Tidelines – July 3, 2014
Gary Hurley with one of the many topwater reds he caught while fishing with The Redfish Guys, Dwayne Smith and Lee Padrick, in Back Sound, North River, and Core Sound.
“Statistically you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning twice than being bitten by a shark once; however, today your odds are 50/50,” Lee Padrick told me as we idled away from the Lennoxville public boat ramp next to The Boathouse at Front Street Village to target a number of Down East redfish haunts that he and Dwayne Smith, the other half of The Redfish Guys, had cultivated over the last couple of seasons.
The daylight sky was just starting to lighten, but threatening clouds in the distance were echoing the patch of red on our cell phone radar apps. The patch was small and moving away from us and the area behind looked to be calm and clear, so Lee and Dwayne decided that there were plenty of places to choose from that would keep us on fish and out of harm’s way.
Our first stop that morning was some oyster rocks and small islands in Back Sound that were surrounded by grass beds. Lee and Dwayne had an assortment of lures tied on to their TFO Signature Series rods, but the decision for me was easy—I’d be throwing a topwater, a MirrOlure She Dog.
My very first cast landed about 5 feet off of the oyster bed, and it may have been in the water three seconds before a redfish boiled on the bait, came tight, and then pulled the topwater away from the leader.
“I think I tied that knot yesterday afternoon on the beach drinking beer,” Lee explained with a laugh, more matter of fact than apologizing, as he and Dwayne were on concurring family vacations.
Anxious to get on my first topwater red of the year, I grabbed the other topwater rod, a MirrOlure Top Dog Jr. tied on, and quickly sent it out to the same spot. One boil, two boils, three boils, four. My topwater couldn’t have created more interest, but on this retrieve no one wanted to commit.
My third cast went once again to the same location, and just as I started the “walk the dog” motion, a redfish hit with intention enough to get hooked and pull drag. I started celebrating aloud, and then the treble pulled.
We left the fish biting, on purpose, because clouds were building, rain drops started to fall, and all three of us were more interested in fishing a variety of locations than just racking up numbers. Our second stop was in the North River, and soft plastics were the top producer on a sandy shoreline with docks in the near distance.
The Redfish Guys like Salty Bay Red Devils in the roast beef color, and both Lee and Dwayne brought multiple reds to the boat while my topwater went unmolested. This changed abruptly, though, off a grassy point when my topwater was thrashed by a large red that seemed to explode almost fully out of the water. The knot held, the trebles didn’t bend, and soon I was posing for the cameras with my first topwater red of 2014, a 27-inch tournament-class red drum weighing in at just over 7 lbs.
No clouds or rain, but still we wanted to keep moving to ply new waters.
The third stop, a bank in Core Sound, was easily the busiest of our stops, quickly producing numerous reds for all three of us, including several doubles but never the desired triple. Topwaters, soft plastics, soft plastics under popping corks, and spoons all found attention, and after a barrage of fish photos and releases, we decided again to leave them biting to seek out new water.
At our last stop, a grassy bank in Core Sound far away from any docks or development, a large school of redfish betrayed themselves off in the distance by leaving wakes and ripples on the water’s surface, but the school seemed uneasy in spite of our long, quiet, and stealthy trolling motor pursuit. We put baits in the water all around the school, but unlike our previous reds they didn’t crash the baits. They were skittish and moved away quickly in a tight school.
Then the last big memory of the day came—a shark suddenly banged around violently on the outskirts of the school, making a loud commotion as it tried for a red drum lunch on the flats. These redfish had a better reason then three guys on an 18’ Shallow Sport Bahia to be nervous.
We still picked up a few reds in a little cove around the bend, but clearly the fish were spooky. Dwayne, Lee, and I decided that 24+ reds, many on topwater, made for a good half day, so we headed back to Taylor’s Creek.
Dwayne and Lee aren’t charter boat captains that took me fishing to try and book trips. They are merely passionate about red drum and red drum tournament fishing, and they wanted to share their passion with Fisherman’s Post. You can visit their website at www.theredfishguys.com to learn more about this fishing partnership that started almost 30 years ago in high school, or you can fish against them in the upcoming Hook & Bones Redfish Open on August 9 in Swansboro.
The Redfish Guys proved prophetic—giving me the 50/50 treatment on both lightning and shark encounters—and great hosts, but the topwater reds took top congeniality honors.
