2013 TKAA Charity Tournament.

Hum dum dum ditty dum 

Hum dum dum
Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today

And that little rhyme from my childhood pretty much sums up the day!

The forecast two weeks out looked too good to be true. 80 degrees, sunny, and calm. Perfect conditions to go out in September and catch an inshore slam. Redfish, speckled trout, and flounder! Or atleast that was the plan. Unfortunately for everyone fishing Mother Nature had different plans in store for the tournament. A large low pressure formed off the coast the week before the tournament which pushed in 20 mph winds and 4 foot seas.

With my current work schedule and different things happening I had no time to get out pre-fish for the tournament. All summer was actually pretty disappointing for me, consisting of small flounder, tiny black seabass, and not a redfish in sight. I was determined to go out and atleast catch somthing. I decided to stick to the place I fished the most this summer and headed out to the HRBT on the Hampton side.

We got to the boat ramp at 0600 to see a few other kayakers who decided to fish the bridge. Unloaded the Trident 13 and the Phoenix 120 and waited for the 0630 start time. As soon as everyone launched most of the people there started fishing the docks and rocks to the right and left of the boat ramp. With the way the wind and waves were I didnt want to make BB battle the conditions in her kayak so we paddled across to the general calm of the water between the pilings. After a few casts BB hooked up! her medium action rod was bending to the water and her reel was screaming out line. She finally managed to land a striper, her first time catching one! It was flipping around in her kayak and she was so excited about catching a fish it took a few minutes to get it calmed down enough to measure it at 15 inches.

BB's 15 inch Tournament Striper!

 I started out looking for the specks using a popping cork with a Egret VuDu shrimp and a mirror lure twitch bait. After a few passes through the pilings and drifting down to the top of the tunnel and not getting a bite I switched over to the same Egret Bayou Chub in Glow/Chartreuse that BB caught her striper on. We continued to paddle around in the wind and cover the area between the bridges and around the island but didnt manage any more fish. There were very few fish being caught, although we did see some decent speckled trout being caught just none on our lures.

Once we got to the convention center for the weigh-ins BB started getting excited since there were not alot of fish being turned in. Out of the 270 people who were at the captain's meeting only about a third returned for the weigh-ins. She turned in her striper sheet and we waited to see who won. As it turned out, quite a few stripers were caught in the 19-20 inch range so unfortunately BBs 15 inch didnt place.

A disappointed BB when they read the Striper division winner.

BB won a Skwoosh gel seat for the kayak!

A Blue water bottle! Yay!

Luckily she did win a few items in the raffles so it was a pretty successful tournament! 

 

YakAttack Zooka Tube, Egret Baits Wedgetail, Balloon Fisherking, Reel Fast Tackle grubs, Hobie accessory bag, Power Team Lures assorted lures and 20$ gift card, Skwoosh gel seat. and Dynabait freeze dried mussels.

Even though I didnt catch a fish we still had a great time with some great people. It was a great way to raise money to support Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters. There was a huge list of sponsors and supporters. Thank you to everyone who participated, donated, sponsored, or volunteered!