|
|
|
|
|
Jesse's Hunting > Fishing Articles > Fishing Articles Archives > Team Done Deal Qualifies for National Kingfishing Championship
Team Done Deal Qualifies for National Kingfishing Championship
Mike Gilmore - JHO ProStaff
- Pensacola, FL
August 22, 2004
Tough Conditions
Rough seas and high winds hampered Team Done Deal in Alabama, where the Team got skunked for the first time in the series. |
We made an extremely long run nearly 65 miles southwest into the Gulf from Pensacola pass on Friday morning. Seas were running nearly six feet high and the wind was howling. Steve and I fished all day and were only able to catch one small kingfish in the ten-pound range. The entire day was uneventful and we retired for the evening.
Steve called me early Saturday morning to tell me that he thought the seas might have increased in size. He thought it might be a good idea to skip fishing on Saturday for safety purposes. I agreed and we called it off. At around two o' clock that afternoon, Steve called to tell me to get ready and get to the boat. He had decided to run down the Intercoastal Waterway to Biloxi, Mississippi. We made the ninety mile run and tied off at a marina and grabbed a hotel room.
We decided to fish on Sunday so we awoke early and went to the boat. We made another long run into the Gulf only to take another beating from Mother Nature in eight to ten foot seas near the oilrigs. We were unable to weigh a fish due to bad weather. We had been skunked, and only had one more tournament to help us get to the Nationals.
On August 12th we trailered the boat to Port Fourchone, Louisiana and got a hotel room. Our last tournament was to start Saturday and we wanted to try to gain as much info as we could. On Friday we prowled the local marinas trying to gather information on where the kingfish bite was happening. The word among locals and tournament fisherman was that nice kings were being caught in the oilrig block known as South Timbaliers. This run would be an easy thirty-mile trip if the weather would hold out.
We arrived in the pass early Saturday morning and took off from the flare start. We ran hard out into the Gulf in moderate seas until we reached the South Timbalier oilrigs. We immediately gathered hardtails for bait and deployed two flat lines out on top. We also deployed two large ribbonfish on the downriggers. The downriggers were set at different depths in hopes that we would locate the thermocline that the fish were at.
Not long after getting baits in the water, we had a knockdown on the port rigger and began to fight our first fish. After a short battle we boated a nice kingfish in the twenty-pound range. This was not going to help our points standings because we needed to better a twenty-nine pound kingfish. The Southern Kingfish Association only counts your three largest of the season. So far a twenty-nine pounder was our lowest weight. We got the baits back in the water briefly before we had another knockdown. This fish put up a nice battle and we brought him to the gaff. He would be a close fish to bring us up a point or two. We bagged the fish on ice and continued fishing. 
Too Small
This 20 pounder was too small to help in the scoring, but catching fish like this makes the day bearable while waiting for Mr. Big to strike. |
Sharks became a nuisance the rest of day and we estimated that we caught twenty-five small ones and wasted a lot of bait on them. The run to the scales was not too bad and upon arriving and weighing our fish we discovered that he was thirty-three pounds. This was a four-point increase over the other fish that might possibly help us get to the Nationals. We cleaned the boat and called it a day after a nice seafood dinner at the Leeville Seafood Restaurant.
Sunday morning we awoke to the sound of the wind howling out of the north at nearly thirty knots. We knew it would be a rough trip but we had to venture back out to the South Timbaliers in hopes of catching a larger fish. The weather gods frowned on us this day and gave us steady six to eight foot seas and a slow kingfish bite. We eventually landed several small kingfish but were unable to get into the right weight range.
The wind picked up more by early afternoon and we decided to head in before the storms became to bad. During the run in we encountered a large storm coming off the mainland to the north. This was not good and seas were going to get even rougher. Anytime a storm comes from the land and travels out over the water it gains strength. We motored on through the storm and encountered some serious rain and rough waves. We saw an occasional ten or twelve footer that would take you breath away when you dropped off of the backside of it.
We again had no fish to weigh. I felt like we again were fishing the Alabama tournament. We cleaned the boat and put it back on the trailer to prepare for the six-hour ride home. On our way out we decided to stop by tournament headquarters to check our score. We were informed that we had qualified in the top twenty boats with one hundred and eleven points and that we would be going to the National Championship. Done Deal Fishing Team had accomplished one goal in our first year! The only thing better could have been to win first place in at least one tournament.
Our goals now are to get the game plan ready for Biloxi, Mississippi. Keep checking back for the next November update on the National Championship kingfish tournament and wish us "Good Luck".
|
|
|
|
|
