- City
- Raleigh
- State
- NC
No matter how much planning you do for a fishing tournament there are at least two things you have no control over. The weather and the fishing. 
Several of us met for breakfast Friday morning including K9Reno who drove from Indiana and AstroDiver who came up from Atlanta. We were bemoaning the weather forecasts at that point that were calling for small craft advisories on Saturday, a long way from the 2-3 foot seas we'd seen forecast earlier in the week. By 7PM Friday evening when everyone arrived to register and enjoy a great pig pickin and fried chicken dinner (thanks Portside Marina and Triumph!), the decisino was made to cancel the offshore King Mackerel division and open a Flounder division instead. Well many of us came prepared to fish for King Mackerel, so obviously we were disappointed. My team decided to troll spoons all morning for Spanish Mackerel as did several others, but many opted for the flounder too. We waited a bit on Saturday morning, heading out the Beaufort inlet around 7AM. It was a great morning to break in my 215 Chaos and electronics. We had some good 5-6 footers in the inlet at times and had a short rainstorm blow through. The radar picked it up and showed it moving behind us so we kept trolling out the inlet till it passed then worked our way back in. We tried fishing along the beach, in/out the inlet, behind Shackelford Banks, etc. but the NCangler team got skunked! 
It turned out to be a pretty day on the water, although a bit rough at times. No one chummed on our boat so that was good. 
When we got back in for the checkin it was apparent that fishing was not good on Saturday as only three boats caught anything that I am aware of. At the awards meeting one of the Triumph factory boat teams that won about $600 gave their award back to be raffled among the entrants and families present. We had lots of great stuff to give away in addition to prize money including multiple $100 gift certificates to West Marine and Merritt Marine, fishing rod/reel combos for kids present, hats, jackets, t-shirts, etc. And I have to say that the kids present really racked up!
I wish the fishing and the conditions had been better, especially for those driving so far. But it was great to see you all and I hope everyone had a good time. Thanks for coming and thanks to Triumph Boats, Portside Marina and Merritt Marine for their support of the event!
I'll post pictures when I get home and hope some others have photos too. There wont' be many that include fish though.
Several of us met for breakfast Friday morning including K9Reno who drove from Indiana and AstroDiver who came up from Atlanta. We were bemoaning the weather forecasts at that point that were calling for small craft advisories on Saturday, a long way from the 2-3 foot seas we'd seen forecast earlier in the week. By 7PM Friday evening when everyone arrived to register and enjoy a great pig pickin and fried chicken dinner (thanks Portside Marina and Triumph!), the decisino was made to cancel the offshore King Mackerel division and open a Flounder division instead. Well many of us came prepared to fish for King Mackerel, so obviously we were disappointed. My team decided to troll spoons all morning for Spanish Mackerel as did several others, but many opted for the flounder too. We waited a bit on Saturday morning, heading out the Beaufort inlet around 7AM. It was a great morning to break in my 215 Chaos and electronics. We had some good 5-6 footers in the inlet at times and had a short rainstorm blow through. The radar picked it up and showed it moving behind us so we kept trolling out the inlet till it passed then worked our way back in. We tried fishing along the beach, in/out the inlet, behind Shackelford Banks, etc. but the NCangler team got skunked! It turned out to be a pretty day on the water, although a bit rough at times. No one chummed on our boat so that was good. When we got back in for the checkin it was apparent that fishing was not good on Saturday as only three boats caught anything that I am aware of. At the awards meeting one of the Triumph factory boat teams that won about $600 gave their award back to be raffled among the entrants and families present. We had lots of great stuff to give away in addition to prize money including multiple $100 gift certificates to West Marine and Merritt Marine, fishing rod/reel combos for kids present, hats, jackets, t-shirts, etc. And I have to say that the kids present really racked up!
I wish the fishing and the conditions had been better, especially for those driving so far. But it was great to see you all and I hope everyone had a good time. Thanks for coming and thanks to Triumph Boats, Portside Marina and Merritt Marine for their support of the event!
I'll post pictures when I get home and hope some others have photos too. There wont' be many that include fish though.
Smooth as glass, wind changed from 15-25 knots out of the SW to next to nothing out of the N. I spent the day with my family and before leaving this afternoon watched a boat come in where we were staying that had about 7 nice dolphins and about a 40 lb. King Mackerel. 
