Tidelines – October 27, 2011
Tony Del, my regular fishing buddy, and I won the red drum division of a fishing tournament this past weekend. When I called my wife from awards to share the good news, one of her first questions was a sensible one, “How much did you win?”
With a smile she could feel through the phone, I replied, “We didn’t win a dollar, and I couldn’t be happier.”
The tournament was the 1st annual Fish for a Friend, held out of Inlet Watch Marina as a fundraiser for the Armstrong family, a popular couple in the local fishing community that has suddenly found themselves battling cancer (and the mounting doctor bills that come from struggling with this disease).
Fisherman’s Post has a strong history of covering fishing tournaments, but we felt it more important to participate in this event rather than cover it with a standard article. Mark and Leslie Armstrong have been participating in Fisherman’s Post events—Spring Inshore Challenge and NC Flatfish—for years, so with Max out of town and Eddie hosting the Big Buddy/Little Buddy surf fishing day down at Fort Fisher, it was up to Tony and I to represent Fisherman’s Post (and A&M Screenprinting, Tony’s company).
Our 26.5” red drum came about 9:00 in the morning on the south side of Masonboro’s north jetty on a live menhaden.
Our plan before the day started was to have fun first and be competitive second, and that tournament-quality drum caught early in the morning quickly brought good times together with a desire to contend.
That 6.45 lb. red drum in the boat also gave us an even bigger excuse to relax and do some fun fishing the rest of the day. We spent a good portion of the morning casting for speckled trout (not even a division in the tournament, as other than red drum the only other division was flounder), and then went off the beach just after noon in search of false albacore.
We had no luck with either species, so we headed to Inlet Watch with our red drum alive and healthy in the livewell, weighed in way before the rest of the boats, and then headed the boat home to clean up for awards, not knowing how well the fish would place.
There was no prize money for this tournament, as all the money raised went directly to the Armstrong family. They had gift prizes for the top three in both the flounder and red drum division, and they divvied up these prizes to all the winners before Tony and I could get back to awards.
Since Tony and I weren’t present, we didn’t get to choose our prize. However, the prize selected for us was perfect. And like I said earlier in Tidelines, we couldn’t have been happier. Joel, of Saltwater Marine and one of the biggest driving forces behind this event, told Tony and I that we had won a free charter. We hadn’t won just any free charter, though. We had won a free charter with Capt. Mark Armstrong, of Reaction Charters, whose wife Leslie was the reason for the hundred or so people that were in attendance that evening eating food, having drinks, buying raffle tickets, and listening to live music compliments of the Daniel Parrish Band.
Tony and I have plenty of stuff already, so a future fishing trip with Mark not only was the perfect prize for us (plus it would be hard to split a custom rod between two people), but it also made us feel closer to the strong and loving saltwater family that were rallying around the Armstrongs that night.
That love and closeness may have to be put on hold on the day of the charter with Mark, though, when I tell him that I don’t plan to tie a rig or bait a hook all day, and I expect all our fish at the end of the trip to be cleaned and bagged.
