‘The stars were aligned’: Georgetown County fishing duo benefits from a couple big catches
Catching big numbers of red drum isn’t necessarily the goal for anglers fishing in an IFA Redfish Tour event, but finding and catching the exact right size fish is.
Of course, the more red drum a fishing duo catches, the better the odds of landing a limit of two fat ones on the upper end of South Carolina’s 15 to 23 inch slot limit for the species.
That’s exactly what transpired for local anglers Jack Smith and Bruce Gallup in last Saturday’s IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division event at the Carroll Ashmore Campbell Marine Complex in Georgetown.
Smith, of Georgetown, and Gallup, of Pawleys Island, stuck with the local waters, starting out with a run south to the Santee rivers. The team left that area about 10 a.m. with a pair of mid-slot redfish totaling about five pounds in the live well.
They ran back north in Smith’s 21-foot Sportsman center console to a spot in Winyah Bay.
“We had found a hole and had a good idea we might catch some fish there,” recalled Gallup. “The first three casts I caught fish, and I bet we didn’t move thirty yards the rest of the day.”
The catches, and releases, were frequent for the duo as they worked what Gallup called “a bank down the side of the bay.”
“We probably caught 70-to-80 fish, probably over half were 17-to-18 inches,” said Gallup. “We had several over 25 inches and a bunch were 23.5 to 24.5. We only caught about three quality fish that would help in a tournament.
“When you’re weeding through that many you’ve got to get lucky at some point.”
Thanks to luck, skill or a combination of both, Smith and Gallup eventually caught the two they were looking for.
One of the two fish they weighed in was definitely a fat one, measuring just over 22 inches and weighing 5.02 pounds. The smaller fish was longer, 22 ½ inches, but weighed less, 4.02. pounds.
The two-fish aggregate was 9.04 pounds, good enough to finish atop the field of 55 boats.
“The stars were aligned,” said Smith. “Everything went perfect. We caught fish from start to finish.”
Smith and Gallup won a fully rigged Ranger RB190 boat prize package powered by a 90-horsepower, four-stroke Mercury outboard plus $2,100 in Anglers Advantage cash.
The duo caught all their fish on Berkely Gulp baits, namely shrimp imitations, on different jig heads.
“We caught everything on some sort of Gulp, with jig heads and vibrating jigs,” said Gallup. “We just couldn’t get a bite on a float, so we stuck with what was working.”
Hank Edwards, of Darlington, and Ian Mathews, of Effingham, finished second with a two-redfish aggregate of 8.51 pounds. The duo stayed close to the launch site on the Sampit River and fished the Winyah Bay vicinity with Berkley Gulp and spinner baits.
Ryan Bell and John Koonce ran well south to fish their home waters of Charleston, and finished second with an aggregate of 7.78 pounds. The duo used white Berkley Gulp baits with a slow retrieve to catch 30 redfish.
Notes
All red drum weighed in during IFA Redfish Tour events are released. The IFA Redfish Tour staff takes extreme care to ensure as many fish are released healthy and alive after being weighed in.
The second and final event in the Atlantic Division will be held Aug. 22 at Downtown Marina in Beaufort.
For more information, visit www.ifatours.com.
*Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series: The series has been postponed to much later than normal and is down to three tournaments, but rest assured, there will be a South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series in 2020.
The series kicks off with the Carolina Billfish Classic at Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina next week, June 17-20.
Next up is the Bohicket Marina Invitational Billfish Tournament set for July 29-Aug. 1.
The venerable Georgetown Blue Marlin Tournament will be held, but in August instead of on Memorial Day weekend as usual. The 53rd edition of the oldest billfish tournament in South Carolina will be held Aug. 12-15 out of Georgetown Landing Marina.
The other two tournaments that are typically included in the series are the Edisto Invitational Billfish Tournament, which has been canceled, and the MegaDock Billfishing Tournament, which wasn’t on the schedule for 2020. Both tournaments are expected to return for the 2021 series.