Young Bradenton-area anglers fight windy conditions to win cash prize

Springtime in Manatee County is the beginning of tournament fishing season for many anglers.

No stranger to winning, Joe Medred and friends have risen atop many leaderboards throughout the years.

Last weekend, Medred and his longtime teammate Chris Cucci found themselves raising the next crop of anglers while fishing for a great cause at a tournament he helped begin. The 7th Annual Chad Day Memorial Fishing Tournament went overnight in windy weather but good fishing.

“Everyone I’ve talked to about Chad mentions how awesome he was and how much he loved fishing,” said Medred. “Chad’s mom Joann reached out to me originally to help get it started and I assisted with rules and getting it together.”

For this tournament, Medred joined Cucci for Team H20 Pros. The pair normally fish with Captain TJ Stewart in the big local tournaments and are currently back-to-back-to-back winners of the King of the River title, a grueling three-tournament stretch from April to June. But their crew this time featured Medred’s 8-year-old son Bo, Cucci’s 14-year-old son Gavin and 11-year-old nephew Gennero in the fundraising tournament.

For the inshore division, the biggest combined pair of each redfish, snook or trout would receive a prize.

“We left after the captains meeting Saturday afternoon. It was so windy and that wind never stopped. With the south wind, you can’t really hide anywhere, so Sarasota Bay wasn’t an option,” Medred said. “We wanted to get trout and redfish done first Saturday then snook fish Sunday, but I felt the tide would be brutal Sunday with a one-tide day.”

Heading north of Sarasota Bay to try to escape the wind, Medred tucked into a mangrove shoreline in search of redfish and trout. It didn’t take long before the first few fish were on their measuring board for pictures in the catch-and-release format.

“We caught a nice redfish about 29 inches within the first 20 minutes then lost a couple as well. That was a good start. We caught some smaller snook and then made a move. Bo caught a big trout fishing against the mangroves, about 25 inches. We then kept bouncing around and got another big trout and redfish to go with them,” said Medred.

Gennero would later catch another trout around 25 inches, giving the boys a nice total trout combination.

As sun set in, the young boys kept fishing hard despite the windy conditions.

“They fished the entire time. We’ve created monsters just like us. Sometimes being young eliminates the fear, and they didn’t fear the windy elements like we may have when running into the bay. They stayed into it and the bite was good, so we caught fish the entire time,” Medred explained.

Making a promise to his wife to return home for some sleep, Medred crawled into bed around 3 a.m. But that didn’t last long.

“I think I was back up at 4:05 a.m.,” Medred said. “We got bait and went snook fishing.”

Doing their best to improve their snook, they focused on big fish. Medred hooked a giant that he was able to land.

“It was thick with a big back. I thought we had a good average but wasn’t sure it would hold up.”

The big snook, which was longer than the 40-inch measuring board, was judged to be 41 inches to pair with a 29-incher. By the end, it was enough and their 70-inch snook total would beat Cole Contracting’s 67.5-inch pair.

Their trout pair would total 50 inches and also take first place, claiming two of the three titles.

With a 29- and 26-inch redfish for 57 inches, they would be just on the outside looking in at the 59-inch first-place total caught by Let’s Get Em.

Overall there were 24 teams who weighed in 43 redfish, 49 snook and 46 trout.

The tournament was able to raise its $100,000 goal for Tidewell Foundation/Hospice.

Next up for teams is the first of the Triple Crown Fishing Series Presented by Palmetto Bait and Tackle tournaments with the trio of tournaments hosted around Bradenton. That kicked off with the Suncoast Saltwater Shootout on April 11 and 12.

The Crosthwait Memorial will be the second leg May 16-18, while the final leg will be the Fire Charity Fishing Tournament June 6-8.