Yes Sir! It was a good day to be in the ocean.
We started out catching small to medium sized menhaden in front of Morris island.
Our next stop was at the outside of the north jetty slow trolling four rods in an easterly direction.
Well the fun started early with the second place Spanish hitting the first rod I put in the water (and still had three more to bait up).
Nothing on the lines for a while, so we headed out to Chas 60 for some Amberjack fun. (Charlie had never caught AJ's before) The ocean was pretty calm allowing us to run at about 25mph in the 21'bay boat.
Well when we arrived at the sunken barge, I started throwing live menhaden in the water. It wasn't long before the AJ's were exploding at the surface with one even hitting the side of the boat! Charlie just looked at me and said "Dam, he hit his head on that one". Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha! He was liking the top water action!
I baited his rod up with a big menhaden and tossed it in the water with about 15 feet of line out, it wasn't long before he was hooked up!
We did this over and over until Charlie wanted to go in and fish for Kings again. I even got a chance to get one on the new light tackle Pflueger Arbour spinning reel. Performed flawlessly!
(You can see the rod bent over his right shoulder in this picture while I was busy with the camera)
Well we headed back inshore checking some of the channel markers for Cobia with no luck spotting one, but did throw a few menhaden at a hungry Crevalle jack.
Arrived in an area where the birds were picking up the scraps of glass minnows that the Spanish were chomping on.
I put three of the four rods in and started slow trolling again,,,,wasn't long before the rod started screaming!! FISH ON!
Charlie was quick to the rod while I cleared all the others out of the way and also the downrigger.
Didn't take but a few seconds for him to get on the bow to settle into the fight that lasted about 15min before coming to the gaff.
I told Charlie,,,"I think you just caught the winning fish" while watching it flop around on deck. He looks at me and says,,"That's the largest fish I have ever caught". I laughed,," I said that if we didn't get first place, we stand a good chance at second".
We were one of the first boats to the scales with a two hour wait after we were on the board......(That can wear on your nerves)
Long story short,,We ended up winning first place King and second place Spanish!
What a great Tournament for the Vet's here in Charleston! I was glad to donate a day and be a part of this outing!
I'm sure this will be even a larger tournament next year with only 16 boats fishing it this year.
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(All pictures are copyrighted)
Two Proud winners! (Charleston,SC)
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