I had the pleasure of taking Mark and Dustin Rogers, (father and son), fishing on April 2nd for Dustin's birthday and we managed to find a very large school of redfish near Topsail Island. This was Mark's first time sight fishing for redfish from a flats boat and boy was he excited when that first fish took his artificial bait.

I had Dustin fishing a DOA jerk bait in rootbeer chartreuse on a Mustad 3/0 ultra point weedless rig. Mark was fishing the same rig with a new penny colored DOA jerk bait. We were using 16# Gamma flourocarbon attached to 15# green Power pro on Lamiglas XPS 704 series spinning rods and Quantum Catalyst size 30 spinning reels.

The technique we used involved waiting for the school to come at the boat and present the artificial in front of the lead fish about two feet. Once the school had encountered the bait the boys would twitch the jerk bait twice and immediately pick up the slack line with one turn of the reel handle. Each time we had the school within range of a cast we repeated this tactic with incredible success. We finished the afternoon with about six fish to the boat the largest one was six pounds and we had a nice double hook-up at the end.

I did notice that with the initial excitement of seeing all of these redfish that the guys were reeling their baits too fast. If you encounter this situation remember to stay cool and slow down your presentation a little.

We had a great time on the water and I was very proud to spend that afternoon fishing with two great guys. Get out on the water with your friends and family and enjoy the great spring fishery we are having here in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

We'll see you on the water,

Capt. Seth Vernon