Many anglers love to catch redfish or red drum but some anglers just get wild-eyed excited, crazy for redfish about it. Case in point; recently at the Kayak Fishing ClassicS Ozello Classic, a young man and fire fighter by the name of James Foy, caught a very nice redfish. In fact, it was the largest redfish of the tournament.

It seems that James has been taking fly fishing lessons and had been stalking the big reds of Ozello, Florida in the tournament. James was excited to catch his first tournament red on fly and have a shot at winning a new Hardy & Greys or Temple Fork Outfitters fly rod. He spent the morning hunting the powerful fish and taking shots at them but with no luck. The wind was building and made it difficult to spot the fish. Sight fishing is a very challenging fly rod sport and made even more so from a kayak and in tournament conditions. No pressure there!

James lost sight of the reds that he had been stalking and decided to put down his TFO fly rod in exchange for a spinning rod & plug to try some locating techniques. As he set the fly rod down, he had an apprehension about it. You can’t win if you don’t catch it on fly. Just what was at stake?

There was over $8,000.00 in sponsor gear prizes on the winners table for the Ozello Classic and in the mix of angler’s delights were a nice TFO fly rod and a Zane fly rod by Hardy & Greys. There was also a spiffy new DELTA fly reel by Redington that the fly contestants all had their eyes on.

James shook off the thought and began casting the spinning outfit in search of reds. As he worked the plug over and over he was finely rewarded. With swift and deadly accuracy the huge redfish slammed his bait to stun it, as is common of big fish attacking large prey. The hungry attacker swirled and turned, churning the water with another powerful assault on both the bait and on the anglers’ senses.

With cat-like reactions James set the hook instinctively and the beast turned to make away, pulling the kayak and angler both. After the surging struggle, the mighty redfish was subdued, photographed and released unharmed to his asylum of the depths. The epic struggle happened and ended all too quickly. Now it was a memory to be relived over and over again, but not on fly.

James turned in his catch at the photo weigh-in and was awarded the Aqua-Bound Big Fish Award for his efforts; a Manta Ray graphite paddle which is also greatly prized. Both the paddle and his fly fishing skills will be put to the test in the Tarpon Fever Classic next month in Sarasota, Florida. He and many others will still have their eyes on the prized fly rods and reel.