Grass trumps Rock
Hands down, Kemah was won in hydrilla, but jetties were big play in event
KEMAH, Texas — The Redfish Cup Battle on the Boardwalk took on similarities of the old game of rock, paper, scissors.
In this game, though, it was just two choices — rocks and grass.
When it came to winning the event, grass trumped rocks. But when it came to catching sheer numbers of fish, the rocks were golden.
Ben Alderman and Ronnie Pitts won the event by concentrating on beds of hydrilla almost 100 miles away from the Kemah Boardwalk. The team spent more of their time running than catching: Boating three fish on Day One in less than an hour, six fish on Day Two in three hours and two fish on Day Three in less than an hour.
It was the perfect strategy for winning an event and the $40,000 top prize. Alderman and Pitts pulled it off flawlessly. But while they were running their big motor and weighed 17.52 pounds on the final day, the rest of the teams were boating dozens of keeper and over-sized redfish by concentrating on the simplest of cover that can be found near most of the countries inshore fisheries.
"Rock jetties are scattered everywhere up and down the coast,'' said Roland Martin, the retired Bassmaster angler who is now one of the countries top redfish professionals. "When the fish are there it can get really good and really amazing really fast."
A lot of Redfish Cup professionals saw that firsthand. While Alderman and Pitts were working a perfect game plan, the rest of the top five were knocking baits around boulders, creating some of the heaviest weights in Redfish Cup history.
Just 1.33 pounds separated the final five teams. Erik Rue and Larry Pucket were second with 16.78 pounds, followed by Rick Murphy and Geoff Page in third with 16.28 pounds. Day Two leaders Sonny Granger and Jake Martney were fourth with 16.20 pounds and Chris Wittman and Tom Winrow rounded out the five with 15.19 pounds.
Rock jetties as a fishing destination is nothing new. Jetty formations are present along shipping channels in almost every bay system. And they have always produced fish for elemental reasons.
"Going to all the different areas where we go to, jetties and passes are a primary habitat for redfish and there are always some around,'' said Erik Rue, who concentrated on jetties in the Calcasieu area. "Whether they are the winning size fish or not, there are always some there and somebody is going to try to catch them."
In the case of the Battle on the Boardwalk, a lot of teams were there. The timing of the event was perfect to meet up with the migration of several species of bait and of course, redfish.
"There were literally hundreds of acres of pogies coming down those jetties,'' said Rick Murphy, who concentrated on jetties in the Sabine Pass area. "You have a sand beach that goes for 700 miles and then these jetties are interruptions that are perpendicular to that beach. It acts like a concrete wall and those pogies have to go around it. The redfish are going to be where the bait is and the bait is funneled right to them."
Rue agrees. He believes that at certain times of the year fish are transitioning in and out of the estuaries and the rock jetties serve as an anchor point for that small ecosystem.
Food is one reason they are there and they are always traveling, going in and going out.
During the Redfish Cup event, "they were going inshore," Rue said. "A lot of fish that had been around the jetties for the last several weeks were starting to move into the bays because of the shrimp. A lot of shrimp have grown to the size that they starting to leave the estuaries, creating a constant source of food dumping out into the gulf, and the redfish are coming in for them.
"The larger fish, except in a few areas, stay offshore, but the 6- to 10-pound fish, those are fish that are about to start spending their life in the gulf, but they are still in that stage where they will come into the estuaries."
The angler who takes advantage of those times is almost certain to be in prime position to catch a wad of redfish. But it's not purely academic that you will catch them.
Following is a select group of tips offered up from the top anglers on the Redfish Cup:
• Water quality plays a big part in where you catch redfish. You want to find the cleanest water. In some areas when the tide moves, the water can be in layers and the cleaner column can actually sit below a dirty upper level. Pay attention and go deeper in that instance.
• Stay with the bait. The most important aspect of jetty fishing is the prey has to be there. If is only on one side but not the other, you need to go where the bait is.
• The key to fishing around any structure or cover is getting your bait in the strike zone. Be prepared to let the current dictate the size of your lure. If there is a light current, you want to use as light a weight as possible that will still get your bait down there. As the current gets stronger and stronger, you need to use a heavier weight to keep your bait in the strike zone as long as possible.
• Crankbaits are effective because you can cover a lot of water and drag them over a larger stretch of bottom than you can with a jig. But even if they aren't biting them consistently, a crankbait banged around the rocks can initiate a feeding spree on other slower moving baits.
• The average angler goes to a jetty and looks for the calmest water and that's not always the right choice. Find where the bait is, where the cleanest water is and where the current is and hit that first.
• The current comes from the tides, incoming and outgoing. In slow current, the fish get away from the jetties a little more than when the current is moving fast. In heavy current, there are eddies that the fish will sit in so they can ambush the prey moving by in the faster water.
• To properly fish all the good areas on a jetty you have to have a good anchor, understand what the current is doing to your bait and position your boat in the right places. When you are making your cast, you have to have a mental picture of what the bottom looks like and make your cast based on how you think the fish might be situated.
• A classic thing a lot of anglers do is pull up to a jetty and put down their anchor and start watching what their neighbors are doing. They often think that they need to move closer to those anglers when they should be learning the area they are sitting on.
"Rocks in general, not just jetties, there are places with rock shorelines and revetments, they should all be treated like jetties and you will have similar success,'' Erik Rue said. "With all the erosion going on down the coast, they are putting down rocks and if you can learn how to fish them you can have a lot of success."
The Redfish Cup airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2.
