April 23-24   Redfish Tour Tourney

Koll and I went down Friday morn.  Hit Shamrock.  Wind out of SE at 15-20+.  Small fish inside, not able to drift outside properly.  Caught a slew of trout inside and out.  Too bad not a trout tourney.   Pulled out and headed for St. Charles.  Trout of course.  Drifted east shorlines that run east-west.  Great grass bottom.  One keeper red.  Found great water further in as well.  Went to Danny's.  Trout.  Birds diving...Trout.  Hit Cow Chip...Trout.  

Tourney day, the wind was pumping out of the North at 20+, so we changed our plan from St. Charles to Shamrock.  Tried the outside first thing.  No joy.  Went inside.  Found a few small one's, mostly trout on North end.  Drifted the islands.  Trout (see pic).  Finally drifted up against island, and at 10:30, found a school of reds, probably 26"-30".  At first, we drifted over about 6-10 of them, they hit nothing.  Koll caught one 18" not in the school, up against the island.  We circled around and drifted thru again.  Went thru about 30 of them this time.  Hit nothing.  Circled back around for drift 3.  Came to where we thought they would be, anchored, and there they were.  300+ fish, lazily drifting back and forth behind the boat.  Our hearts were pumping thru our chests.  Unfortunately, our excitement abated after 75 casts at these bruisers with empty retrieves.  They would hit NOTHING!  For those that know me, I carry the entire Academy tackle section with me, and I threw it all!  These fish were not interested in anything we had to offer.  In our frustration, we proceeded back north.  We did catch our 2 keepers on top, but only a 20" and a 24".   Had a great time, but frustrated at the school that might have been.  Oh well, I guess your not supposed to win your first go-around, huh.  See tourney results below...