31 Oct - 02 Nov 2008

Friday, Oct 31
I spent today in Destin pre-fishing for the IFA Championship, by myself. A nice day on the water, no one to worry about, didn't have to answer the phone, no kids saying "I want", good fishing, it was HEAVEN! I found the fish I was looking for, putting together a 12.5 lb aggregate, sight fishing East Choctawhatchee Bay. I boated 4 fish and saw probably 20, most of which swam by as I was trying to net other fish, and maneuver the boat, weigh and measure... It was nice fishing by myself, sure, but I never said it was easy! I left Destin around 1330, headed home to fire up the grill for our usual Halloween cookout.

Saturday, Nov 01
As you well know, I've been spending a lot of time out of town lately. I've missed most of my son's soccer games this season, so I wasn't about to miss this one (with only 3 games left) I slept in, hung out on the couch with the kids watching SpongeBob, attended the game (we lost 7-1, our only loss so far this season), then played the good husband. I swallowed my pride, let my wife pick out clothes for me (she said I couldn't wear ANYTHING with a fish on it, not even a belt!), and went for a family photo session at the beach. I didn't talk bout fishing the whole day... well I don't remember it if I did. I'm sure my wife would set this straight if she had my blog password, but it's my blog and I'm going to remember it like I want. When the picture taking was over we dropped off the kids with my parents for the night and spent some quality time by ourselves.

For anyone looking for a family photographer, check out my wife's work at gypsyisle.com I know I might be a little bias, but I think her work is awesome.

Sunday, Nov 02
Dusty, our friend David and I met at 0500 in Gulf Breeze, loaded the truck and were off for Panama City. The boat was in the water a little after 0700 and we were on our flat no later than 0715. The wind was blowing out of the North at around 10kts and the tide was falling. We eased toward the beach, planning on running the bank, got within 200 feet and hit bottom. The wind and tide had taken too much of our water and we just couldn't make it where we needed to.

Plan B... hit a few of our favorite docks. Rolled up to the first one, no bites. The second dock, however, was on fire; we pulled 10 fish off of it, but most of them were too small to help us in the tourney. We peeled off to an adjacent flat that was slightly deeper than our first stop and found 5 perfect fish before moving on to check a few more flats. The water hadn't come in much, but enough for us to find a few fish on one of our preferred flats. In all a great day, we packed it in around 1500 and headed home.

Tournament dates, Nov 7-8 2008