Met my fishing partners at 4:30 and headed to Capt Mike's to register folks. I was suprised to show up at 5:14 and already see folks in the parking lot. Obviously the prior month's weather had folks chomping at the bit. I think we 18 teams signed up by the time we left at 5:45 and headed for Econfina. At the mouth of the river we were met the foul smell and dead fish previously reported. We tried fishing east of Econfina all the way to Rock Island and saw much of the same. By 9:00 we hadn't seen a trout and decided to head west. We finally passed a cut in the water and noticed fewer dead fish in the water. We set up a drift over some nice bottom in the slightly cleaner water and started catching ladies, mackerel, blues, sharks, etc, but still no trout. Finally Matt hooks something substantial and claims tarpoon. I was almost believing him after hooking a 150# fish last month, but then I set the hook on a hawg that doesn't even flinch. Redfish....
We caught a few of these guys including a 26 3/4" side pot winner that I thought would weigh more than it did. Knowing we needed trout bad we slid over to the east flats in hopes the water was even better over there. We managed more trash fish and 1.8# flounder, but still no trout. Returned to weigh in to see only 9 teams had fish and only 2 teams had limits. Appears most of the fish caught were well to the west of where we fished.
Certainly and interesting tournament, and I really want to hear from the FWC what they think has killed the fish. I like MuleTrainGa's theory more than my own. Everything certainly smelled like Fenholloway in summer, and I can't help but fear that a rentention pound around Buckeye or likes may be at the core. I certainly don't have any info to support that theory, but we should know soon enough.
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.
