Tidelines – October 25, 2012
The results have been posted and the enclosed trailer has been unpacked one last time for 2012, as the Fisherman’s Post crew hosted their final tournament of the year this past weekend, the Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge. And in a year where our participant numbers were down slightly on our “boat” events—the Inshore Tournament Trail and the NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic—such was not the case with surf fishing where a record 400+ anglers signed up this year to enjoy 36 hours of round-the-clock fishing.
The weather was beautiful. The fishing was average. And everyone was in a great mood for Sunday’s catered lunch and awards ceremony where we handed out over $18,000 in prize money before heading home for a hot shower and a good night’s rest.
I think it was back in late May that I first starting saying, “I think I’m almost on top of my workload and things will slow down for me next week.” I’ve been saying that same phrase every week since, and it hasn’t been true yet. Perhaps saying it now in Tidelines will finally make it an accurate and proper statement.
Even as I now flirt with the idea that life will slow down, though, I find myself needing to start work in earnest on the 2013 Fisherman’s Post Saltwater Fishing Schools. Since we’re adding a third school this year (in addition to the long-running Wilmington and Morehead schools in February, we will also be offering a Greenville, NC, school in early March), I suspect my weekly planner might be loaded with just a few more commitments before the “slow down.”
In business, however, I’d have to say that busy is better than the alternative.
No amount of commitments were going to keep Team Fisherman’s Post from the 2013 CCA Inside & Out Tournament, as the event served this year as a fundraiser for Capt. Charles Brown. The weekend played our perfectly, providing us with everything we like about fishing tournaments: time together with friends and a fishing adventure that leaves us with memories and a story to tell.
The Fisherman’s Post team was joined in this event by longtime friend Capt. Rob Koraly, of Sandbar Safari Charters out of Emerald Isle, and the weekend adventure started on Friday with a quick run to New Bern for a new trolling motor remote, a captains’ meeting located on the water and featuring a low country boil (in spite of cancer treatments, Charlie still has a healthy appetite for shrimp), grocery store runs, a final stop at Dudley’s Marina for fishing supplies, late night livewell repairs, and an even later night session of “rig tying.”
Saturday’s fishing was healthy but not stellar (while we accounted for an inshore slam four times over, none of the fish except one red drum had any real size to it), so the highlight of the day would have to be loading up our live 5.0 lb. red drum in a cooler with a bubble machine, placing that cooler in the back of our Ford Explorer, and then driving that cooler and live red drum to Beaufort to be weighed-in and released.
We weren’t the big winners of the tournament, as that honor went to Lee and Elwood Padrick (winners of the Inside Division) and Team Kelly B (winners of the Out Division). Koraly did manage to lead Team Fisherman’s Post to a couple of victories: Biggest Red TWT and Most Reds TWT. Team Fisherman’s Post enjoys getting a paycheck from a fishing tournament as much as anyone, but for this event what we really enjoyed was winning some of CCA’s money and then donating it back to Charlie.
And now it’s time to make some more fishing memories. The Fisherman’s Post boat has been cleaned up (thank you, Ashley, of AC Boat Detailing). It’s been serviced and decked out with LED lighting (thank you, Luke, of Donat Marine Solutions). And I have friends coming in from out of town that I’ve promised to put on some fish.
Maybe I shouldn’t have promised fish? Maybe instead of a detail job and LED lights I should have arranged for Rob Koraly to come to town?
