The Redfish Chronicles: The Second Annual Redfishville Shoot-Out for HOW

October is a great month for targeting Redfish. The water starts to clear, the fish start to school up and the weather turns nice enough to fish all day. Every October there is an event held in Charleston that means a lot to a lot of people. The Redfishville Shoot-Out. This is a kayak fishing tournament held every October to raise awareness and funds for the South Carolina Chapter of Heroes on the Water or HOW. How is an organization that takes injured war vets and takes them kayak fishing to assist n their recovery and therapy. Our Motto is "Paddle. Fish. Heal." , through donations of companies, local like The Charleston Angler, The Dog and Duck and Time Out Sports, to national companies like March Brown fly rods, Yak Attack and Stearns, we are able to take our Heroes fishing with zero cost to them. Once a Hero is identified to us and he or she wants to fish, we take care of all the cost they would incur such as travel, equipment, licenses and meals. The Redfishville Shoot-Out refills our coffers every year and allows us to continue to help our Heroes recover.

The night before the tourney is the Captains meeting. All the anglers participating met up at the West Ashley The Charleston Angler and we ate, drank a little and went over the rules and procedures for the tourney. The Tournament is a classic "CPR" Tourney. The is Catch Photo and Release. Each angler catches their fish, photographs the fish with a special identifier then releases the fish, we'll most do but a few people do enjoy eating a fish or two. It is a one day event and the main goal is to raise awareness for HOW, raise some needed funds and to get as many kayak anglers together to enjoy fishing and teach some of the new guys a trick or two. The Dog and Duck in Park West provided the wings and food and The Pampered Palate provided our drinks for the meeting and the tourney the next day. The meeting ended with everyone headed off to rig up poles, select flies and get their last minute preparations together.

Saturday morning the dawn was met with fog and a slight breeze. Much warmer than last year, and as the light slowly came up the anglers started to launch. One by one they disappeared into the fog. The sun finally peeked over the horizon and the fishing was on. Within 30 minutes I got a text message of the first redfish of the day caught. A respectable 25" form Tommy "Too Busy" Samuels. As I paddled out to see if I could find a few fish and take some photos, I heard rumors of a 31" that was caught and I could hear people laughing and yelling back sizes of fish, " I got a 24 and a half!!" "Cool I got a 27", the banter back and forth was spooky at first as only voices could be heard and no one could be seen. I guess it is fitting for an October tournament. The sun crept higher and the fog lifted to reveal a beautifully lit up marsh bathed in golden light with pelicans and swallows flying around. Kayakers could be seen at every point of the compass. The sun burned off all the fog and revealed a beautiful day on the water. Bluebird skies and a slight breeze. We couldn't have asked for better. The day wore on and people started checking in their fish. All in all about 50 redfish were caught. All in all we had 30 Kayak Anglers fishing this tournament. I might add that was more than double of the IFA tournament in Georgetown a few weekends ago.

Our 1st Place winner was Phil Lowery with a 29.5” red who took home a 6’6” Med action HOW/TFO Casting Rod with reel, our 2nd Place winner was – John Chapman with a 28.5” red who took home a Shimano Scimitar rod and reel combo, our 3rd Place winner was Dave Jaskiewicz with a 28” red and he won the Z-Man Prize pack full of some new soft plastic baits and ChatterBaits. For our Fly Fishing division 1st Place went to Justin Carter with a 21” red and he took home a Custom Made 8wt fly rod as the only person to turn in a scoreable redfish on the fly.

I did just find out that in addition to the above prizes Phil will also receive a 2011 BassPass Elite, worth $200 and a $75 gift card to the Kayak bass Fishing Shop, John will also receive a BassPass Premium worth $150 and Dave will receive a BassPass Standard worth $100 so they will be able to freely compete in the online challenges of www.kayakbassfishing.com. A BIG Thank You goes to the Founder and Head Dude in Charge of KBF, Chad Hoover, for throwing those in for our guys!!!

Our Splooshers Cup was won by Tim Jones who turned in the last of 5 skunks for the day. Tim wins the coveted Splooshers Cup which contains some new tackle and a Free 4-hour guided kayak fishing trip, from www.kayakfishsc.com so he can learn some pointers about catching redfish from a kayak. CONGRATULATIONS to all our Winners!!!

This year's tournament is in the books, a great time was had by all and the preparations for next year's tourney are in the works. A few changes to the format and location but I think we'll have even more fun and hopefully a few more anglers and sponsors! Keep you eyes peeled for upcoming Heroes n the Water events and hopefully a Springtime tourney. Thanks again to all our sponsors and partners who made this event a resounding success!!!