ENC 1101-B3 & B4: Writing for Discovery

It is 5 a.m. Saturday morning and I just got woke up by my dad. It took me a while to get out of bed since I am not use to waking up as early as was did, but there was a good reason for it. My day and I along with one of his friends and his son where in a fishing tournament this weekend. So in order to get everything loaded onto the boat and make the check out time we had to get up early.

The fishing tournament was a two day kingfish tournament. There was 171 boats already entered into it and the 1st place prize was a $15,000 dollar motor plus another $6,000 in cash.

On the way down to pick up our friend Steve and his son Brian who my dad has know for a long time and they both have fished with us before in some tournaments. So we opened up the motors and took off at 50 m.p.h. and with a nice cool breeze blowing in our face we could tell that it was going to be a great day. Then we started discussing where we would be going for the day.

I said,” Why don’t we go to the place where we hooked up on a good fish but lost it in the last tournament.”
He replied, “ That sounds good to me as long as the seas are good.”

When we got to our friends house they loaded up all of their supply’s and we made sure we had everything. Then we where off to the check out which started at 6:45.

When we got to the check out place near the pass there was about 45 boats lined up waiting to check out. And about a mile down the channel you could see another ten running at full speed to get here. While we were wait to check out we were all checking out some of the big boats.

Then Steve said in amassment, “Look at the one over there.”
“Wow!” Every said together. While looking at the 36ft Yellowfin Center Consul boat that had three 250 h.p. Mercury’s on the back.
I then said,” That thing must go at least 70 m.ph.”
Then Steve said, “Yeah! And it hold 500 gallons of fuel”
After doing some calculations in my head I replied, “That would cost a little over a grand to fill up.”

After observing all of the boat another 10 had arrived. By then it was time to check out. Once the tournament director said over the V.H.F. that it was time all the boats got into a single file line and started heading out showing their boat number. Then after we showed our we turned the bow to point straight out the pass.

Once we cleared the pass we opened up the motor and took off to our fishing sport 20 miles due west. And according to the GPS it was going to take us about 45 minutes to get there running at 35 m.p.h.

When we arrived to our spot everyone looked pleased to have arrived so they can relax from the occasional big waves that made the trip a little bumpy and a little wet. But when we cam to a stop everyone started moving around and getting all the equipment out and ready to fish.

Then after we had got all of the baits out is when we all started relaxing because we knew we might have to wait a while for a fish to hit. But within 5 minutes a fish hit and I picked up the reel and started reeling it in. When it got close to the boat we could all tell it was small so we let it go. Then we put all of the bait back out and started waiting and eating.

Around 1 p.m. my dad say out loud to everyone, “Since we have not had a hit in the past 4 hrs. I think we should think about moving.”
Then I replied , “ Let’s give this place 30 more minutes.”,

Everyone agreed that we would give it 30 more minutes. Then at 1:05 a fish hit, and at first it was not pulling off a lot of line. So I picked the reel up and told everyone to leave the other lines out because it thought it was another small one. Then all of the sudden the reel starts screaming, the fish pulled off 200 yard of line in 10 seconds. That is when everyone’s instincts kicked in. They all started grabbing reels and getting the lines in.

I yelled to my dad who was driving, “Hurry up! We are going to have to chase the fish.” So he started the motor and we started chasing it. In about 30 seconds I had got most of the line back. So then we had to start wearing the fish out. Then 10 minutes later it got close but none of us could see if it was big or not or even if it was a King. Then it took off again and we had to follow it so I could get some line back.

Then Steve said,” Hand me the Gaff I think it is getting close.” By then 30 minutes had already past and everyone was very excited to see the fish. When they did they all got very quite because they knew it was a big one. But I could not see it and they did not tell me. Then when it got close enough to gaff Steve gaffed it and pulled it on the boat. Once it hit the deck everyone started yelling in joy knowing that this fish would bring them money.

Once everyone calmed down a little bit we all noticed that once the fish was in the boat the hooks fell out. So that made everyone feel a little scared and relieved at the same time.

Then we all put everything up and headed off to the weigh in. Once we got there we saw that there was a 35.20 lbs. fish already weighed in and in 1st place. And we did not know the weight of our fish but we did know it was somewhere between 30-35 lbs. After bringing up the fish and putting it on the scale everyone in the stands got quite. At first the scale read 34 lbs. but once it settled down it weighed 35.44 lbs.

When saw that we all start hi fiveing each other since we where in first. Then came the most nervous part of the next two days. Since we were the 3rd boat to weigh in we had the watch 71 other boats weigh in their fish not know which one would be the one to knock us down to 2nd. Fortunately we held on to first though the 1st day.
On the second day we decided since we were in 1st we would only fish a little while since we did not want to get beat up by the waves. After fishing we went back to the weigh in and watch another 40 boats come in. Then when the day was over we where the top boat on the entire tournament and won the grand prize.