NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL - Chris Rosengarten, of Beaufort, South Carolina, and T.J. Cheek, of Brunswick, Georgia, weighed a two-redfish limit that totaled 14.09 pounds to win the final regular-season event for the Florida East Division of the IFA Redfish Tour presented by Cabela's on Sept. 26 at Fernandina, Florida. The team took home over $29,000 in winnings.
Rosengarten and Cheek made the drive down to Fernandina to compete in their second regular-season event to qualify for next month's IFA Redfish championship event in Louisiana. From the start, the anglers experienced mishap after mishap.
After spending a couple of hours switching out trolling motors Thursday, the team found themselves stranded on a shell bed for two hours during pre-fishing on Friday. To add to their streak of bad luck, the team's trolling motor failed and landing net broke during the competition. Fortunately, however, the unfortunate circumstances didn't keep the anglers from getting down on themselves.
"Even without the trolling motor, we fished the plan we originally had," said Cheek. It was just a little bit harder to make small adjustments. That's just the way it's going to happen. The broken net was just kind of par for the course."
The anglers started their day close to the tournament take off. When the anglers began their run to their primary location, the trolling motor quit. Switching to their back up trolling motor did not help, as it failed to work as well.
"We had some type of electrical issue that killed the battery," said Cheek. "So we had to fish the rest of the day without a trolling motor, which meant we had to put our Power-Poles down in our main spot and sit there in one place and wait on the fish to come to us."
The team anchored down to wait for the tide to drop and didn't see a fish until 12:30 p.m.
"It was boring," said Cheek. "We ate a lot of beef jerky and ran out of stories that we hadn't already heard in about ten minutes."
Once the tide began to recede, the fish began to make their way out of the grass.
"We knew that until the water got out of the grass and the shells started showing that we weren't going to do anything," said Cheek. "But, over the next hour and half, we caught between 12 and 15 fish."
Both keepers came on a four-inch Gulp! shrimp on an Owner TwistLock hook. A northeast wind blew muddy waters into the area, making it difficult for the anglers to see any fish.
"We were blind-casting the entire time and kind of had to have faith that they were still there," said Cheek. "We knew they would move around this oyster bar and we just had to keep casting. Every time they would come through, we would catch one or two."
With two good fish in the livewell and their streak of bad luck still fresh on their minds, the anglers decided to head back to the weigh in before the water dropped too low.
"With the tide being low and our big fish wanting to turn over, we decided we'd better get out of there and take our time getting out so we didn't get stuck," Cheek said.
Second-place finishers Ron Schurr, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Buzz Brannon, of Neptune Beach, Florida, weighed 13.16 pounds to take home $4,283 in winnings. The anglers were expecting the high flood tides that afforded them to tail redfish and good opportunities to fish oyster beds with the low tide. The anglers fished paddletails and creature baits in the Jacksonville and Fernandina areas.
Blake Smith and Gabriel Lippert won third place and $1,904 in winnings for their 13.15 pounds of redfish.
The next stop for the IFA Redfish Tour is at St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana for the IFA Redfish Tour championship event on Oct. 16-17. All teams that entered a minimum of two events and competed in at least one event will qualify for the 2015 IFA Redfish Tour championship.
IFA events are made possible through the sponsorship and continued support of these well-respected brands: Hobie Fishing, Ranger Boats, Cabela's, Lucas Oil, Yamaha Outboards, RAM, Berkley Gulp!, Berkley Gulp! Alive!, PENN Reels, Spiderwire, Minn Kota, Humminbird, Power-Pole, BoatU.S., Amphibia, Arctic Ice, Protect the Harvest, General Tire, Bob's Machine Shop, SuperClean, Mustang Survival, iON Cameras, Valley Fashions, ENGEL Coolers, Bulldog Folding Trailers, Hildebrandt, T-H Marine, ATLAS, G-Juice Powertex Group, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and Fernandina Harbor Marina.
For more information or to become a member of the IFA, visit www.ifatours.com.
IFA Redfish Tour - Florida East Division
Fernandina, Fla. (Top 10)
Chris Rosengarten/T.J. Cheek - 14.09 lbs.
Ron Schurr/Buzz Brannon - 13.16 lbs.
Blake Smith/Gabriel Lippert - 13.15 lbs.
Greg King/Troy Ray - 13.00 lbs.
Nathan Turner/Ronnie Turner - 12.91 lbs.
Shawn Vallandingham/Jeff Pope - 12.83 lbs.
Miguel Milia/Scott O'Brien - 12.76 lbs.
J.D. Nobles/Kyle Craven - 12.73 lbs.
Fred Rounsaville/Ed Rounsaville - 12.59 lbs.
Heath Batchelor/David Siefker - 12.46 lbs.
Media Contact Greg Duncan,
Blue Heron Communications, 800-654-3766 or greg@blueheroncomm.com.
