Tournament Report – Cy’s World Rodeo
The 6th Annual Cy’s World Flounder, Trout, and Redfish Rodeo took place November 26, 2016, out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center. This year, returning four time champions Brandon Sauls and Clay Morphis took their fifth win, weighing in an aggregate two fish speckled trout total of 10.6 lbs.
“We did our usual advanced prep work and got live shrimp leading up to the event. We also know that the biggest trout are at the jetties this time of year, and even though the wind and water conditions might not be the best out there, putting in our work helped us with the win,” says Sauls of their pre-fishing experience.
Brandon Sauls and Clay Morphis with two trout weighing in at 10.6 lbs., securing the duo their 5th win in the 6th annual Cys World Flounder, Trout, and Redfish Rodeo.
Lines were allowed in the water at 7:00 am, so Sauls and Morphis made sure to stake out their spot by 6:45 am. “The conditions were perfect. The water was 58 degrees, and the tide was falling, with a light north wind. We floated shrimp down the jetties once the clock hit 7:00,” tells Sauls of the morning.
Fishing with a pencil cork float and a one-ounce weight, they treble hooked live shrimp and drift fished 200 yards down from where Morphis had caught an 8 lb. gator the week before.
“We probably caught 60 to 70 fish that day. The bite was unreal from the time we got there, until about noon when the tide changed,” said Sauls. “When you’re catching decent fish, you want to stay there and keep catching them. Clay and I call it ‘Rinse and Repeat.’”
The duo culled through fish, playing the numbers game, until Clay hooked a 6.55 lb. fish. The duo’s second largest fish was 4.05 lbs., and after the trout bite shut down, the team headed in search of reds to potentially increase their weight, only finding rat reds the rest of the day.
However, the combined total weight of their top two trout was 10.6 lbs. and enough to secure their win by a 4 lb. margin.
Second place in the competition went to Bailey Auten and Taylor Henkle, with a combined weight of 6.65 lbs., and Bob Newell and Jeff Williamson took third with an aggregate weight of 5.15 lbs.
For more information on Cy’s World, visit their website at www.cysworld.org.
