Whiskers
New member
Team Chumbucket entered the Redmans 2007 Bob Suralik Annual Striper Tournament. The prizes were for the two largest fish in the contest, and the single largest fish would win the Calcutta. It started October 19th and ran until October21 at 1pm. There were about 50 boats entered. Bob LeFever, and I made up the team.The orignal plan was to use the Nan Sea Ann, but the weather forced us to change vessels. They were calling for rain, and stiff winds, the Nan Sea Ann is a center console with no place to get out of the weather. Sea Fever is a walk around with an enclosure, we decide to use the Sea Fever. We left the SeaFever dock at 3 am on the 19th we fished in a down pour all day until 6 pm. We caught several fish, but no stripers. We came home dried our rain geat, and left at 5 am Saturday morning to do it again. Bob and I fished from 5 am until 6pm in a 20-25 mph breeze, then we came in ate supper and was back at the dock at 7pm, at 11:15 pm Bob said "l ets give it another 15 minutes and call it quits" I agreed. 11:25 Bob's Abu Garcia started to sing, he grabbed it and set the hook, after a 10 minute fight he brought a 9.66lb striper to the boat, and I quickly netted it. Earlier in the day I had called contest headquarters and asked how many fish were weighed in. They had one fish at 17.33 lbs. Remember heaviest two fish win, two 4lb fish beat one 20 lb fish. We were perking up, 20 minutes later Bob's Abu Garcia sang again, it took him about 20 minutes to get this fish to the side of the boat, its after midnite and darker than the inside of your hat. I got the net ready, as I felt the fish hit the bottom of the net, I heard Bob yell "shit it broke off". I pulled the net up with a 17.65lb striper in the bottom. We high fived each other, iced the fish down and headed home. We arrived back at the dock about 130 am, we agreed to meet at 5 am at the boat to try to land one or more for insurance. We fished the morning, had a couple misses, and headed in to the weigh in at 1130 am. We arrived at 12:05 to find out there was only one other fish weigned in, by a different boat, a 20.00lb Striper. We still had first place tied up, we went to eat, and kill time until 1 pm when we knew we would undoubtedly be named the 1st place winners. 12:55 we saw a gaggle of people heading for the weight station carrying a cooler. The HI-LO, the boat that weighed in the 17.33lber weighed in a 13lb striper, giving them first place. We wound up with 2 nd place in the tournament worth $400 and 2nd place in the Calcutta which netted us $156. Plus we picked up several nice door prizes. I guess second place is better than a sharp stick to the eye. It was also Team Chumbuckets first entry, and placement. Hopefully we can do more. I learned a lot from Bob, and we had a great time, it was alot of work.
Out of the 50 entered boats, and probably 150 fisherman, there were only 5 Stripers caught by three boats. The fishing was tough, the only ones that landed fish were those that stayed out until the early hours.
Out of the 50 entered boats, and probably 150 fisherman, there were only 5 Stripers caught by three boats. The fishing was tough, the only ones that landed fish were those that stayed out until the early hours.
