2.8 ounces is all I needed to retain my 3rd place victory in the Largest Trout division of this weekend's Central Florida Shootout- North vs. South. After I finally decide to fish a tournament on my boat, after years of refusing to enter anything but bragging rights tourneys, I get bumped by a friend of mine BY 2.8 OZ’S!!!! Unbelievable.
In true fashion, I made it as tough as possible for myself to succeeded. I headed up to the captains' meeting Friday night, stopping to pick up 3 new crab traps on the way, and I only needed to spend a few minutes there until I remembered why I NEVER go to those meetings. Not my scene. According to tournament rules, the fishing could begin at 8:00 p.m. Friday night and you could weigh the last fish in by 7:00 p.m. Saturday night, so my thought was to get on the water early, therefore not rubbing elbows with people. I got home about the same time Blythe did (from a birthday dinner at my dad’s house) and it was a quick hello and goodbye: there was a large storm building over the mighty St. Johns and if there was going to be any fishing done, it had to be done right then. I grabbed my waders and a rod and ran out the door. I went over to the not-so-secret-spot again to see if I could get a hook in a big gator trout. I waded straight out into the 3-4 ft range of water and made a few casts while keeping a watchful eye on the lightning over Cocoa. Sure enough, the spot produced again… I picked up another 24 inch fat 5 lb trout. I felt pretty good about it since it was only 8:39 p.m. After a wrestling match comparable to that of a killer whale vs. a seal, I eventually got the fish to the shore. But wait-- like I said, I had to make it more work for myself. Not thinking clearly when I left the house in a fury, I failed to remember there was a ½ pound bonus for turning your red fish or trout in alive. Oops! I'd forgotten to bring a bucket of any kind. It actually crossed my mind for a second to fill my waders up with water and throw her in those till I got home and figured something out. However, I didn’t. I threw the fish into the back of the truck and hauled a$$ to the house. Hit the driveway at mach 7 and grabbed every watertight container I could get a hold of and ran back to the river. I must have looked pretty funny in my waders running to the truck, dumping buckets of water into bed and running back into the water for another bucket full and another… Unfortunately, the trauma was ultimately too much and the trout died so I transferred her to a frozen watery grave in the cooler and eventually into the lake of fire know as the Big Smokey (ie., my smoker) on Sunday.
Anyways, it was only Friday night and I already had a 5 pound trout in the box. I was feeling pretty good, so I headed up to Doc’s to get “bait” ( in the form of Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boy cans-- crazy, I know, bait comes in many forms now!) where the fish in my cooler seemed to grow with each “bait” I got. By the end of the night, it WAS HUGE! 28 inches! I swear…yeah, whatever, Nate. So back to the house to get some shut-eye before I came out of retirement in the morning. My tentative plan was to get up at 0330 and fish the flats till I had be home to watch Cora at 0930. I know it’s a tough schedule but one that had to be kept in order to have success. Right? Wrong. 0330 comes and goes with the push of a button, 0430 comes and goes with the push of that same dang button, 0530 ditto, and finally at 0600 I peel myself out of bed and load myself into the truck. So BAD.
Finally on the water at 0700. Yes, I’m laughing while I’m typing that. A far cry from 0330 but I made it! the water! it’s finally under the boat! I’m in a bit of a hurry to get to the honey hole to get a big red and get back to watch the baby with a slam under my belt. I rolled up to the hole and started fishing. The wind was picking up more and more every moment which was making it hard to fish so I dropped the trolling motor and put the wind to my back, grabbed old TRIED AND TRUE red head white bodied skitter walker, and started throwing. About 15 minutes into the drift across a flat…SMASH!!!!! Fish on! I couldn’t tell what it was but it hit really hard! My initial thought was a medium size snook, which wasn’t part of the tourney, then I thought, wait it hasn’t broken the surface yet... maybe it’s that big red I’m looking for? None of the above: I finally got close enough to see it was a MASSIVE trout-- long, with a thick back and plenty of belly- one like the one that wins tournaments. I was stoked and shocked at the same time if that’s possible. I managed to get the net, fight the fish and handle the boat in the wind all to finally land the fish. This time I was prepared for a fish and right into the livewell it went. I knew it would take a big fish to win the tournament so I brought a big white cooler and a 12 volt pump “just-in-case” and this fish almost stretched end-to-end in the cooler. After a little Come-To-Jesus moment and putting everything back in order in the boat, I decided not to tempt Lady Luck and to head back toward the dock. I dropped of the crab pots on the way back to the ramp and was home by a miraculous time of 0930. Bam!
Blythe was getting dressed for her Bible study luncheon thing and I flew into the door, “Blythe! Get the Camera!” Until now I hadn’t seen the trout except for the short time when I was hauling it from the water to the net to the cooler, so I wanted to make sure I hadn’t “overestimated” this one. When Blythe readied the camera and I opened the cooler lid, I got the same reaction from her that I got each time I opened it thereafter: “Holy Sh!t”! That’s all I had to hear to know it was going on the board.
Blythe headed out and I started loading Cora up for her first weigh-in. Now, logistically I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. Kid and boat in tow, I swung by John M’s house to show off the day’s catch and he opens the door and says “damn, I lost the bet…” Nathan: "what bet?"...John: “I bet CJ that there was no way you were going to be home in time to watch Cora”… Nathan: "thanks for the support, buddy"….I eventually get the same satisfactory reaction from John when the cooler lid gets opened and then it's off to Blue Point Marina for the moment of truth…
That’s right where it went, on the leader board, in 1st place…
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| This pic does not give this fish justice... |
…For about 1 minute until the south weigh- in station called and reported they just had a 10.10 pound trout turned in. OUCH! This is the sound of wind…leaving...sail…PPPPPSHHSHSHHSHSHHHHHHHH…oh well. I didn’t think I had much of a chance after that, with mine weighing in at 6.2 pounds even with my half pound bonus. The first words out of everyone’s mouth when it weighed in were “That’s it?” followed by "that looks way bigger"… and that’s what I thought too. That might be the curse of weighing in the first fish, the scale might have been a little “unbalanced?” But that’s the weight they gave me and that’s what I took.
John was nice enough to check the leader board later Saturday and I was still at 2nd place. But when I finally check the results page online on Sunday I'd been pushed out of 3rd place by 2.8 OZ’S!!!! A 6 pound 4.8 oz. trout took 3rd place caught by a friend of mine who’s a local “working” captain. At least we’re keeping it on the Island!
Well, that’s the long story: the short one is, I had a good time on the water this weekend between the tourney, a pub crawl and everything in between.
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