So I grabbed the rod I'd been dragging with a shrimp on it and pitched it into the spot where I lost the fish and it never stopped. Boated a 16.5 incher. I got 6 more between 15-16" in the next 15 minutes but only kept 2 because I needed bigger fish for the tourney.I fished for another hour and only got shorts so I decided to move out of the creek since the weather had warmed up. I got out south of pinhook rocks in 5-6 feet of water with clumps of rock grass and switched to a straight jig. Lost 3 good fish at the boat before I landed a 17.5. I then landed 3-4 more right at 15.5 and didn't want to round out a limit with a shorter fish, so I continued to throw back keepers looking for the big bite.
When the wind kicked up about 1:00 I moved back to the area I caught the fish before in the creek and started throwing my chugbug again and on the 3rd cast had a huge strike. This was the one I was looking for. I fought this fish for about 30 seconds never gaining any line, and all of a sudden he came unhooked.
I am now furious as I know I just lost the fish of the tournament, and the 4th good fish I've lost on the chugbug IN ONE DAY. I plan on burning this bait and spreading the ashes on some weeds in the backyard.Well, very discouraged I continued back up the creek back to the big oyster bar. As I drifted through a little trough in between the bar and the point I kept seeing these big blue crabs, so I decided what the hell and grabbed the landing net and scooped up 8 big ones for dinner. I could have had 5 times that many If I'd had my crab net.
Oh well. 30 minutes left in the tourney and I spent the next 20 catching about 8 shorts in the river trying to at least round out my limit. But the 5 fish never came and settled for 5 th place in the tourney. Back at the hill Double D was nice enough to donate his big gag grouper he and Liveline had caught, to the cookout.
Nice shore lunch until the noseeums moved in and ran us off.On the bright side I got to pick crab meat for my son and daughter for an hour before they got full and I got the leftovers. But they were some gooooood leftovers.
Beat what I was doing....Painting 
. We would make a good team 
. I've done my share of "almost catch and release" this year. Last week, I couldn't set a hook to save my life! Naturally, it was on all the big'gins. Glad to hear that you at least caught some fish and had a great lunch 
I do understand though how you don't want to get fish slime on none of them fancy shirts you always wear when we go fishing. 
