How one final cast allowed fishing crew to pull off another win on Sampit River

Glenn Finley and Dodd Wood had a couple of cliches working for them in the IFA Redfish Tour stop last Saturday in Georgetown.

The duo from Belton were probably humming “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” after claiming their second win in the last three events out of the Carroll Ashemore Campbell Marine Complex on the Sampit River.

“I’ll take two out of three anytime, playing this game,” said Wood.

Finley and Wood weighed in two slot red drum weighing 4.50 and 5.01 pounds for their winning 9.51-pound aggregate, but it wasn’t looking good late in the day as the duo competed against a field of 70 boats.

That’s when the old saying, “Better Late Than Never,” came into play.

“The biggest, the 5.01, I caught it the last cast I made,” said Wood. “When we got it reeled in, we knew we had a good shot. We just took up and left right then. No question it was a good fish, a good healthy, weighty fish. We knew we would be close.”

While the pair of reds they weighed in were just under 23 inches long – South Carolina’s slot limit for red drum is 15-23 inches – the fish they culled to make room for the 5.01-pounder was in the 3.5-pound range.

“Without that last fish we had no shot,” said Wood. “Nothing came easy for us but the Lord blessed us again.”

In late August 2015, Finley and Wood won the tournament with an aggregate of 8.7 pounds.

Finley and Wood, who earned $31,312 including a Ranger flats boat powered by Mercury, fished about 30 miles south of Georgetown. With high tide occurring near midday, the duo fished Berkeley Gulp shrimp, mostly Pearl White, on a popping cork down 16 inches, and in the grass to catch their fish.

Finley and Wood barely topped the duo of J.D. Nobles of St. Johns, Fla., and Kyle Craven of Macclenny, Fla., who finished second with an aggregate weight of 9.48 pounds.

Danny Payne of Pawleys Island and Jake Haynes of Emerald Isle, N.C., were third with 9.19 pounds.

Kayak Division

Angler Mark Patterson had a big win in the kayak division, releasing a 43-inch red drum and a 14.88-inch trout for a total length of 57.88 inches.

Anglers in the kayak division take photos to verify their catches before releasing the fish. Anglers can submit photos of one redfish and one trout for a total length.

Visit www.IFATours.com for more information on both divisions.

Murrells Inlet Flounder Tournament

Long-time local angler Mike Brady has organized a unique flounder tournament that will be less taxing on the little inlet’s population of the popular flatfish.

Brady is calling the event “Let ‘Em Go, Win The Dough” – a slogan coined by Englis Glover – as competing anglers will release all flounder caught. The event, set for Saturday, Oct. 7, will feature nine hourly winners at a minimum of $100 per hour for the heaviest flounder caught during each hour.

Any flounder weighed in must be alive and then released for the fish to qualify.

A drawing will be held for all entrants, also at a minimum of $100 per hour. Then, all 10 winners will be entered in a drawing for a minimum of $1,000.

“We destroy the flounder, why not save a few?” said Brady.

The event, hosted by Rusty Hooks Fishing Club and Student Angler League Tournament Trail (SALTT), begins with a Captains Meeting Friday, Oct. 6 from 5-7 p.m.

For more information, call Brady at (843) 325-3000.

RED SNAPPER MINI SEASON

A mini-season for red snapper appears to be in the works this fall for anglers in the South Atlantic region, including those on the South Carolina and North Carolina coasts.

On Monday, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved a request by NOAA Fisheries that would allow limited harvest of red snapper in the South Atlantic this fall.

The council requested an interim annual catch limit of 42,510 fish (recreational and commercial combined) for 2017 via emergency rule.

If the emergency rule is approved by NOAA Fisheries, a recreational mini-season for red snapper consisting of approximately 6-12 days over a period of three-day weekends would likely begin in late October.

The recreational bag limit would be 1 fish per person with no minimum size limit while commercial vessels would be allowed 75 pounds of red snapper per trip.

A decision on the request is upcoming and will be announced by NOAA Fisheries.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 4:46 PM with the headline "How one final cast allowed fishing crew to pull off another win on Sampit River."