Tidelines – May 31, 2012
With the passing of Memorial Day weekend, you now no longer have to wait two weeks for a new issue of Fisherman’s Post Newspaper. Memorial Day marks the start of our weekly print schedule, so every Thursday through Labor Day you can find a fresh copy of our publication on the shelves.
The passing of Memorial Day also marks the week leading up to our first tournament of the year—the Wrightsville Beach Inshore Challenge (formerly called the Spring Inshore Challenge). On Friday, June 1, we’ll be under the tents at Wild Wing Café (on Military Cutoff near Eastwood) registering a predicted 80-100 boats to fish this first of five events that comprise the 2012 Inshore Tournament Trail.
And if you’d like to watch the fish get weighed in (this is both a flounder and red drum event), then come on by Wrightsville Beach Marina on Saturday, June 2. The public is welcome. Weigh-in starts at 1:00, but we don’t usually see too much action until approximately 3:00 on through the close of scales at 4:00.
With the reports of big fish already seen this season, there’s a good chance a double digit flounder will be brought in. And since there are additional cash payouts if the fish are brought to weigh-in alive, most of the fish you’ll see at the scales will be released.
Then immediately following weigh-in we’ll be back at Wild Wing Café: eating dinner, sharing drinks and stories, and selling t-shirts and raffle tickets. I’ll buy your dinner if you’re entered in the tournament. And if you’re not in the tournament, then I’ll sell you a dinner ticket and you can hang out with a dynamic crowd of local anglers that create a fun and festive atmosphere every year at awards (I can’t believe they still laugh at my bad jokes—in a way it endears them to me, and in another way it makes me think less of them).
My beautiful wife will be on hand parading around all our kids, including our newest (and last) son. You can help me out and tell her in person that you think fishing should be considered “work” for the Publisher of a fishing newspaper. There’s been a little debate on that subject lately, and I worry that I am losing ground. If you approach Leslie and drop in conversation that you, too, believe it is important for the Publisher to go on regular fishing trips, then I’ll buy you a Sweetwater Brewery or Anheuser Busch product.
Since the Fisherman’s Post crew isn’t allowed to win money in its own events, we won’t be fishing this coming weekend. We wanted to get a fishing fix in this past weekend. Unfortunately, like everyone else we had to cancel plans to go offshore during the holiday weekend thanks to yet another windy weekend.
Not going offshore, though, didn’t mean there wasn’t any fishing to be done. It just meant no offshore fishing. The Hurley family got in a little dock time which saw the boys getting more independent as they grow a little older. They are now regularly maintaining a minnow trap, moving it into the grass on higher tides and back into the deeper water during the lower tides.
The minnows, on request, now get relocated to a bait bucket or livewell, and Owen and James are also keeping me in blue crabs, as their trap has already produced three Hurley dinners.
Fishing hasn’t been on the top of their list, though, with catching bait and crabs needing less patience and imagination. However, even the fishing is taking a more independent turn for the boys, as Monday had them catching a flounder unassisted—cast, hook, reel, and net. Owen’s flounder wasn’t a keeper, but it bested my flounder efforts on the day (nothing caught and nothing released).
As a father, seeing the boys catch a flounder on their own was rewarding, but the bigger pride has been coming from watching their overall love for the water and confidence in themselves grow. Before long, they may be making an argument to a teacher or principal that fishing is “work” and should be considered as an excused absence from school. I’ll agree, and Leslie will explain where I am wrong.
