Corporate Spankin
On Friday the 27th we (Chris and Alan) had an inter-office fishing tournament down at surfside (Prizes given to woman with longest fish of any species, and man with longest fish of any species). Previous to this, we had been talking a lot of smack. I mean A LOT. So, we had to go with our game faces on. The weather before Friday had been absolutely horrible. Wind and rain. We were crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, but the forecast for Friday didn’t have a little sun with a cloud in front of it. It just said WINDY, and it was. We arrived at 8:00 in the am just in time for the tournament to start. We took one look at the surf and decided that the competition would be determined by who caught the biggest hard head. Within about 5 minutes, I hooked and landed the hard head that I was the most proud of in my life. What I thought at the time was a tournament winning 14 incher. At that point, the wind was just a mere 15-20mph, and the water was chocolate milk for as far as we could see. I netted a couple of mullet and one immediately went on a hook while a piece of jack I had caught a couple of weeks ago went on another. We put the lines in my yak and I headed out. The mullet line fell off as a wave broke over the yak, but the jack made it out past all the breakers. We were both kind of feeling the typical coast feeling of, “Whew, at least the baits are out. Now we can start drinking.” However, we had a pleasant surprise about 10 minutes later when one of our co-workers said, “Hey, Chris, you have a bite” Chris walks over and is explaining to the man that, “no, that is just the wind. You will know it if I got a bite.” Just as Chris was turning around – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz – FISH ON!! Chris grabs the pole and sets the hook and tried to move the pole over the next one to prevent a tangle. Well, we all know Chris isn’t the tallest man in the world, and seeing him trying to put a 12 ft. rod bent from the pull of a big fish over a 12 ft. rod sticking straight in the air was quite a hilarious sight. I grabbed the rod and easily moved it over the other one and was just fixing to hand it back to Chris when something absolutely shocking happened.
Chris actually said and I quote, “You can reel it in if you want.”
I almost dropped the rod in disbelief. I don’t know what in the hell was going through his mind. Those of you that have been fishing with Chris on the coast and have seen the short distance sprint from beer drinking position to hook setting position know what I am talking about. First of all Chris is fast. Second of all he would never willingly give up the right to reel in a fish. ESPECIALLY the first fish of the trip. So, after I composed myself, I went to fighting. A short 10 minutes later we landed what would end up being the tournament winner. 42.5 inches of beautiful redfish that was destined for the grill. After patting each other on the back, it was back to fishing.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there were about 20 some odd people at this particular competition.
Anyway, I went to go try my luck at catching more bait, but it just wasn’t happening. The wind had picked up to about 30-35 mph and was cold. As I was walking back, I saw a fin in the surf and cocked the net, fixing to net me up another hunk of meat for the box. Then I looked up and Chris was reeling in the line that had jack on it. I followed the line directly into the mouth of the fish that I was about to net. Well it turned out to be about a 38 in. black tip.
The rest of the day went pretty much the same. Everybody else watching Chris and myself reel in one fish after another. At the end of the day, our tournament bag contained the following:
Redfish—42.5 in.
Redfish—36 in.
Redfish—29in.
Black tip—38in.
Gafftop—25in
Gafftop—25in
Hardhead—14in
Everybody else’s tournament bag put together looked like this:
No, I did not forget to write anything. Nobody else caught a single thing—nothing, nada, zilch.
Since we were the only ones to catch anything, we got both prizes. It is still under dispute between which of the two of us got the woman’s prize, but since they were both the same, I guess it will always be under dispute.
Well, that is just another Chris/Alan adventure. Stay tuned for part 2 of the West Texas Safari. We will be posting the tally on Monday, November 13th
Keep your guns loaded and your hooks wet,
Alan and Chris
Chris actually said and I quote, “You can reel it in if you want.”
I almost dropped the rod in disbelief. I don’t know what in the hell was going through his mind. Those of you that have been fishing with Chris on the coast and have seen the short distance sprint from beer drinking position to hook setting position know what I am talking about. First of all Chris is fast. Second of all he would never willingly give up the right to reel in a fish. ESPECIALLY the first fish of the trip. So, after I composed myself, I went to fighting. A short 10 minutes later we landed what would end up being the tournament winner. 42.5 inches of beautiful redfish that was destined for the grill. After patting each other on the back, it was back to fishing.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there were about 20 some odd people at this particular competition.
Anyway, I went to go try my luck at catching more bait, but it just wasn’t happening. The wind had picked up to about 30-35 mph and was cold. As I was walking back, I saw a fin in the surf and cocked the net, fixing to net me up another hunk of meat for the box. Then I looked up and Chris was reeling in the line that had jack on it. I followed the line directly into the mouth of the fish that I was about to net. Well it turned out to be about a 38 in. black tip.
The rest of the day went pretty much the same. Everybody else watching Chris and myself reel in one fish after another. At the end of the day, our tournament bag contained the following:
Redfish—42.5 in.
Redfish—36 in.
Redfish—29in.
Black tip—38in.
Gafftop—25in
Gafftop—25in
Hardhead—14in
Everybody else’s tournament bag put together looked like this:
No, I did not forget to write anything. Nobody else caught a single thing—nothing, nada, zilch.
Since we were the only ones to catch anything, we got both prizes. It is still under dispute between which of the two of us got the woman’s prize, but since they were both the same, I guess it will always be under dispute.
Well, that is just another Chris/Alan adventure. Stay tuned for part 2 of the West Texas Safari. We will be posting the tally on Monday, November 13th
Keep your guns loaded and your hooks wet,
Alan and Chris
posted by ~z | 3:55 PM
5 Comments:
I'm glad you two backed up your trash talk. That could have been embarrasing. I hope you didn't use all of your tags on the bull reds. I would have tagged the 29" fish.
What part of Surfside did you fish. I don't have any luck on that beach. I normally fish between the condos and Treasure Island.
I put a tag on the 42 incher just because i don't get down to the coast very often, and I wanted proof of the winning fish. And, I know I will be proved wrong some day, but out of about 15 fish from 36 in to 52 in I have yet to see a worm.
We were fishing mile marker 6. It was by no means at all a good spot, and I don't recommend it. Chris has had luck there in the past. He might say different.
-Alan-
My luck in the past was normally north of south of that spot. As a kid I fished Surfside A LOT as a buddies folks had a beach house in the area. For a month of so every summer we went and fished the surf everywhere between the big bridge to the jetties (the no vehicle part of the beach). Later, once I had a truck, we fished the north side closer to the pass, this area has more structure, still not as much as Matty, but better than where we setup for the corporate event. However, we weren’t first on the scene so we just fished in and amongst the crew. Funny, we had folks on both sides of us and still laid the steel to em…guess we just have superhuman abilities when it comes to fishin’. Mad skills!
I guess you could say that you and Allan understand the fundamental principals behind the sweet science of soaking cut-bait.
yep, I guess so. Hows your adventures going? Aint seen a story in a while.
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