Club Challenge Report

[Al B]

Crew: Ed (Rebel), Holwatchagot, Al B
Boat: Changes Made

Our tournament started Thursday night/Friday morning amassing bait. When we finally pulled away from the dock @ 4:15 AM on Saturday, we were loaded with Peelers, Clams, Sand Fleas, Eels, Frozen Bluefish and Mullet, along with ~50 live spot/croaker/pin fish. From the team meeting, we were tasked with Gray Trout, Bluefish, Spot, Croaker, Spanish Mackeral and Kingfish as our target species... lol... big target huh?

We pulled up to the bridge ~5 and started live baiting to an outgoing current crossed with a SE wind. After a couple Stripers and Bluefish bite-offs, Ed comes tight with what ended up being the largest of 4 Gray Trout weighed in the tournament. Quick high-5s and we're back at it. Next was Geoff with a nice Bluefish, I think it ended up getting knocked off the board at the weigh in. Then Ed does it again with the Gray that ended up placing 3rd.

The Bluefish took over and we had multiple bite-offs, but no wire leader. Ed and I both lost LARGE Bluefish boatside. During the bluefish attack, my rod bows hard and the drag starts zinging... I tell Ed, "You're going to need a bigger net"... which he slides under a nice Red Drum... gotta love them Reds!

As the tide slowed, Geoff started dropping cut baits and crab... and the first of our HOARSE Croakers came to the net. Everybody changed baits and we quickly landed the tournament's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place fish.

The sun started to peek over the horizon, and with two nice trout, a nice bluefish and three HUGE croakers in the box, we could have gone home (cuz we didn't catch another point scoring fish the rest of the day)... but, we trolled the islands for Spanish with no love. So, we troll up the bay and start bouy hopping. The third bouy we pull up to has a NICE cobia on it... it just wouldn't eat.

Next on the agenda was Kingfish. We headed to the Thimble Shoals flat and drifted bloodworms and sand fleas picking up a TON of spot/pinfish and croakers... along with two Micro-Kings. Geoff hooks the "Oddest Fish" of the day: Ribbonfish... unbelievable. We finished the day inside the Little Creek jetties looking for a nice spot... again, no love.

At the scale, we ended up scoring 4 points with the first and third place Gray Trout, and 6 points for the first, second and third place Croaker... a total of 10 points for Changes Made. Tidalfish WON the Club Challenge for the second year in a row with 22 total points! A big "atta-boy" to the whole Tidalfish team, to Brandon, to the Catchin' for Kids team, and my fishing partners on the Changes Made.

Now, let's plan the celibration party... we were all too a$$-Whooped to party on Saturday!

[Brandon]

[Persistence2]

Nice work Al! How big were the Trout?

[PlaynHooky]

Congrats on the fish guys and the win.......Gotta love it!

[Al B]

Glenn - the biggest was around three pounds, a 2.5 (or so) took second, and we had 3rd w/a fish around 2.25.

[Persistence2]

OK...thanks Al. Was hoping you'd say 6-8 pounds :)

[swhit]

good day for sure, I'll let Gus give the account of our day on the Panacea. I have a couple pics from the awards ceremony I'll post when I get home

[wavygravy]

Anyone ever find out where those specs that were weighed in came from?

[Al B]

I didn't see who it was... but I'm guessing is was Carl Herring, and he caught'em in one of the shore's bayside creeks.

[gus]

wtg al and crew, once again u guys had a great year scoring the most points on the TF team. good job on bringing in those horse croakers, its always the "lowly" fish that make the difference between winning and losing.