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Powerpole Champs

I’ve been fishing redfish tournaments since 2014, but this tournament had already started off different. Good ol work decided to deny my leave so I had given up on hopes to fish the March 2022 Powerpole pro. Well a cold front moved in on Friday causing conditions for Saturday to be detrimental for a tournament, pushing it to Sunday. I left work excited Saturday afternoon and headed to the captains meeting for the tournament. 
My tournament partner Joe picked me up Sunday morning and we headed to Jacksonville with 0 prefishing done but with high hopes in landing two fish. The cold front had dropped the temps to 30 degrees, but the tides were just right for our style of fishing.
We pulled boat 34 out of the bucket and headed off to our spot. Our first spot was 45 minutes from the ramp so the sun was already above the horizon and the water was rushing off of our spot. The wind was howling when we arrived and the temps were still around freezing. I look at Joe and we go to work. Casting at anything that move and hitting every fishy point we could with our lures. 
After about 30 minutes we decide spot 2 should be about right and yes it was! Joe hooked into a stud of a redfish, but we are surrounded by oyster bars. I net the fish and it measures 26.75inches!
With 1 piece of the puzzle at 11am we knew we still had work to do. We spent the next couple hours searching for a second fish. At 1pm we head to our last spot knowing we had less than an hour until we need to venture back to the weigh in. I get up on the front platform and we decide it’s time to sight fish.
 With an incoming tide on a super shallow flat we were greeted with crystal clean water. With in 50ft Joe poles me up to a redfish that’s sitting next to an oyster bar unaware  that we are there. I pitch my lure within inches of his face and he eats. I set the hook, but instead of a bent rod I end up pulling the hook.. trying to not to freak out, Joe informs me there’s a better fish coming down the bank at me. I pitch my bait in its path and I eagerly wait as the redfish approaches my perfectly rigged soft plastic shrimp. I give it a little twitch and the fish is on! Just then my alarm that I set that lets us know we absolutely had to be on our way to the weigh-in was going off in my pocket!! 
Joe is pushing the boat as fast as he could off the flat as I’m trying to land my fish. He jumps down, nets my fish, and I lay it on our measuring board. A perfect 26inch fish!!! We get back to the boat ramp with just a few minutes to spare.
 Our fish weighed a combined weight of 14.28lbs. We had finally won one of these tournaments! It was such an awesome feeling finally winning one of these tournaments! Standing on the podium and being called up to get our big check was one of the most thrilling fishing adventures. 



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