I had a great time fishing the Bassmaster Redfish Cup Championship at Port Aransas, Texas, and winning the event alongside Clark Jordan was an incredible experience. Clark and I finished second at last year’s event, so to take home the trophy this time felt really good.
After last year’s finish, with my competitive nature, I wanted redemption. I wanted to come back and get another shot at it, so to do that means a lot.
Even though coming so close in 2025 was disappointing, I definitely fell in love with the redfish game. Last year’s tournament was the first time I ever fished for redfish. As soon as I left, I texted Chris Brown (Marketing/Pro Team manager for Skeeter Boats) and I was like, “I need to go back. When can I go back?”
Initially, I was not going to be invited this year, but someone was unable to participate, so Skeeter called me and said, “We have an opening, if you want it.” So I was all-in and excited for the opportunity.
To get it done in year two is definitely a cool deal.
I think I naturally took to the redfish game because a lot of my bass fishing knowledge easily converts over to the redfish world. It’s similar techniques. We’re using baitcasters and fishing shallow flats, just like I like to do for largemouth and smallmouth bass.
From what I’ve seen, there’s a lot of crossover in the bass and redfish worlds. Now that I’ve competed in two of these events, I’ve definitely picked up a lot through observation, but fishing with Clark has really been a great learning experience.
He’s taught me a lot about the strategies and techniques, but I think the biggest thing is just the mentality. I’m a run-and-gun angler, but Clark has shown me the importance of slow, methodical fishing.
On the last day of this year’s Redfish Cup Championship, we moved a lot, but it was all in one zone. With redfishing, you kinda have to find one zone and really pick it apart for what it’s worth, because a lot of fish are filtering in and out and these schools are always shifting around.
You’ll never catch all of them out of a school, so you have to find a zone that has the right fish and just hunker down. That’s what we did, and it delivered the win.
As far as the Redfish Cup Championship format, we had six teams with two redfish pros each and then four teams that blended a redfish pro with a Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro. I absolutely love this format. It’s always fun to be in the boat around other successful people and study the way they think.
Clark has the same attributes every successful angler I’ve fished with has. He’s super even-keeled — nothing ever bothers him and he’s always willing to adapt. In tournament fishing, those are the two biggest things I’ve seen that it takes to succeed on a consistent basis, and Clark has both of those.
Just like last year, we meshed perfectly. I think maybe we both had a little chip on our shoulder, because we didn’t want to finish second again.
Our goal coming into the week was a three-day total of 40 pounds. That’s what we thought it would take to win and obviously, with 42, we exceeded expectations.
We just knew we had to be consistent every day and we’d have a shot at the end of it.
