Tournament Report: Carolina Redfish Series Event #1
Bringing a pair of reds to the scales at Saturday’s weigh-in that totaled 12.58 lbs., Capt. Johnathan Garrett and Capt. Matthew Littleton–Team “OnPoint Fishing”–won Event #1 in the 2016 Carolina Redfish Series, held out of Atlantic Beach’s Chasin’ Tails Outdoors on June 4.
Capt. Johnathan Garrett and Capt. Matthew Littleton, Team OnPoint Fishing, with their two winning redfish, totaling 12.58 lbs. The duo took home $5,000 in Event #1 in the Carolina Redfish Series, held out of Chasin Tails Outdoors in Atlantic Beach.
Going into the event, the duo had pre-fished an area quite a bit, and they had a smaller pot of fish that they had kept an eye on.
“The fish had been there day after day, so we planned to return to them first. On the day of the event, though, the fish were gone,” said Garrett. So the team had to modify their strategy on tournament day, heading to a second group of fish they hoped were still around.
“Within 10 minutes, we had the big fish in the boat,” said Garrett, who caught the big red on a Gulp jerk shad. After that fish, the bite slowed for a few hours.
“The slow bite had me worried,” explained Garrett, but his teammate started throwing topwater around 10:30, and that’s when they landed their second red, with a few smaller ones caught afterwards.
“I felt like we had a decent chance,” said Garrett. “I talked to a few people, and we seemed to be doing better than most, but you never know what to expect with a redfish tournament.” Team “OnPoint Fishing” was one of the last to weigh in, and after coming in second in the 2015 championship tournament earlier this year, they succeeded this time in bringing home the $5,000 winning check in the event with their two reds, weighing in at 5.93 and 6.65 lbs., and beating out second place by just 0.03 lbs.
The second place spot was filled by team “Fish’N 4 Life,” consisting of Capt. Jeff Cronk and his wife Kellee Cronk, with their reds weighing in at 12.55 lbs. Team “Taylormade” scaled two fish at 11.95 lbs. to take the third leaderboard spot.
A full leaderboard for the tournament along with a schedule and more information on the Carolina Redfish Series can be found online at www.carolinaredfishseries.com.
