| Tuesday
was a different story.
It was the same media boat but crewed by
Captain Bob Hodge and his two daughters, Lauren and
Elizabeth. It was the same Pass but much heavier seas
running that kept most of the smaller, and
non-tournament, boats inside the harbor. At times even
the big Hatteras rolled and pitched like a mechanical
bull and moving around required lurching from handhold
to hand-hold.
Most of the excitement Monday came from
the periodic announcements of captain 's
prizes. Boat after boat won either a bottle of rum with
2 liters of Coke or a box of cigars or
the notable sausage from Dixie Hollin and even more
popular $25 gift certificates from Bn 'T
Liquor. Radio chatter concerned who won what and trades
were negotiated.
Tuesday's
radio talk was brief and to the point.
"Sudden
Impact, fish on!"
"Spook, fish
on!" "Sundown,
fish on!"
"Boca Blue,
fish on!" During
the day there were a number of times when two, three or
four boats had fish on at the same time. |
There
were also the calls for released fish and lost fish.
That’s
the fun of fishing.
Throughout the day the fleet was busy
with boat traffic and hooked fish. There is constant
motion with some boats on a drift and others motoring
back to start a new drift. As the boats drifted through
the pass the tarpon were showing up on fishfinders as
stacks of large bodies extending in a mass twenty to
thirty feet thick as they held position in Boca Grande
and Coast Guard holes facing the tide.
The Bite Was
On!
Once the bite started a captain remarked
that if he had drifted his bait 15-20 feet into the
holding fish without a take, he felt something was
wrong. The bite was on and it was
exciting just to be out there.
There were 13 total
tarpon caught, 6 were
|
released without being weighed and 7
were weighed. Other species of fish were hooked but
released without ceremony. No one wanted to waste time
with cobia when tournament positions were at stake. Many
other tarpon were hooked but escaped. The last hookup
belonged to the Julie Jean. At 5:50p.m. "fish
on" was
called and the Julie Jean started following this fish
into the gulf. The rest of the fishing fleet reeled up
and headed home at 6 but Julie Jean was tight to a
tarpon until about 6:15 when the line went slack. That's
fishing.
All indications are that the guides will
be planning to repeat next year. Captain Cappy Joiner
expressed tremendous satisfaction with this tournament
and especially the tireless efforts of more than 25
volunteers who worked hard to make it happen.
2005
WRTT Gear
Now
Available
The new 2005 World 's
Richest Tarpon Tournament t-shirts, hats and posters
have arrived and are on sale now at the Boca Grande Area
Chamber of Commerce office, located in Uncle Henry's
Courtyard Plaza. The t-shirts are emblazoned with a logo
created by local artist Larry Anderson.
|
