Ken Chambers Bio Ken has been fishing professionally on the Redfish Cup since 2004. He has qualified for the Cup Championship two out of three years. He has amassed 2 top 5 finishes and 4 top ten finishes. He fishes the East Division and the All Star events. He is currently 8th overall in the competitive All Star standings.
Ken writes a blog on ESPNoutdoors.com and is a
product spokesperson for a number of his
sponsors.
John Merriwether Bio John Merriwether has been fishing professionally since 2003. He has competed on the IFA Redfish Tour and the Redfish Cup, qualifying for the Championship Events each year he has competed.
John is a product spokesman for several companies. When not fishing, John is a health care executive for Health Management Associates, Inc., based in Naples, FL
Well, our first Redfish Cup tournament of 2009 seemed like so far away for such a long time, and then poof, it was upon us.
Punta Gorda is a tough place to get the fish to bite with lots of fishing pressure and clear water. Add to that a strong high pressure system and some slow tides, and you’ve really got to be on your game to put two nice stringers together two days in a row.
We had an area pretty well scoped out and were keeping an eye on the winds to see which area would be fishable when the winds kicked up. There were fish there earlier in the week, but the tides and conditions had changed a little. Nonetheless, we knew the fish were there, we just needed to have confidence in the area and get our shots.
Truthfully, Ken is the sight fisherman on the boat, and I’m more the chuck and wind kinda guy. I love to sight fish, but Ken is clearly on his game scanning the shallow water.
Our first day had us in our “A” spot pretty quickly, fishing out of a Maverick 18 HPX with a 115 Yamaha. The ride was a little bumpy, but the HPX did great with very little spray.
Problem was we needed light to see and that wouldn’t get good for a few more hours, so we blind casted oyster bars and shorelines until the sun got a little higher in the sky. Once that happened we started to see some fish, but they just wouldn’t eat. We tried several different plastics, different presentations, but they were just too tight lipped. We did have a couple bites that sent electricity through the boat until the measuring board brought us back to reality…oversized…AAARRRGGGHHH. We spent much of day one reassuring ourselves that we would get the right bite and to stay positive. We tried several shorelines in the area and to no avail. It wasn’t until very late in the day that we got our bite that counted and Ken put a 3 ½ pound red in the boat to save some face.
The game plan we had just wasn’t working and the pressure was on. We had to do something different. We kicked a lot of ideas around Friday night, including some longer runs during the early morning to fish some mangroves while we waited for the sun to get higher, fishing some places we had only pre-fished once in the last couple weeks, or just going back to the same area and keeping the faith that some keepers were around the oversized fish.
We needed a plan, and we agreed on one early Saturday morning. We had faith that we could catch good fish in the area we had pre-fished. We just needed to change things up…minimize the use of the trolling motor (our only bite on the first day came while poling instead of using the trolling motor), slow the presentation way, way, way down and try staking off and letting the fish come to us.
The result made me proud…we finished day two with 9 ¼ pounds and we fished only two spots all day. Our discipline and patience paid off. We had a couple more oversized fish, but the deadsticking approach made the difference. We’ve never had the patience to do that for more than five minutes, but we stuck to it for four hours and it paid off.
It’s easy to second guess, and ponder why we didn’t do that on day one, but we hadn’t needed to, we had caught fish in the area by sight fishing and knew they were there. I’m proud of the team for not getting flustered and having faith that our original area would pay off. We also employed a military approach to the day called the “OODA Loop.”
OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act…and then do it again and again and again. We altered our approach based on what we were experiencing, and made the necessary changes to succeed. Most importantly, it gave me the faith to stick to our guns when we knew the fish were there, we just had to figure out how to make them eat.
It wasn’t a great finish for us, but it was a valuable tournament in terms of experience that I am sure we will draw upon later in 2009.
Kemah…here we come.
KEN'S LATEST BLOG ENTRY
6.9.09
Good to be on the blog again. I have been apathetic towards writing because I am busy with life. Not meant to be a complaint but I have learned that as my kids get into baseball, gymnastics, dance, swimming, etc. you lose track of your time.
That ride home from Kemah last week was very tough. John, my partner, was ready to get it over with because I spent the 18 hours arguing with myself about our fishing plan for the event.
Before the tournament, I had told him that we probably should just go straight out to one of the jetties that line the Texas Coast and plant our Pathfinder there for the week. Learn every nook and cranny and have the jetty fishing thing down to a science. He agreed but then the downward spiral began.
Well, then the wheels started spinning, the phone started ringing and we ended up fishing just about everything but the jetties. We did go to the Sabine jetties on Wednesday for our last day of practice. We caught some fish but they were mostly small. Decided we could buck the trend of past Kemah events and fish a different way.
Now the proof is in black and white on the leaderboard. We fished shallow, rocky areas that had produced early in the practice week. Back at the weigh-in, we had our tails between our legs with a lousy showing.
That makes it two poor tournaments in a row. With only two to go, we have to regroup and post a good finish at the next two events to just even sniff making the championship.
LATEST ARTICLE
My Safety Soap Box
I’ve been listening to news reports today about the search for survivors from a boat that didn’t return to the Tampa area after a fishing trip this past weekend.
It’s been a notable story because the missing include NFL football players Marquis Cooper (Oakland Raiders) and Corey Smith (Detroit Lions) and William Bleakley (former South Florida player).
One survivor has been found so far, Nick Schuyler, another South Florida football player. Apparently the boat capsized while anchored in very rough seas.
While we hold out hope that other survivors will be found, it appears more unlikely as time passes.
I can’t help but think how preventable the whole situation was, and it seems an opportune time to step up on the soapbox and preach a little safety.
I’m not immune from lapses in common sense…come tournament time, with the adrenaline pumping and the competitive juices flowing, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and push the boat to its limits. But knowing what those limits are is the first step to preventing a catastrophe.
A couple of simple reminders can mean the difference between a great day on the water and a real calamity.
Check the weather
A seemingly benign thing to do, but these guys either didn’t check the weather forecast or ignored the forecast altogether and headed for waters that couldn’t be navigated safely given the size of their boat.
Wear a Personal Flotation Device (PFD)
This is particularly true for kids, even though they hate wearing them. And, I’ll be honest, I don’t always wear mine when I’m out on a calm day, but if it starts to get rough, I’ll put it on. It appears that wearing a life preserver saved the life of the only survivor that we know of right now. You don’t have to wear the big bulky orange preservers; they now make very effective lightweight inflatable PFDs that are quite comfortable. Have a Float Plan & Communicate It
Prepare a plan, particularly, if you are headed offshore or way into the back country, that includes some basic information: Description of the boat, number of people on the boat and their names and contact info, anticipated routes and destinations, departure/return times and locations. There is more detailed information that can be also added. The next most important component of the float plan is to give your float plan to someone on shore who can follow-up with authorities if you haven’t returned within a reasonable time. Check out http://www.floatplancentral.org for more details.
Exercise Common Sense
This is probably the most important thing you can do while operating a boat. Sure the fishing is supposed to be great 30 miles offshore, but that forecast for 7-10 footers needs to be heeded. My guess is that the overabundance of egos on the boat and a lack of common sense led to the tragedy this weekend.
I’m not trying to pretend that I heed my own advice 100% of the time, but I also don’t take the privilege of operating a boat for granted.
So…say a little prayer for those involved with this tragedy, be safe on the water, have fun and keep the faith!
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2009 Redfish Cup Elite Schedule
Punta Gorda, FL May 1-3
Kemah, TX May 29-31
Chalmette, LA July 31-Aug 2
Biloxi, MS Aug 28-30
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