We sat around waiting on partner #1 to show up and ended up in the house watching T.V. for a while. Partner #1 finally showed about 7:00 with NO fishing equipment at all. Luckily I had several spare reels ready so as I loaded the extra reels in the boat partner's1+2 worked together to load all the other items that partner #1 was supposed to bring. Turns out he forgot the lunch and the drinks, and everything else he was supposed to bring except for the beer. After what seemed like 30 min. of transferring beer to every cooler, cuddy, and nook in the boat, we were finally able to depart.
First store we saw I was asked to pull over for some breakfast. I'm a good sport and needed something for lunch later so I pulled over to fuel up and get supplies. Back on the road finally, to the next store for bait at the Panacea Wal-Mart. As I'm buying shrimp I notice partner#1 purchasing more beer. I forgot to mention that partner #1 was drinking beer as soon as he got to my house, and this got partner #2 started at the same time. Finally make it to the landing surprisingly only a few minutes after blast off and launched the boat.
Ran straight across the mouth to the oysters in front of bald point hoping to find some action but were not rewarded. After passing out beers to the crew we decided to ease up to a creek nearby to see if anything was going on and quickly found out that there was'nt. We had to get out of the boat three times already to shove her off of the bars that we could'nt see until we were firmly aground. We decided to idle back out to safe water so we could run around to Piney island. My partners enjoyed this quality drinking time and took full advantage of it. Made the channel and got on a slow plane and man was it rough. This mildly curtailed the drinking until we got around the point and headed to the island. We pulled up on a likely spot and prepared to do some fishing, as soon as the beers were passed around. Fished for a while with out a bite and decided to try some deeper water. Passed out some beers and then started heading out. went about a mile out in deeper water and switched off, passed out more beer and started fishing. partner #2 picked up a ladyfish and got the moral up a bit. Passed out a few beers to celebrate and commenced fishing. The bite was slow and the wind slacked a bit so I decided to run over to the St.Marks area to try and drum up a bite. Passed out some beers and headed east. Got a little ways over and the motor started sounding like it was cutting out so I eased off to see what was up. Turns out we were hitting bottom
. I had heard of the reef out of Shell Point but had never been to it and did not realize it was so shallow. I stood up to see we were surrounded as far as I could see in every direction by the shallows. I decided we could take advantage of the situation and see if we could boat us a Stingray. As I readied my castnet they passed out more beers and settled in the cockpit to idle me around. I got up on the bow and spotted a Stinger in no time flat. A perfectly placed cast and I had him in the middle of the net, only to watch him swim under the lead lines to freedom. This happened more times than I care to elaborate on and finally after several more beers and contemplation, we decided to take a different approach. The next Stinger I saw, I threw the net over him and let go of the rope, as partner's 1+2 jumped out of the boat armed with my boat Pole and a dip net. I got the boat stuck so I could join in the fray. As I was getting out, Partner #1 was hollering for something to get him up with 'cause partner #2 had him pinned down with the boat pole. I threw them my gaff and watched as partner #1 attempted several times to gaff the stingray, when suddenly it looked like they turned into coal walkers. Apparently the stinger got free and was darting all around there feet and they could'nt see him with all the stirred up water. They hopscotched around until they got a safe distance from the net and let the water settle, to find that the @%## had gotten out of the net. We all got back in the boat, passed out more beers and continued on our search. I started downsizing my nets as I got more and more tired of throwing when I found myself tossing my smallest bait net and thinking that this is'nt working. Took a short break and after passing around a few brews got back on the bow with my biggest mullet net again. Now we were heading straight into the wind and I was already exhausted and ready to give up when I decided to take one more shot at it. I threw the net with everything I had left(which wasn't much). The net fell terribly short just clearing the bow actually, and resembled a tangled up ball of fence wire more than an open net, when it hit the water. I started cussing and yanking the net back towards the boat when I realized that somehow the stupid thing must have darted into the net somehow and gotten himself hung up. We went strait to the cooler with him and passed around more brews to celebrate. I told partner #2 to idle us towards open water and I would try for a pinfish. The very next cast had a confused little pinfish flopping around on the bow. Suddenly everything was looking up, and we passed around a few more celebratory brews. We went out over the reef and were rewarded with absolutely nothing but a bunch of waves over the bow 'cause it had gotten really rough again. We eased back in towards Piney island to escape the rough water and picked up a Leroy. This little guy wasn't good for any points so he became shark bait. I deployed him on a wire leader and something started chewing on him as soon as he hit the water but whatever it was it was to small to take the hook. We decided to move to a different location and realized that a Stockwell, I mean a catfish had hooked himself on a shrimp we had floating behind the boat. Now we were on FIRE, I mean smokin hot. After passing out the beers we moved over a little ways and re deployed what was now a leroy crumb and started fishing again. Suddenly we were getting bit left and right but every single fish turned out to be a ladyfish. Then it happened, something grabbed the Leroy crumb and started leaving town. I set the hook and it set deep, and I was able to ski a 2ft shark all the way to the boat. Now we had our "Trash Can Slam" in the cooler and we could settle down and try for any other bonus points we could find. With all the pressure off, my partners could finally settle down and have a few brews while we fished out our remaining minutes of the tournament.
We ended up not catching another fish, but we still were able to take home the prize in the Sponsors division, and I think we were 4th overall(one out of the money).
I had a great time, and every boat made it in safe . My hats off to Beerfish and the other fellows who put on this interesting, and different tournament.
F.Y.I. I didn't partake in the mass quantities of ale consumed on my vessel. I was the D.D. for the crew so that they could arrive safely back home, but man, did those cats go through some beer. I'm still shoveling cans out of my bilge area
Sorry for the long read, Fish Masterson
An excellent report 
