IFA Kayak Series Tournament

Headed down to Port O with Clint, Rick, and Cameron to say good bye to the Rick Carlton hotel...Rick sold his house in Port O and this was the last chance to stay down there free and pack up some remaining stuff...Rick thanks again for all the hospitality you have shown us in your home...it is greatly appreciated....we woke up Saturday knowing Port O had 2+ tourneys launching at dawn so we slept in and launched around 6:30am....funny we saw a guide at the launch and made a comment about his awesome boat...and how fast it would run....about 1hr+ later and 5mi. from the launch we pull up to our first spot to see this guide and his party out of the boat wading...needless to say the winds were near 30...bay was super rough...sargasum floating everywhere...water looked like a$$...and I'm sure that guide was thinking we were crazy...we caught some fish but it was a brutal day overall....I decided to try my luck in Port A and try and find some cleaner water on tourney day....Sunday woke up at 3am...yes 3am...made the drive to Port A and got to my launch in plenty of time to find my launch in the dark and get ready...tourney time I put in and started to drift out a bit throwing a shedog and got a trout blow about 3 casts into my day...as I'm buring this trout it...it runs right through a nice school of redfish...scattering them in every direction....got that fish in the yak and photo-ed and released...16 3/4 .decided that drifting was out of the question...and anchoring would be fruitless...so I tied the yak onto my waist and bailed out to wade the remainder of the day....I walked about 2-3mi. in a big loop blind casting a topwater and a surface waker....I had one monster redfish turn and pounce on my shedog only to come back to the surface without the fish.. two more blowups later and I switched to a shepup and got a taker...23 1/4. A few smaller redfish and at 10am I decided to move...my second location was pretty eventless...I saw one school of upgrade-able redfish that wouldn't cooperate...had one nice blowup....and one time I was speed burning my topwater back to the yak only to have a nice 20"+ trout blow up on it as I was lifting it out of the water....I punched the button and held perfectly still hoping a hook would sink home...but alas...it came up empty....got circled by the GW 3 times in an airboat in 1.5hrs and a personal visit...nice to see them out...bummer to see them running laps all day long...that noise is annoying...my 40" was enough for 2nd place on a tough day fishing...I don't think anything I could have done would have helped over take Chad for 1st place...which I can live with...if I had to take away anything from this tourney....if you're getting mutiple blowups on the Shedog with no takers...size down...Good thing I had the 23 1/4 early cause my next two 22" reds were hooked in the face and not the mouth...released no photo...I might rethink the big topwater strategy...I'd hate to have a 30" in the face on tourney day...so I've started using a waker..I really like the action of the surface waker...I had one nice fish take a swipe near me on it...and landed a couple smaller reds on it...it's a nice search bait....don't be afraid to wade....cover as much ground as you can slow enough to matter....don't get comfortable....I watched 2 guys paddle out with one drift to an island...get out..and stand on that island all day long...you gotta go find them....they usually aren't coming looking for you.....fish til the end...too many tournaments are won or lost in the last 1hr of fishing time.....think about how many monster bucks are shot after everyone leaves the deer stands...when the crowds thin during the day...and things quiet down...you might get a good shot at a good fish....thanks to everyone at the IFA...first class group...we had a blast and will see you at the next one..