Tropical Storm Andrea, blew into the coast of South Carolina late Thursday night and early Friday morning with heavy rain and strong winds.
The after effects of the storm moving out were no better. Thomas and I decided to sleep in a little Friday and try to get a half a day of practice in after the winds died down. We knew it was going to be rough when a south wind at 20 mph meant the winds were calming down... We were only able to fish four new spots on Friday and that time was more frustrating than fun. The only good thing that came of Friday was that we found 2 new schools of fish using the same flat area on low tide. The water was chocolate milk at best and at worst it was just pure mud. After a couple of difficult frustrating hours we called it a day and headed to the hotel to get cleaned up for the captains' meeting.
At the hotel we met a couple of other guys that were fishing the tournament and talked about the conditions and how tough of a day it was.
The Inshore Fishing Association puts on a great event; the check in process for teams is quick and easy, they don't waste time talking about things too long, and they have awesome raffle prizes. We drew take off number 17 for the next morning, better than we have ever drawn before! After the captains' meeting and talking with some of the other teams about the weather and water conditions and joking about how loud and shiny our lures would have to be the next day, Thomas and I headed back to the hotel for an early bed time.
Tournament morning came with more wind than we hoped for... The weather man said it would be subsiding by 2 or 3 am but, it didn't. We put the boat in at Remleys point with most of the other teams and make the slow trek from the ramp to the Charleston Harbor Marina for take off. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but couldn't make up its mind as to which direction to come from so the water was just choppy, no big rollers thank goodness....
I had the privilege of saying the prayer for the tournament before the national anthem was played and the event started. That was really neat to be a part of!
As we wait with the 48 other boats in the tournament, jockying around in the tight area between docks waiting for our number to be called I go over and over our game plan in my head. Each spot we were going to has produced fish, but what has the weather done to them? Are they still there? Will they eat anything? 17 is called over the speakers and we are off.
The run gives us a little time to relax and get our minds focused on simply fishing. Nothing else matters, we can't control the conditions or other teams, all we can do is stick to our game plan and fish hard.
The day is slow to say the least, with dirty water and a large influx of fresh water into the area the fish were just not interested in eating anything. We fish harder and harder, eventually moving to our second spot, and finally around 10:30, Thomas catches our first fish! It measures almost 22 inches, awesome! One more of those and we will have ourselves a top ten finish!! We keep fishing, feeling confident and re-energized after catching the first fish. We knew it was going to be a tough day, but we never thought that at 11:00 am we would have only had 2 bites and one fish in the boat.
We leave spot number two to try spot number one again. Nothing. We go back to spot number two, I miss another one. I had a bad day with the whole catching process.
With only an hour left to fish we decide to run to the new area we found on Friday. We know there are fish there, but we have no idea how big or small or if they will even bite. With nothing else working we go for it. We pull up to the top side of the area and begin working our way down the bank, after being there 5 minutes we see the school pushing! They are here, now we have to take our time and convince them to bite... First pass, nothing. On the second pass we see a single that has broken off of the school, perfect! Thomas makes a cast out in front of the fish and it nails it. Finally we have another fish on! We get it into the boat, unhook it and measure it... It's borderline too long... With only one fish in the boat we don't have a choice, he goes into the live well. Another pass, no more fish and it's time to go.
We get back to weigh in and wait our turn to weigh our fish. Thomas takes the smaller fish, it measured in the slot and weighed in at 3.24 lbs. I carry the big fish up, after a lot of work and triple checking the length the official tells me it doesn't measure in the slot. 23 1/8 inches.
I release the fish, Thomas gets a picture with his fish and just like that we went from a chance of winning to a top 15.
A tough day topped by a fish that doesn't measure.
We watch as a few other teams weigh in fish and then decide to start the 4 hour ride home.
Ultimately, only 20 of the 49 boats weigh in fish. We finished 15. If our fish would have measured, we would have finished second, so close.
Thomas and I learned a lot and even though this was just our 6th tournament we were able to hang with the best fishermen on the east coast! We are learning and this tournament only fueled our drive to get better!
Here are a few pictures from the weigh in and the results sheet from the IFA:
The Captains' Meeting
Team Kirby at the weigh in
Thomas with his fish
The top 20 results page
http://www.ifatours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/charleston_redfish_2013_final.pdf
You can check out more pictures from the event at the IFA's Website: ifatours.com
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