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Gittinerdone

Another epic tale of the Ghostrider

I started out late Friday, wind forecast was 10-15, but I was gonna go over to Apalachicola to see if I could find a redfish for the Howell Tournament Saturday. I arrived at the city ramp to find a nice stiff breeze; I decided to ride over to the island to see if it looked any better. I made it to the dirt ramp and the water looked real dirty, but I launched and headed west.

I stopped where me and Tincan had found a few reds a few weeks ago...I didn't see any and moved on down the bank. The bay was about slick now (as the forecast predicted, more on this later ) so I motored to another spot we had found. I get up on my perch and immediately see a few fish, so I get the fly rod out. I am easing down the bank and see a swirl, then a fish; I make the cast, strip and bingo, ezpz redfish in the boat.

I see enough redfish that I should probably leave and not harass them and come back tomorrow to try and catch a tournament winner.

Total of the day was 5 redfish to 23", one on the fly.

Birddog arrives at my house for us to make the trip to Beacon Hill. Seems BD forgot our conversation about staying at Beason Hill, but we worked it out.

Tournament Day:

We leave Beacon Hill early and head to Apalachicola, after a few stops at the store for supplies and some deposits we are ready. We wait for enough lite to launch at the city marina. The wind is blowing a good clip out of the northeast. I check NOAA on my phone and it says 10-15 and it will decrease in the afternoon, just like yesterday I think.

We launch and ease out the boat basin...We head out to our first spot of the day. We get within a 1/2 mile of the destination and the seas were a little sporty. We are going with the wind and a wave or two washes over the bow. A little water in the floor...I think if another one washes over, I need to open my floor drain valve. About that time the bottom of the ocean falls from beneath the boat. We have about a foot and a half of water in the bottom of my boat. I tell BD to open the drain in a rather excitable voice…He’s like what drain…I say in the back hatch…he dives in and can’t locate the valve….I dive in and open the valve…The whole time we are surfing a good three foot plus wave, the boat is in a pocket….reminiscent of a perfect storm…I throttle forward and the wave was like chasing us…I finally pull away and we make it to shallower water.

We are needless to say a little rattled after that….the wind is kicked and we are more or less trapped between Sikes Cut and West Pass for the rest of the morning. I remember Barhopr was caught over there once, so I called him…We discuss strategy…Strategy was to hope the wind laid at slack tide and cross west pass.

During all this we managed to catch several reds, biggest was 23â€

Admit it, BB's boat would have been nice.

CairoTrout wrote:Admit it, BB's boat would have been nice.

Yes

I was beginning to worry about you guys when you called and said "... we need an escape route". Look at the bright side thru all that bad weather you still boated a few fish!
“I wish Barhopr was here he would put a cap in all the big waves.â€

You know you are always toting

thats just how we roll up in the "229" glad ya'll made it in.....you left out part of your normal post...." nothing broke "

I think his pride might have been broken when Robbie said we are gonna die.

Barhopr wrote:you left out part of your normal post...." nothing broke "

I had a two year old Bass Pro drive on rust in too...some something did break.

CairoTrout wrote:I think his pride might have been broken when Robbie said we are gonna die.

Nope, I was in agreeance

Helluva day Chalk wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Don't forget these quotes....

..If we're gonna die, let's get it over with.

and

Was that a tripletail, do you want to turn around?

you should find the egghead that forecast and continued to report 9mph ENE, and consider knocking a few of his fronts out.

I'm glad you guys didn't die, that would have been a bummer to such a nice weekend.

Just remembered 1 other quote, "Damn we're about to die and Mills is sending me text messages".

Sounds like a true bonding experience. It would have been bad had we lost both BD and Chalk. On the flip side, there would be a lot more fish in the sea for the rest of us!!

Thats just wrong.