South Shore Anglers Trout Tournament

3-20-2010

Well, the weather was finally nice for change; every South Shore Anglers tournament I have fished, the weather was nasty-just plain bad. This past Saturday, my fishing buddies and I were greeted with sunshine and southwest winds around ten miles an hour. Compared to the cold, windy, twenty knot days this winter has brought us, that alone had us excited to fish the Tournament.

First off, let me give you some background info on the South Shore Anglers. Basically, they are just another fishing club; I won’t lie and tell you otherwise. The monthly meetings are like most others and the basic structure is not unlike most clubs. Seminars are held with notable captains in the area, not an uncommon occurrence.

Attending fishing club meetings is really not on the top of my priority list, but I like this bunch of guys, especially Tiger and Steve Hoffman, the club organizers, and for me, the club has a few advantages over others in the area. First of all the club is very laid back. Next, of course, they are based out of the South Shore of Tampa Bay, and the meetings are held very close to my house; that’s a plus. Another reason I attend SSA meetings as often as possible, is the fact that SSA is non-profit, and the entire tournament entry fee’s go to local charities or other non-profit organizations, some even local to my town. This is very important to me, the ability to have fun while giving back to the community.

Normally, this was the time of year for the annual snook tournament, but it was wisely changed to a trout tournament, as we all know what happened to our snook population from the bad winter freeze.

 A trout tournament seemed cool, as I had them patterned down well, and I knew where they would be.

So off we went at safe light, my friend Rich, Dick, and I headed out of Cockroach Bay in search of the biggest trout possible. Way too early for me, as I was just getting used to the time change. I like my sleep.

The day started slow. A trout here, a trout there. No real bruisers, nothing over sixteen inches. We drifted the flats for hours over grass and sand bottom and continued this pattern. My plan was to wait for the minor solunar, and stake out a particular spot. I knew the bite would be on; my hope was that the fish there would be large enough so I could take home some sort of free goodies.

Well, as the minor approached, and the boat was anchored properly, the dinner bell rang. Using a combination of live shrimp and various jigs, around forty trout were boated with about twenty missed hooksets, in a little less than an hour. The thing was, these trout were in the range from fourteen to seventeen inches. Not exactly something to write home about but at least we had a few photo’s for the weigh in. 

The bite died after the minor, we were worn out and hungry, so next up was the thirty minute wait to pull the boat out of the water at CRB. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing we decided to pack it up when we did, or we would have been late to the festivities. Overall we all did ok, with Rich getting a seventeen inch trout that took fourth place, myself getting a sixteen incher, and Dick a fifteen. Not great by any means but the winner of the tournament won with an eighteen inch trout, go figure. All in all a fun day on the water, and a good feeling that we were all fishing for something other than a fillet.