10 May 2008 IFA Panama City

I apologize for the delay in the report, I've been worn out from this past week.

On Monday May 5th my grandmother Mary W. Pinney passed away at the age of 89. I sure am going to miss her.

The funeral was scheduled for Friday at 1300. Capt. DP and I were supposed to leave for Panama City (PC) early on Friday morning to pre-fish for Saturdays tournament. Obviously I wasn't going to make that. So DP came by my house at 0330 friday and picked up the Pier Pressure headed for PC. We decided he'd take the boat and fish Friday and I'd meet him as soon as I could.

I made good time after the service and arrived in PC around 1800. DP had found some fish and things looked good for us. The captain's meeting went well and we all headed back to the condo. We were sharing a condo with like 4 or 5 other teams and had an absolute blast! The fishing stories lasted way too far into the night and it finally got quiet enough to go to sleep sometime after midnight.

Tournament day dawned early, I know because I was up, waiting for it. We'd drawn numbers for departing order the night before, wouldn't you know it, we were set to leave dead last. Our run was considerably shorter than most teams and we were fishing long before many of them were halfway to their destinations. DP and I stayed at our first stop for the majority of the day. The fishing was great, especially for non-target species. We caught baby Groupers, Snappers, Bluefish, Blue Runners and a Flounder. Four Redfish also made their way into our boat along with the rest of the fishies. Three of them were oversize 27.5", 28", and 28.5". The other fish, however, was the tournament fish everyone wishes for, about 1/16-1/32 of an inch under 27. We were ecstatic, after measuring it three times the fish went into the well, high fives and all. Our fish was floating upside down in the well due to the air in its air bladder, it wouldn't have survived 6 hours in the well like that, so I vented the fish and he was happy as a lark for the rest of the day. Our good friends at the FWC showed up about an hour later to say good morning, asked us about the tournament, took a look at our fish, told us good luck, and went on about their business.

The day was wearing on and our second fish hadn't shown up, so we moved to another spot DP had found the day before. No luck. Another spot. No luck. Another spot, where we SAW a Redfish. Again, no luck. The spot we started the day at was the closest to the dock so we decided to close out the day like it began. Not long after re-arrival, just before the clock ran out, my rod bent and the reel sang a beautiful little tune. A grin split my face wide open. There he is!!!. Then my line began racing for the surface, and erupted from the water, attatched to a Manta Ray. I actually got it to the boat and removed the hook for the release. Only a few grains of sand remained in our tournament hourglass, we HAD to get to the check-in, NOW.

We pulled up with less than a minute to spare, grabbed our fish out of the well, and headed for the measuring board. Most of the guys we stayed with were standing around the board. As our fish came out of the bag they all smiled, telling us what a nice fish it was. The official measuring guy (bump-man) laid it on the board, flipped the fish over, flipped it again then gave me this real sorrowful look and says "I'm real sorry but, he's over."...WHAT?!?!?!? you're @#^^%$#@ kidding me!!! Capt Matt was standing there and noted that that was the closest fish he's seen in a competition. I looked for myself and sure enough, by literally a hair, the fish WAS over.

This was a case of a fish "relaxing" in the livewell. A fish just caught will be shorter than after he's been in the well for a while and calms down. Of course this minute amount isn't usually a problem; a fish doesn't get a chance to relax in the cooler. But if you're in a tournament, trying to squeeze out every bit of length possible, it's the difference between the "big fish" of the tourney and being DQ'd.

It was disappointing, sure, but what could we do? Captain DP and I chalked it up to rookie mistakes, one's we'll never make again. We'll be back again in Navarre, PC is already behind us, and we're looking forward to the rest of our tournament season.

Thanks for stopping by,

Capt. Josh