Poor Girls Tournament - Islamorada

A few weeks ago my fiance set off for The Keys with a few of her girlfriends to fish the Poor Girls Sailfish Tournament in Islamorada. The girls love it down there. They all fish and dive, and they make the trip a few times every year to fish some of the ladies dolphin tournaments together. In 9 years they've never missed a mini-season either. 

I'll admit I'm always a little jealous when they go and I don't. After all, who doesn't love the Keys? Nonetheless, it's always explained to me that these are 'girls trips'. How's that for a role reversal, guys?  The women leaving us to go fishing! I think it's great, and in reality I'm very fortunate to have a better half who loves the Florida outdoors just as much if not more than I do. 

The girls have always done well down there and have many photos to prove it, not to mention a cache of gift certificates and prizes from placing in previous tournaments. 

Just take a look at this catch.  It certainly paid a few dividends at the scale.

This time though, it was sailfish, and the fishing proved to be  hot and cold. Prefishing the day before the tournament, conditions were ideal. The wind was right and the game was on with multiple sails landed.  But the girls got in town that night and how quick things can change. Tournament Day saw shifting winds that made for tough fishing. We've all had them...one of those days where it just wasn't happening and you knew you'd have to get lucky, real lucky.

They gave it a go and got an early start...

 They were baited up right and were ready to go...

With the conditions opportunities were few and far between but the crew worked hard to get them a soild run on 2 baits. Tough luck though--they couldn't stay hooked up on either fish, but we all know, that's fishing. With a little different luck here and there this would have been an all together different story with the girls besting out all the other boats in the Tournament. 

Whether it's the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat...either way you still have to clean the boat at the end of the day.

Have fun girls!  That's a pretty big boat.