May 9th HT Series Tournament

[Pole_benda]

Just got back a few hours ago from the HT Series redfish tournament that was held out of Calcasieu Point Landing. Earlier in the week (Tuesday) I went looking around for some fish (report here) in hopes of possibly getting into this tournament. Like my report stated I found some fish but not the quality I was looking for. Well my friends ended up fishing the HT Cup on Friday/Saturday and fished the areas I found that were holding fish. They ended up getting 4th place without fishing the jetties.
So on Saturday during my afternoon run, my buddy Tom sent me a text asking if I wanted to fish the Series today with his tournament partner. Never refusing a fishing opportunity I jumped on this offer. I found myself down there at A+ where they were staying at 4am with them just getting out of bed. So Gary and I loaded up the boat as launched it in the Intercoastal Park. We made the short run to the launch site and checked in. Boat #9 set to go.
Shortly after "safe light" we were on our way. We navigated our way behind the weir and targeted the shallow marshes that we have been locating fish. Since it was pretty windy I opted to go with a black and chartreuse (<-- that's a funny word, wonder where it came from) skitterwalk and little to my amazement my tourney partner was planning on fishing the exact same lure (good sign we are on the same page). On my 2nd cast I wasn't paying no attention as the lure just floated in the middle of the "prong" that we were fishing. Once I began the retrieve wham!, a short strike and miss. The fish spooked from the trolling motor so Gary got on the platform and worked his "stiffy" skills. As we navigated around a bend we noticed unsettled water. And after a close watch we noticed it was a school of about 20 reds making their way down the shore jumping all over each other. We positioned ourselves ahead of their path for a intercept and power-poled down. Once they came within casting distance several strikes at my GULP! and no fish was on the opposite side of my line. Gary followed with a spinner bait and quickly set the hook. The school spooked and I followed up with a long cast of the skitterwalk and the first double of the day was accomplished. We boated the two fish and quickly had 11lbs in the boat before 07am. We continued to pole down the bank, switching off after every fish was hooked and brought in until Gary just decided to stay perched up there. The two of us had it down a science in spotting fish and who would be pitching to it. I kept my search bait working until we found a fish and then Gary would follow up with a swim bait.
As we made our way down another bend there was a bit of commotion way in the back of a creek. So I launched my skitterwalk into creek and before I could flip my bail our big fish of the tourney was on. After a short stand off he was boat side. We measured him on the check-it stick and he was 27 1/8". We had a tough decision to make, get rid of one of the good fish and keep a over fish in hopes that he will shrink or just go after another one. Well we had the "were in it to win it" attitude and decided to take the chance with this 8.5lb red measured on the rapala boca scale. 30 mins later we brought him back out when he was relaxed and he fit within the slot like a glove. The action slowed tremendously after that and we made one last pass before we had to make the run back. We decided that we would fish until a certain point and call it a day. Once we made the point we began to put stuff away, when we notice another school of fish making their way down the bank. We got the rods ready and again positioned for a intercept. Since I was on the bow of the boat I made the first cast trying to pick of fish on the outer edge so that the school didnt get spooked off. Mission success, fish on and he separated from the school. The school continued down the bank and Gary was next up. He pitches fish on! and then snap. Its okay I have a fish on and its crunch time. We net the fish and put him on the scale and he measured 7.1lbs. It was a 1lb upgrade. So we are thinking we have 15.6lbs and sitting in good shape. For some reason or another my scale was off big time and once our fish was weighed it tallied 13.12lbs. That's a big difference from what we measured. The boca has been pretty accurate for me up until today and don't know why it would read faulty. It was properly zero'd before each fish was weighed. I just dont know.
Well with some of the big CUP guys still hanging around and fishing this tournament we were a bit worried about getting pushed out of the money. After it was all said and done we ended up in 3rd. With a $400 credit towards our next tournament. Here are the pictures from the weigh-in. Sorry I didnt take photos during the tournament as the action was fast and furious with the fish we were catching.


Gear Used:
Rods- 7/6" & 8'0" St. Croix Avid/Tidemaster/Legend
Reels- Shimano Sustain/Stradic CI-4/Stradic MGFA
Line- Stren Microfuse
Bait- Rapala Skitterwalk, Nemire Lures, Strike King Money Minnow, Berkley GULP!

Weather:
Skies- Majority Overcast
Tide- Rising then dropping
Wind- East 15-20mph

Man I am sorry guys, I just looked up and its near 12am and this is a novel. Let me know if I need to shorten my reports from now on.

Pole_benda (Anthony Fountain)
St. Croix Rods Pro Staff
Team Shallow Minded

[yak'em-n-stack'em]

awesome report man, congrats

[LaAngler]

no need to shorten them! good read!

[outcast]

nice read, great report. no need to shorten them. I think i saw your partner one day down in Dularge. does he fish out of a famous craft? we were prefishing for a tournament down there, and saw him. he didnt fish the tournament tho? i dont know. anyway congrats on the 3rd place finish!

[speckinabox]

Yea the Big Cup guys pushed us out the money but all in all we were happy with 4th. You guys edged us out of 3rd. We made the run to Texas to pick up our fish though so we gave up 3 hours of fishing. We really enjoyed the tourny just wished that more people fished.

["W"]

Nice Report

[Pole_benda]

Outcast,
Yeah Gary fishes all over LA. He is really from AL though. I think he was prob fishing a GCAA tourney. He does fish in a lot of tourney though and this was his first in the big lake.

Speck,
I wish more people had fished to. The HT tournaments just dont have the turn out as those other tournaments. But who wouldnt want to pay $400 and fish for $3000 with a 1 out of 10 chance of winning?

[Ray]

The bait at the Civic Center seawall steps are thick, thick, thick.
But we only see fish hitting them at night.

["W"]

I see Jsmoke hung up a big stringer........What was the total weight of these two hogs??? 6lbs??

[speckdaddy]

Originally Posted by "W"

I see Jsmoke hung up a big stringer........What was the total weight of these two hogs??? 6lbs??

man i pull stuff out my nose bigger than those two fish... mr pro staff