Cadiz, Kentucky Surf Fishing Club

Geoff Baggett
Pastor
Cadiz, KY

Fishing the Surf Since 2003

Surf Tournament Wins:

• October 8, 2006 – 1st Annual Oyster Spat Festival Surf Fishing Tournament (St. George Island, Florida)
  *2nd Place – Whiting Division – 1.18 Pounds [Anglers were only allowed to weigh in a single fish. This was a "big fish" tournament only.]
• April 6, 2007 – 1st Annual Crossroads Fellowship Men’s Retreat Surf Fishing Tournament (St. George Island, Florida)
  *1st Place / Tournament Champion – 6.40 Pounds [Total weight, 10 Edible Fish]
  *Tournament Week Big Fish – 32.0 lb / 43-inch Red Drum

I am the keeper of the blog. It tells much of my story. I started fishing the surf in October 2003. My “brags” are below, with the latest news and pictures at the top … older stuff as you go down the page.

April 2007 – St. George Island, FL
1st Annual Crossroads Men’s Retreat

I led a group of eight men from Crossroads Fellowship on our first-ever retreat at the beach. We stayed at the beautiful retreat center operated by First Baptist Church of St. George Island.

The fishing was perfect on the first day. It was hot. The water was warm. The surf was perfect. And everyone caught fish. Then the cold weather came. For the next three days we suffered agonizing cold and north winds in the morning. It warmed up for some fishing in the afternoons.

We still managed to have the tournament that we had planned on Friday afternoon. The rules were simple … catch and weigh in up to ten legal, edible fish. The bite was mighty slow, but I managed to catch 15 whiting. Everyone else caught whiting, too. In fact, they were the only thing biting. I chose my ten biggest fish, and it was enough to win with 6.4 pounds.

But the highlight of my week came on the first morning. We had an ongoing contest for “big fish” that week. Whoever caught and weighed in the biggest fish (of any species) for the week would be the official “big fish” of the Crossroads Tournament/Retreat.

I won with this behemoth 43-inch-long, 32.0 lb bull redfish. (The pic is a bit washed out and grainy … I had to scan a 35mm that Brad Claussen took with his camera.) I quickly weighed, posed, resuscitated, and released the fish.

Funny … his old boy makes the 12-pounder on my wall at home look like a wee little baby.

 

 

October 2006 – St. George Island, FL
My First Surf Fishing Tournament – My First Win!

On Saturday, October 8, 2006, I entered the first annual (first ever!) Oyster Spat Festival Fishing Tournament on St. George Island, Florida. 110 anglers entered the competition. The scoring was simple. There were three categories of fish being weighed: Speckled Trout, Flounder, and Whiting. The festival was awarding prizes for the three largest fish caught in each category … nine in all. The first place payout in each category was $500.
The conditions were harsh. It was very windy, and the surf was up. I tried unsuccessfully to fish off of the fishing pier at sunrise (the old bridge), but the wind forced me back to the surf side of the island. I did not catch any trout or flounder. But I did catch two really nice whiting. In fact, one was the biggest that I had ever caught.
I took my biggest fish to be weighed in at 3:00. The final weigh-in time was 5:00, but I was out of bait and out of “gas.” (I was plumb tuckered out.) My nice whiting weighed in at 1′ 2.8″ (one pound, two point eight ounces). I immediately jumped to first place on the leader board, beating out the next largest fish by almost five ounces. So, I was ready to run out the clock … and praying for the $500.
But … it was not to be. A fellow brought one in around 4:30 that was 1.4 ounces heavier than mine. He took first, and I got second. My prize was an awesome Penn Captiva CV600 9-foot surf fishing rig (price tag – $140). Not bad for the $10 entry fee … and I got a t-shirt to boot!
Below is my picture with Larry Stone, owner of the Fisherman’s Headquarters, when he presented me with the rig at the evening concert. The photo was taken by Ed Tilley, editor of the Forgotten Coastline newspaper. It was completely cool … my first saltwater tournament win!

 

 

April 2006 – St. George Island, FL
Spring Break

This was the trip that changed my surf fishing life. I had just bought a 12-foot heavy duty rod. I outfitted it with an el-cheapo Optima real (from Wal-Mart no less). I didn’t want to invest a lot of money … after all I only get to fish the surf two or three times a year!

Anyhow … it didn’t take me very long to lay into big fish. The water was still quite cool … too cool for swimmers. But the fish were everywhere. I caught small bait-fish and fished them live on my heavy rig. I had 50-lb braided line, stainless steel leader, and I weighted the leader at the swivel with a 3-ounce weight just so it would dig in. In six fishing days I “hooked up” on seven big sharks. Four of them simply ran out all 150 yards of my line and kept going. I landed the other three. They were all very aggressive Bull Sharks. Here they are, in descending order of size.

 

This is the big one. It took me 35 minutes to land, and measured 6′4″ in total length. A local guy who witnessed the catch estimated the fish at 170 pounds. I just took his word for it … sounded good to me! The really awesome aspect of this catch was the crowd that it drew. I caught it in the middle of the afternoon. About 75 people followed me up and down the beach as this big guy ran me back and forth. I instantaneously became known as “shark man” to everyone on that stretch of beach. Awesome. It was actually the last one that I caught that week. I put the pole away after this one and fished for the Fry Daddy after that.

 

 

 

This was actually my first shark landed that week. It was exactly 6′0″ in length. Great fight. I cannot describe how it felt to pull this monster up on the beach.

 

This was the second Bull Shark that I caught. It measured 5′8″. It was sort of a “fat” one compared to the others. I’m not sure why, but this one didn’t put up nearly the fight that the other two did.

May 2005 – Alligator Point, FL

As far as vacations and surf fishing went … this week pretty much sucked. I fished with my father-in-law the first couple of days. We caught several whiting and speckled trout. A guy right down from us laid into a huge Spanish Mackerel. I was blind with jealousy.

Then the bad weather settle id. Four days of non-stop rain, wind, and cool weather. We played lots of dominoes, watched a million videos, and watched the four to six foot surf erode the beach (through our wind-beaten windows). Finally, on the last day, the weather cleared. But … the fish seemed to have forgotten where the beach was. It was late afternoon, and I was giving up. I had to get things packed for the trip back to Kentucky. I was actually throwing the remains of my shrimp and cut bait to the gulls when my rod doubled over in its tube. It actually pulled forward in the sand and almost fell over. But I caught it, and about ten minutes later I caught this baby … a 32″, 12.0 pound Redfish. We shot video, took lots of pictures, then I resuscitated here and let her go. A fiberglass replica hangs on my study wall!