second casts,” Jernigan continued, “and we probably had the fish we weighed by 8:45 that morning.”
Team Garrett/Prestige rounded out the top three in the shootout with an 11.81 lb. two-fish aggregate.
The next event in the Riley Rods Redfish Shootout Series is a tandem tournament with the Low Country Redfish Cup scheduled for June 7 out of Wrightsville Beach. Anglers can learn more about the series and view photos and standings by visiting www.redfishshootoutseries.com.
