Albany’s Ryan Tiernan wins national fishing tourney

ALBANY — When he agreed to dust off his rods and reels and do a favor for an old friend a few months ago, Albany businessman Ryan Tiernan had no inclination that fishing a small tournament in Florida would lead to he and partner Jamie Hough walking away with nearly $50,000 in prizes and the first place trophy at the 2015 Inshore Fishing Assocation (IFA) Redfish Tour Championship just a few weeks later.

“Jamie called me up and asked if I would fish an event with him and I agreed to it,” said Tiernan. “We fished a tournament in Florida and ended up qualifying for the (IFA Redfish Tour) Championship. We figued we might as well fish it and we ended up winning the thing. To win something like that the stars had to align.”

Tiernan said the championship, which is sponsored by Cabella’s and is the IFA Redfish Tour’s flagship event, was a two-day competition in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana pitting 120 two-man teams against each other to see which combo could bring in the highest combined weight.

Being the oldest and largest redfish tour in the country, top anglers from around the United States were there displaying their fishing prowess.

According to Tiernan, redfish tournaments in general are usually very competitive, not just because of the skill levels of the competitors but because qualifying rules for the fish are fairly stringent.

“You’re allowed to turn in two fish at the end of each day, but there’s a slot limit,” explained Tiernan. “The fish you turn in have to be betwen 16 and 27 inches. Anything shorter than 16 or longer than 27 won’t qualify. It’s not like a bass event where you can turn in fish of any size. You have to be within those limits when you turn the fish into the bumpmaster to be measured and weighed.”

Because of the slot limit Tiernan said the competing anglers have to be choosy about what they keep, but are allowed to cull the fish throughout the day to make sure they get the best fish they can. If they have an 18 inches fish in the boat and later land a 23 inch fish, they can return the smaller one to the water and keep the larger one.

Tiernan said he and Hough set a goal for the first day of trying to turn in a 16 pound bag of fish, which they felt would give them a decent chance going into the final day.

The pair exceeded that goal and then some on day one when they happened upon a spot late in the day that neither had ever fished before. Finding that spot allowed them to upgrade the 16.50 pounds they already had in the boat, which put them in good shape after the first day. Their day one weight was just over 17 pounds and left them sitting in fifth place, just .60 of a pound behind the leaders.

“The conditions were really good,” Tiernan said. “After that first day we knew we were doing okay.”

While the fist day had been ideal, day two was anything but, with Tiernan reporting that there were winds over 20 mph meaning the pair had to change their tactics.

On the first day Tiernan and Hough were able to spot fish from the boat and cast directly into them, making things much easier. With the wind up on day two they couldn’t spot the fish from the boat meaning they had to trust their instincts on where to cast. They also had to employ popping corks in order to see if the fish were biting.

Fortunately the duo had great luck early, landing over 17 pounds worth of redfish within the first couple of hours.

“By 8:15 we had our fish,” said Tiernan. “That made things much easier for us. We were able to take our time the rest of the day. In fact, we ended up heading in early. You have to be in by 3 and we went in around 1 to be safe. You have to make it back in on time and you never know what can happen, bad weather, boat trouble, anything.”

When it was all said and done, the duo had brought in a two-day total of 34.02 pounds of redfish and were a half pound ahead of the second place team of Mark Sepe and Brandon Buckner, who finished the season-ending event by earning the IFA Redfish Tour Team of the Year honors for their consistency throughout the year.

Even though Teirnan and Hough consider Sepe and Buckner to be good friends, knowing that they finished ahead of what ended up being the best team this year, made the victory even sweeter.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Tiernan. “Mark Sepe is considered one of the greats.”

Tiernan said taking home the trophy was also surprising since he had not been fishing competitively in a few years and only entered the event at the request of Hough, who had previously been his partner during Tiernan’s pro career.

Tiernan, who lives in Leesburg and is a partner with Doherty, Duggan, Hart & Tiernan Insurors, said he did double duty a few years ago as a professional fisherman, but had given that up to focus on his primary career.

“Honestly, I had been doing it for about seven years and as my responsibilities grew at the firm, I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “Really, I just got burned out.”

Enough time had passed when Hough reached out about fishing an IFA Redfish event in Ruskin, Fla. back in September, that Tiernan decided to do it since his passion for redfishing had never really diminished.

Tiernan said he’s loved fishing since he picked up a pole as child, but he especially loves fishing for “reds,” which is what lead him into the world of professional fishing.

As far as Tiernan is concerned there’s simply no fishing like red fishing, which is an inshore type of fishing in salt water in intercoastal waterways, marshes and grass flats across the southern U.S. Red fish are hugely popular to fish for as they notoriously hard to coax out of their preferred spots and have a reputation for giving anglers a good fight.

As much as he loves catching the fish themselves, Tiernan said that from the first time he went fishing for them near Steinhatchee Fla, he fell in love with the process of redfishing too.

“It’s totally different than fishing in a bass pond,” said Tiernan. “You’ve got to figure the weather and watch the tides. There’s a lot to it. Plus part of the thrill is the scenery and the surroundings you’re in. It’s beautiful. There’s really nothing like it.”

Although he got another taste of glory, and took home some nice prizes, during the IFA Redfish Tour Championship, Tiernan said he has no plans to return to the grind of competitive fishing any time soon.

“Hopefully I’ll get out and do some recreational fishing, but I don’t have any plans to fish tournaments,” he said. “Jamie and I will probably just do the same thing we did this year.”

And if the stars align again, the pair might bring home yet another championship.