# Knedding Out International Report



## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

This was my crew and I's first sizable tournament. We had a great time and really enjoyed the tournament and though I don't have much to compare to, it was run very well. 

We ran out right after the captains meeting. We felt if we could get South as soon as possible we would have a better chance of fishing longer. We had our sights on the small boat prize so we were trying to put ourselves in areas that would get us all three meat fish and a billfish. The winning small boat released a blue and did not weigh anything else. Had we stumbled on a blue that would have done it for us. 

Our original plan was to run way south and fish hard through Friday and then run to Venice when it was suppose to get bad Saturday. Well some thunderstorm Friday morning had a us a little spooked so we called it found a gap in the storm and ran into Pensacola. 

We started fishing Beer Can, we were marking some good stuff. I wanted to get some Blackfin in the box for chunking later in the night. Right off we picked up a 35 lb yellowfin while we were jigging. It started to get a little rough in the night and I decided to stay a little North and work the Rip at the edge that the sat images were showing instead of getting to rigs further south. So we ran over to Ram Powell for the am bite then move a little further north and fish the rip. 

Friday morning there were 5 boats and us working Ram. We bumped around some hardtails but only got Sharks. By 7 or so we put out our spread and started moving to the rip. Found the line and picked up a good size Cow, we thought it would go over 30, but only got 25 on the scales. 

The thunderstorms showed up and we had to pick up and run west to avoid it, by that time we decided to call it, we had been beaten up pretty good and it was not getting better. We thought we could get out Saturday and we were gong to try to get a wahoo at the nipple. After seeing the winds Saturday morning we decided to just go to Crab island. 

Anyway it was a good weekend and we really enjoyed it. 

Here is a pick of us weighing our mini tuna. Don't laugh to hard fellas, we felt we had to weigh it in case we had a shot at the small boat category.


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

That's hard fishing. I, too, have very limited tournament experience, but I can appreciate the need to weigh any qualifying fish you catch. You never know what will or won't come to the scales.


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## Tobiwan (Apr 27, 2012)

It's all about the experience, getting your picture taken with your crew and friends is part of it. I'd never laugh at you for that. It was tough fishing out there like someone said on my report every fish caught was earned this time. Good job


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

It was nice to finally meet you face to face. My hat goes off to any and all small boats that ventured out this past weekend. They need to give out medals for such!

Robert


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## Head Kned (Mar 21, 2011)

MSViking said:


> It was nice to finally meet you face to face. My hat goes off to any and all small boats that ventured out this past weekend. They need to give out medals for such!
> 
> Robert


It wasn't fun, I felt a lot better about our decision to come in when we sat with the crew of that 64 Hatteras near the mouth of the Marina. I forget the name of the boat, really good guys though. One of the mates that was running the boat said they took one over the bow near the spur and he got soaked in the wheelhouse. The owner called it the trip at that point.


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Head Kned said:


> the crew of that 64 Hatteras near the mouth of the Marina.


I believe the boat was Miss Ori, I talked to them at the scales on Friday as well. It is always a tough call on whether to bail (no pun intended) or not. While is was not comfortable I felt very secure and safe in our 54.

Robert


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## daddytime (Oct 1, 2007)

Thanks for the report, glad yall made it in safe. Nobody that has tournament fished before is laughing!!! Always weigh a legal fish. Good job!


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## Aquahollic (Sep 24, 2009)

daddytime said:


> Thanks for the report, glad yall made it in safe. Nobody that has tournament fished before is laughing!!! Always weigh a legal fish. Good job!


^ Fact!

I won a custom rod in a Halibut Derby because it payed out to 10th place. The leader board only showed 1st-3rd and I knew my fish was no where near there but I weighed anyway just for my own knowledge. At the payout party they called my name with the 7th place fish. There were a lot of fish caught that were larger than mine but people didn't weigh them because they weren't 1st-3rd. 

If it is legal it gets weighed.

John


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