Dusty spent the day in Choctawhatchee Bay, checking on fish and looking for more. He did a great job! The fish I had found were still there and he found another awesome spot loaded with perfect fish. Other places we key on in the Destin-Fort Walton area were also holding fish, so we decided to make the 45+ mile run from Panama City on friday.
Registration began at 1700, followed by the anglers meeting at 1830. When registration closed, 119 teams had qualified and made the drive to fish. We drew boat #24, putting us in the first flight on day one (check-in at 1500) and the last flight on day two (check-in at 1600). (The check-out order is flipped the second day to ensure equal fishing time to all compediters) After the meeting concluded we went back to the boat to finish preparations and get some sleep. Here's an example of the lengths you have to go to make sure everything's ready for game day.
Friday: Day 1
The alarm blared at 0400 and we were out of the parking lot by 0430. Check-out began at 0600 and we didn't want to get stuck behind a hundred other guys at the ramp. Once we checked-out we headed straight for Destin, an hour away. The fishing was almost surreal. We caught 40 or so redfish over the course of the day. Seeing them in schools of 2-10 and nearly every fish that you could get a bait close to, ate it. Probably one of my best fishing days ever, a day Dusty and I will tell stories about for a long time.
Our two fish weren't really BIG, but they were solid 5lb fish. We felt good about what we had, yet we knew it wasn't what we needed. The scale put us at 10.86, somewhere around 20th after the first day. Sweet!
Saturday: Day 2
Todays events were very similar to yesterday with a few exceptions. Extremely dense fog in the ICW between Panama City and Destin caused us to crawl along, adding 30 min to our ride, costing us precious time. Our fish had also changed patterns over night, calling for an adjustment on our part. The bite was much slower than yesterday, where we caught 40 on friday we caught 5 today. We saw plenty of nice reds but getting them to even look at a bait was a chore. Todays two fish weren't quite as nice as yesterdays and we were hoping the bite was as slow for everyone else. We really wanted to stay in the top 25 and recover some of our expenses.
Our fish tipped the scales to 9.78, a little light, but giving us a two day total of 20.64 which was enough to secure us 20th place in the tournament. That felt good, 20th of 119. (It even looks nice written out) You can see full results here
This was the seasons last tournament and I'm ready for a break. I'm also making plans for next season! Thanks for stopping by.
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