The other Bassmaster Elite Series anglers think Drew Cook received a fortunate draw in local redfish pro Kevin Akin.
“I’ve been hearing that a lot,” Cook said of his Redfish Cup teammate this week. “He obviously knows a lot. He knew the area he wanted to be in, and that’s where we spent three days practicing.”
Cook said Akin chose a stretch possibly 10 to 15 miles long and admitted “it’s a lot of water. We never went and looked at anything else.”
That’s kind of a daunting prospect for Cook, who despite growing up in Florida said he’s learning plenty about redfish.
“If they were on brushpiles, or whatever, I knew we could graph around and find some brushpiles. They ain’t on nothing like that,” he said. “They’ll be out in the middle of nowhere on a 2-foot flat, and I don’t know why they would be out there. It would be luck of the draw for me to find them. But (Akin) knows that.”
There’s been a learning curve, for certain, Cook admitted. Although he outfished Akin 7-to-1 on their first day of practice, he made some rookie mistakes, like casting at mullet.
“When a redfish pushes, it makes a V,” Cook said. “I threw at a bunch of mullet. When you finally see a redfish do it, you know the difference. I won’t be throwing at mullet today.”
Cook and Akin were in the hunt midday on Day 1 of the three-day tournament with two fish for 13 pounds, 4 ounces. Earlier that morning, Cook, known for his sight-fishing abilities on the Bassmaster tour, was asked what’s the biggest thing he’s learned about redfish so far?
“They are dumb,” he said. “If you get around them, they will bite. You find an 8-pounder swimming here, you get (the bait) where it needs to be, they bite it.
“It doesn’t really matter what you’re throwing. They eat a lot of bass stuff. I caught them on a swimming worm, a lot on a ChatterBait, some on topwaters, soft jerkbaits. I might throw one all day.”
There are also three types of redfish, Cook said. He said Akin’s plan is to get into a school of fish over the 20- to 28-inch slot, then catch one down one size but closest to the line on their measuring board.
“There are three kinds of redfish,” Cook said, saying they’re separated by diet of shrimp, mullet and pinfish, or perch. “They all weigh different. A 28-inch shrimp-eating redfish is 7 3/4 pounds. A mullet-eating redfish that size is 8 pounds, and a pinfish-eating redfish is 9, 9 1/4 pounds. Mullet is good, but you want them around all of it.”
