Over the last few months I've been digging into the inshore saltwater side of competitive fishing. It hasn't been too hard. I do it a fair amount off the Jersey shore (inshore fishing, not competitive inshore fishing), and the rules and people are a lot like bass fishing.

A lot.

Even the fish and fishing aren't that different.

I've flipped docks for redfish, and seen redfish pros crank docks, fish artificial shrimp like plastic worms and catch fish with Chatterbaits. Many pro redfish boats are flats boats, which basically are bass boats, just lighter and white. Redfish anglers pull up to their spots and drop their trolling motors in the water, just like bass anglers do.

In many ways, the two are amazingly similar, which is cool. No disrespect intended to redfish pros, but I found myself wondering how KVD, Ike, the Hack Attack, Larry Nixon and other top bass pros would do against the guide-heavy redfish pros.

In fact, I'm surprised a made-for-TV event like that hasn't happened yet. It's not like the water isn't there – the Louisiana Delta, for example, where bass pros talk about catching redfish by accident, and redfish pros say the same thing about bass.

But the differences between bass fishing and redfishing also make inshore saltwater fishing a lot of fun, starting with the fish.

Salty Fish

If you've never caught a redfish, you owe it to yourself to. You won't get the aerial acrobatics of bass, but you will get pulling power that makes a bass seem weak and fat – except maybe for smallmouths.

In fact, the closest you can get to "ocean fishing" when bass fishing probably is fishing for smallies on the Great Lakes – which pretty much are landlocked oceans. Then again, I've had the rod practically ripped from my hand by some mean Tennessee smallmouths. Bottom line: smallmouths are a lot more like saltwater fish than largies.

And that's "fish," plural. Fishing in saltwater is like fishing in an aquarium. Sure, you're targeting redfish, but you'll also catch speckled trout, flounder, grouper and multiple different kinds of weird-looking things with fins.

Salty Baits

BassFan's Terry Brown and I had a humorous time fishing for whatever we could catch while down at the Oh Boy! Oberto Redfish Cup All Star event (like the Bassmaster Majors) in Orange Beach, Ala. in November.

It was cold even for us northerners, so we just wanted to catch whatever we could. Capt. Robby Walker from The Wharf, hosts of the event, took us out for a few hours with rods rigged with Berkley Gulp! shrimp. Those things are like Senkos in the redfish world (or maybe Senkos times 10) – everyone uses them.

Us bass guys quickly found out that fishing that bait and other shrimp baits is like fishing a rock. No action whatsoever, at least that we could tell.

When you're used to bass fishing and trying to feel every nuance of baits designed to shimmy and shake, that's weird.

Weirder still, action doesn't seem to matter. Saltwater fish can't keep their mouths off Gulp!. Drag it along a promising rip, drop or hole, and bang! Event us bass guys managed to catch a few.

Salty Tourneys

Go back a few years in bass fishing, and that's what saltwater tournaments are like now.

They're casual. There's none of the "life or death" atmosphere that hangs over many pro bass fishing tournaments these days. Not that that's bad, but it's just not present on the saltwater side. Maybe the money's not big enough there yet.

I'm also thinking of the FLW Redfish Series Championship, where anglers just pulled their boats up on the beach for the daily weigh-ins. Everyone just hanging out.

Redfish tourneys are different. With only two fish in the slot to weigh in, you can see how much that changes tournament strategy (slots are there for conservation reasons). Competitors try to target fish at the top end of the slot, and will run a long way (100-plus miles one way) to get fish that are just a little fatter. With only two fish and a slot, the weight differences between places are pretty small.

So when a team (they're team events) gets the fish it wants and feels like it has a good handle on the weight needed to make the cut, it might just stop fishing. Go back to the ramp at 10:00? Why not? Even if five more boats are around your fish, it makes sense to leave because no one wants to burn out the fish – or spook them, since deep water in inshore saltwater is 4 feet. Which is why some of these boats don't even have depthfinders – just GPS units.

There's a lot more to tell here, but you get the picture. In some ways these tourneys are very similar to bass tournaments, but in others they're completely different. For me, the differences are pretty fascinating.

Salty Folks

For the most part, fishermen (anglers, to include the ladies) are good people. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. So you can guess that the people on the saltwater side – pros, recreational anglers, manufacturers – are good folks.

Many of the pros are guides (like pro bass fishing used to be) and former bass fishermen. Seems they find the saltwater game more fun. Catch a few reds and you can see where they're coming from.

Many of the redfish guys also are schooled in bass fishing and bass pros. Here's just one example: The captain of the winning team at November's Redfish Tour Championship, AC Lockyer, mentioned Rick Clunn, Kevin VanDam, Guido Hibdon and Peter T. in his winning pattern story (up on InshoreFan), and called his wife from the weigh-in stage to tell her he won the tournament – because he always wanted to do that after seeing Hank Parker's classic Classic moment.

Did I mention that bass pros like David Walker, Andre Moore, Roland Martin and others fish competitive inshore events? And that several bass pros are nutty about inshore fishing? (Kelly Jordon and Shaw Grigsby come to mind.)

Pro redfish anglers are intense out on the water, but much mellower when they hit the shore. I don't know if that's the whole "beach atmosphere" thing, or reflects the fact that it's not as "serious" as pro bass fishing is now, but it's nice. The paranoia level is way down – meaning no one's looking to read something into whatever someone says about some person or company.

If you're on the business side of this sport, that's a dang relief. It's almost like benevolent alternate universe – like Canada.

But don't let all that mellowness fool you. Anyone who's up for traveling 100-plus miles one way just to catch two fish, and manages to find a few more tenths or hundredths of a pound than their competitors, is tough. Physically and mentally.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is that it's been a blast getting to know that world, and the party's not over yet – for me, anyway. And for many of you reading this, it's just getting started.

I hope you give that world, via our new publication InshoreFan.com, a shot. My bet is that if you like fishing and tournaments, and you obviously do, you'll enjoy InshoreFan.com.

And you really can learn a few things from these inshore anglers that you can apply to bass fishing.

If you become a "convert" after catching a few redfish or other hard-fighting salty critters, don't say I didn't warn you. Even if a tarpon (yes, there is a pro tarpon series) is just a big minnow, it's 175 pounds big. That's fun no matter how you slice it.

Notable

> Like sight-fishing? If you fish competitive redfish events in Florida, it's almost all sight-fishing, but not for spawning fish.

> Maybe it's me just having a 13-year-old mind, but one inshore acronym always gives me a chuckle – for the IFA (Inshore Fishing Association) Redfish Tour, or "IFART" for short.

> Tides are super-critical in saltwater events, and it occurred to me have been critical in more than a few bass events too – notably the ones on the Chesapeake Bay (Ken Cook), James River (Clunn) and the Louisiana Delta (Hite, VanDam, Iaconelli). One tide-like win also was Jay Yelas' Classic win at Lay Lake. When the dam released water, his fish bit. No water movement, no action. That's still one of my favorite "risk it all" wins of all time.