NFGFC Tournament - Keaton/Econfina 3-7-09
Posted: March 8th, 2009, 8:41 am
The plan was to get off early Friday and head to Keaton the day before the tourney. On thing after another with work found me getting home at 8:30pm 
Decided to just go to Keaton early in the a.m. and go from there. Me and Avery left the house at 4:00am and headed for Keaton to sign in. We dodged deer in the fog all the way down 27. Got to Keaton around 5:30am and met the fellas at the marina to sign in. After paying our entry fee, big redfish pot and $25 2nd place trout $$$, we hit the road back to Econfina. Two reasons for this: The boat was at Econfina and we had been catching some NICE fish there over the past 2 weeks. Gettng to Econfina is where the fun started. We get to 98 & 27 in Perry to find the road blocked by FHP. No one allowed to pass due to poor visibility from the smoke and fog We are turned away and head towards Lamont. Get up there and same thing....no entry to 98. So, we take it all the way to 59 and head down to 98. Get there and you guessed it.....road shut down. We ride down to the lighthouse at St. Marks to look for another buddy who is supposed to be fishing to try and get out with him. We get there and the lighthouse pool looks like a mudhole with about 10 boats waiting to launch. We leave there and just decide to head back towards Econfina down 98. We get back to the road block to see 2 trucks, with boats in tow, just go right through the signs in the road. We follow. All the way down 98, the visibility is FINE Now I'm really starting to get tweaked!! We finally make it down to Econfna to find 447 boats waiting to launch in shallow water. I get ahold of another buddy on the radio and he informs me that he is tearing up the trout in one of our spots. I can't get to him and he doesn't want to leave the fish and fight with the crowd to come back in. So, we just decide to wait. While waiting, we meet Sundown waiting to launch his boat. We have a nice conversation and he offers to take us out to meet my buddy since he is about to launch. Me and Avery load our gear into his boat and help him launch his boat. We get out and finally a find my buddy in the river with a few other boats. We transfer our gear and wish Sundown the best on his day of red fishing 
We get situated and then I realize I left my tackle box in Sundown's boat. We run out the river and find him at the mouth. I get my tackle box and me move on....again. We run over to our first spot and start slaying the trout. Numerous 17-18 inchers and fat! We boat 12 keeper trout but none over 20". We try to boat a few of the nice redfish running around us, but only manage a few around 18". With time getting away from us, we decide to run over to another spot that has also produced nice fish lately. We get there and shut down to start a drift towards the creek mouth and bars. First cast is a nice 18" trout Then a few more. Then I toss next to the bar we are approaching and BAMMM!!!!!.....big fish. I can't get the fish to surface in the running tide and my buddy swears it's a bluefish. I tell him that he is full of shee an then the fish comes to the top and splashes. It's a HUGE trout measuring just over 26" and heavy. I decide at this point that we have our fish to head back to Keaton for the weigh in. We start getting the boat packed up and then my heart sinks......NO CAR KEYS!!!! We search all over the boat....nothing. We come back in and try finding Sundown on the radio. No luck. We look high and low but never find the keys. So, I pack up my stuff and decide to leave the car at Econfina and head back to town with my buddy. I get in later and get a phone call from TK telling me of his win and I congrat him
To summarize: Left the house at 4:00am -- Drove 210 miles from Tally to Keaton to BFE to St. Marks and back to Econfina where my car sits this morning -- 4.5 hours of driving just to fish -- a nice limit of trout that we didn't get to weigh in -- TK taking all my $$$ -- Lost car keys with no spare found either -- Trip back to Econfina today to either tow the car back or push it into the river and call it a day -- and just being worn out!!!! Other than that, a great day on the water and we made it back home in one piece in a different vehicle than we left in Can't wait till next month's tourney 
Congrats to all the winners....sounds like there was a nice haul pulled from Keaton 
Decided to just go to Keaton early in the a.m. and go from there. Me and Avery left the house at 4:00am and headed for Keaton to sign in. We dodged deer in the fog all the way down 27. Got to Keaton around 5:30am and met the fellas at the marina to sign in. After paying our entry fee, big redfish pot and $25 2nd place trout $$$, we hit the road back to Econfina. Two reasons for this: The boat was at Econfina and we had been catching some NICE fish there over the past 2 weeks. Gettng to Econfina is where the fun started. We get to 98 & 27 in Perry to find the road blocked by FHP. No one allowed to pass due to poor visibility from the smoke and fog We are turned away and head towards Lamont. Get up there and same thing....no entry to 98. So, we take it all the way to 59 and head down to 98. Get there and you guessed it.....road shut down. We ride down to the lighthouse at St. Marks to look for another buddy who is supposed to be fishing to try and get out with him. We get there and the lighthouse pool looks like a mudhole with about 10 boats waiting to launch. We leave there and just decide to head back towards Econfina down 98. We get back to the road block to see 2 trucks, with boats in tow, just go right through the signs in the road. We follow. All the way down 98, the visibility is FINE Now I'm really starting to get tweaked!! We finally make it down to Econfna to find 447 boats waiting to launch in shallow water. I get ahold of another buddy on the radio and he informs me that he is tearing up the trout in one of our spots. I can't get to him and he doesn't want to leave the fish and fight with the crowd to come back in. So, we just decide to wait. While waiting, we meet Sundown waiting to launch his boat. We have a nice conversation and he offers to take us out to meet my buddy since he is about to launch. Me and Avery load our gear into his boat and help him launch his boat. We get out and finally a find my buddy in the river with a few other boats. We transfer our gear and wish Sundown the best on his day of red fishing We get situated and then I realize I left my tackle box in Sundown's boat. We run out the river and find him at the mouth. I get my tackle box and me move on....again. We run over to our first spot and start slaying the trout. Numerous 17-18 inchers and fat! We boat 12 keeper trout but none over 20". We try to boat a few of the nice redfish running around us, but only manage a few around 18". With time getting away from us, we decide to run over to another spot that has also produced nice fish lately. We get there and shut down to start a drift towards the creek mouth and bars. First cast is a nice 18" trout Then a few more. Then I toss next to the bar we are approaching and BAMMM!!!!!.....big fish. I can't get the fish to surface in the running tide and my buddy swears it's a bluefish. I tell him that he is full of shee an then the fish comes to the top and splashes. It's a HUGE trout measuring just over 26" and heavy. I decide at this point that we have our fish to head back to Keaton for the weigh in. We start getting the boat packed up and then my heart sinks......NO CAR KEYS!!!! We search all over the boat....nothing. We come back in and try finding Sundown on the radio. No luck. We look high and low but never find the keys. So, I pack up my stuff and decide to leave the car at Econfina and head back to town with my buddy. I get in later and get a phone call from TK telling me of his win and I congrat him To summarize: Left the house at 4:00am -- Drove 210 miles from Tally to Keaton to BFE to St. Marks and back to Econfina where my car sits this morning -- 4.5 hours of driving just to fish -- a nice limit of trout that we didn't get to weigh in -- TK taking all my $$$ -- Lost car keys with no spare found either -- Trip back to Econfina today to either tow the car back or push it into the river and call it a day -- and just being worn out!!!! Other than that, a great day on the water and we made it back home in one piece in a different vehicle than we left in
Can't wait till next month's tourney Congrats to all the winners....sounds like there was a nice haul pulled from Keaton
Holy crap! Now that's an adventure. You sure know how to make the day exciting, Tom. 
Mr. Fowler found them on top of one of the yellow poles right there at the launch site. Don't know how we missed 'em. I had a nice chat with Mr. Fowler yesterday morning while we were waiting to launch so he knew who I was when he found the keys this morning. He said that when he saw my car down there late last night when he made his rounds, he knew something was up. He was gonna call me today if I didn't show up to catch some more of those big trout we had yesterday. Nice guy for a Yankee and one of my better friends now 
). The trout were really liking the shrimp today... got so tired of catching 'em on shrimp, Sharkman started throwing flies at them and I tried random jigs and some smaller topwaters just to make it a bit more challenging 
