# Pirates on the Gulf Tournament



## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

Registered in the Pirates tournament; Lane and I fished hard Friday night, Sat. and Sunday. Fought the wind and waves after midnight Fri., all day Sat & Sat. night, and Sunday morning.

Lane scored first Sat. evening with a decent speck. And, after a looong time, wham, my line bowed and the fight was on. I had just respooled with good line so I felt confident, but this is a tournament so take care. (Lane had caught a 33" redfish earlier in the day, but set him free - of course.) I foughtthis fisharound the boat and pilings for a good 15 minutes, finally got him on board. Whew! Out with the legal stick - 26 1/2", andniiiiiice looking red. OK;late, tired and sleepy - headed for the dock. Back at home, fish on ice and a few hours sleep. Checked weather report for Sunday before turning in and the prediction was for 15-20 knot winds, 3-4 ft swells in the bay. No way!

Decided not to get up at daybreak, so at a decent time of 7 AM Lane and I decided to forgo the boat today and fish the small pier at Bob Sykes. (I measured the red again in the daylight on a more reliable ruler before heading out to fish, right at 27" - but legal by my measure.) Feeling good.

Lane hooked up on a flounder and I met with a small spanish. Now, if we were unscrupulous as some might believe, we would combine our catch and have a slam. But, we weigh our own catch - EVERYTIME. Anyway, 1:00PM Sunday afternoon and we need to head to the weigh-in. I measured my Red again - 27"; got the neighbor to measure it - 27". Feeling good.

Got to the weigh-in and Lane weighed her catch- sorry, no bells. I weighed the spanish - no bell. Pull out the Red and Robert Turpin measured - hmm, too close to call. Get the official scientific micro-measure. D#$^&*(*( , 

the fish had grew to 27 1/8" :sick I couldn't believe it. I was crushed, and Lane had already spent the money.:boo

But, I have to give Mr. Turpin credit for being an absolute professional, for taking the time to accomodate me and show me, very patiently, how the measure works - how it was broken down etc. (He could have taken my questioning personal, but he didn't) "Thanks Mr. Turpin" bowdown. I hope no one would ever think that I might try to slide one by anyone. First off I am too much of a stickler for going by the rules - ask Lane, and second, I would be, and I AM, sooooo embarrassed to weigh an illegal fish.blush: I'm sorry!

So back home, disappointed, sleep deprived, and feeling guilty all at the same time; I decided to spend a little time on another hobby - Tequila! It takes practice. And for some reason I can never remember;

1st round -suck the lime, lick the salt and shoot Jose? that's not right.

2nd round -suck the salt, lick the lime, and shoot Jose? still not right.

3rd round - lick the lime, %uck the salk, and shoot Jose. Getting closer.

4th round - forget the lime,forget thesalt, shoot Jose. poor guy.

After all is said and done; Size DOES matter!

Next time!


----------



## BBob (Sep 27, 2007)

Excellent Post...But I need to make sure.... 1/8" is "way" to big.


----------



## talleyban (Sep 28, 2007)

Nice post Mitch!!! 

We fished very hard this weekend too. Went to bed early Friday night after leaving Drew's house. We were awake by 430 and on the water by 5. When we left the bayou and hit the bay it was rough and dark. We headed out to try my new cast net. The water was so rough it was impossible to see the bait. Luckily we had bought some live shrimp. After about 1 hour of fishing we were out of 4 dozen shrimp. The bite was on. We had limited out on gray snapper and caught a large variety of fish but no winners. We headed to sand island to cook breakfasts and let the dogs run. Found some bait on the island. Cast net works great. We are back in business . Went to a spot Jamie told us about, continued to catch fish non stop until we were out of bait again. Several keepers but no winners. 

Caught some more bait, went to the pass, did some trolling. Heather managed to catch a buoy with a stretch. Anchored up and started chumming looking for kings or spanish. It was an aquarium besides our boat. Heather managed to hook up on a huge spanish. She was not able to land it (the one that got away). Continued to fish until 7 then made the run back to the Bayou. Heather said we caught 150 fish!!!! 



Early morning again Sunday much rougher than Saturday. Launched at Sherman Cove headed to the pass. It was too rough to get the fish coming up with the chum. We sat for awhile and watched all of the boats make the u-turn after trying to run the pass. We headed to more protected waters fished until 11. Nothing worth taking to the scales. Heather had to hit the books so we called it a day.



We had a GREAT weekend. I would like to thanks to all of the Pirates for putting on a great event.


----------



## SheYakFishr (Oct 1, 2007)

Dangggg.. So sorry Mitch.. I felt your disappointment!! I was hoping you guys were kicking butt!! Maybe next year! I'm thinking of entering the yak next year!! hehehe :Wow:

Sorry Talley.. that you guys didn't catch something really big too!

Was there a really good turnout?.. haven't heard anything about it yet!! :takephoto


----------



## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

Pam; 

Missed seeing you there girl. 

Someone said there were over 150 registered anglers. 

The big fish was a huge grouper, I think over 30 lbs that might be Alabama state record.


----------



## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

> *talleyban (10/1/2007)*Nice post Mitch!!!
> We fished very hard this weekend too. Went to bed early Friday night after leaving Drew's house. We were awake by 430 and on the water by 5. When we left the bayou and hit the bay it was rough and dark. We headed out to try my new cast net. The water was so rough it was impossible to see the bait. Luckily we had bought some live shrimp. After about 1 hour of fishing we were out of 4 dozen shrimp. The bite was on. We had limited out on gray snapper and caught a large variety of fish but no winners. We headed to sand island to cook breakfasts and let the dogs run. Found some bait on the island. Cast net works great. We are back in business . Went to a spot Jamie told us about, continued to catch fish non stop until we were out of bait again. Several keepers but no winners.
> Caught some more bait, went to the pass, did some trolling. Heather managed to catch a buoy with a stretch. Anchored up and started chumming looking for kings or spanish. It was an aquarium besides our boat. Heather managed to hook up on a huge spanish. She was not able to land it (the one that got away). Continued to fish until 7 then made the run back to the Bayou. Heather said we caught 150 fish!!!!
> 
> ...


Sounds like a hard fished week-end. Heather, I didn't know there was a category for bouys.:toast. That's OK, Lane and I both hung into some nice oyster shell, but I couldn't get mine landed. -


----------



## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

I thought you could keep one over-slot fish??? Or is it just not legal in the tournament?


----------



## Last Chance (Sep 27, 2007)

> *NoMoSurf (10/2/2007)*I thought you could keep one over-slot fish??? Or is it just not legal in the tournament?


Your thinking of Al. waters,only one here in Fl waters.


----------



## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

> *NoMoSurf (10/2/2007)*I thought you could keep one over-slot fish??? Or is it just not legal in the tournament?


Maurice is correct. In Florida you are allowed only 1 Redfish per angler per day, slot size over 18" under 27". In Alabam, the limit is 3 per day per angler, slot size 16" under 26", 1 over slot size allowed.

The further west you go, the better the limits get; ie, Louisiana 5 Reds per day.:banghead:hoppingmad


----------



## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

that explains why while i'm working here in MS people always ask "cant you keep one over slot" I always tell them.."no that's specks you're thinking of" I guess they're right in their waters. That reminds me of how ppl get when someone talks about keeping an o/s red. "what're you doing keeping that red...bla bla bla" Get over it..Who made you the fish police?...if someone wants to keep it then that that's on their conscience and the game wardens bill will be on their wallet not mine. I think that most ppl agree that we can afford to have a few yrs of one over the limit in florida waters. Either way I'll continue to save my money and release.


----------



## Drewski (Oct 3, 2007)

Does anyone have the results from the tournament?oke


----------



## Boatjob1 (Oct 2, 2007)

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I just copied and pasted this from the old Forum. I posted this Sunday night late. Hope it helps. Thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">This post could go in a lot of different places, but I thought I would post it here so that all would see it. I believe we had 151 participants. If you weren't there, you missed a great event! Check out that potential Alabama State record in the Grouper division! Sorry for any misspelled names............



INSHORE;

*Speckled Trout*

1. Dale Hall, 4.3

2. Randy Westmoreland, 2.4

3. Jason Emmons, 2.1

*Flounder*

1. Tony Blanton, 4.0

2. Mark Olvera, 3.4

3. Kenny Smithey, 2.8

*Spanish*

1. Kevin Lampron, 4.1

2. Travis Lumpkin, 3.7

3. Dan Flynn, 2.9

*Redfish*

1. Austin Martratt, 6.7

2. Mike Potter, 6.4

3. Kreg Corpstein, 6.0

****Redfish released alive, Cody Williams 4.5, Chris Mowad 4.4, Paul Williams 3.3****

*OFFSHORE DIVISION*

*Snapper*

1. Derek Clink, 21.9

2. Jeff Pfeiffer, 10.4

3. Byron Davison, 8.8

*Grouper*

1. Kais Daoud, 31.2 ****** PENDING ALABAMA STATE RECORD*******

2. Roger Fulford, 16.8

3. Delynn Siglar, 10.3

*Trigger*

1. Gary Larue, 4.1

2. Jeremy Woodall, 1.7

3. Brad Monffort, 1.6

*Kingfish*

1. Wayne Adkisson, 28.7

2. John McWhorter, 25.7

3. Michael Choron, 24.7

*$100 Kingfish TWT*

1st King Scape, 28.7

2nd Hooker'up, 25.7

3rd Sea Lion, 24.7

*$25 Kingfish TWT*

1st Corpstein, 13.9

2nd Pfeiffer, 12.7

*No 3rd Place Entry*

*Flounder Gigging*

1. Williams, 2.7

2. Pate, 2.4

3. Emmons, 2.4

*Junior Angler Award, $100 Savings Bond, Pen Air Federal Credit Union*

1. Blake Brazwell

2. Kais Daoud

*OFFSHORE SLAM BONUS AWARD*

Brad Monffort, ONLY angler with all 4 offshore species, total weight 13.5

*INSHORE SLAM BONUS AWARD*

Dale Hall, Redfish, Speck, Flounder, total weight 11.7


----------



## fishn4real (Sep 28, 2007)

Is Dale Hall a professional guide? Sure would like to ride with him a couple of days.:bowdown


----------



## Boatjob1 (Oct 2, 2007)

I could be wrong, but I believe he fishes from land, no boat...... Just knows the right spots at the right times, with the right baits..... I saw him at the weigh in. By the way, if anybody knows him, please have him get in touch with me. I am holding his Slam Prize, he leftafter getting that fat $500 check for the first placetrout.... Thanks, Tom


----------



## bonita dan (Oct 3, 2007)

I was sorry to hear about the fish Mitch. Lane had said ya measured several times and still came out right at 27". Good to see yall out at the scales though. RT did do a great job as our weigh-master and don't feel bad about the size,#hit happens.


----------

