We tried to get into a close by creek, but the water was too low with an approaching low tide and a north wind. We head out towards the rock garden and set up a drift. I think it was on my second cast that a 19" trout couldn't go without tasting my new lure, the "Franky P". Not a bad start, but good starts normally end that way, so I was a little worried...
Let me tell you about the "Franky P", in our tournament sample box there was one hard bait. The boxes that Tincan and I received both had sinking plugs. Sinking plugs and most of the fish are coming in 1-2 foot of water, not good....So, Friday night I arrive at Casa Tincan and after a fine steak dinner prepared by Mrs. Tincan...We goto Walmart for supplies needed to operate on these sinking plugs....One tube of 5 minute epoxy and a can of fluorescent pink spray paint....Back at the monster tackle garage we commence to drill holes into these plugs to remove the steel weights inside...Sir Reel came over to participate in the operation as well.....After removing the weights out of three plugs and epoxying them back together...Sir Reel throws his in the test tank and it sinks to the bottom
Back to fishing.....We continue to drift this flat and pick up several trout on each drift....I switch lures a few times...I pick the ol' Franky P up and make a cast and just before pulling it out of the water and large trout can not stand the thought of going another day without tasting the "Frank P"
Tincan has landed trout up to 17"....We could of stayed in this area and caught trout all day, but we needed to go catch a redfish and hopefully find a big gator trout laying in a creek....
We fish several creeks and see a bunch of mullet and bait...I land a 17 1/2" redfish on a straight jig of course
We call it a day and head to the weigh in with Chalk having a 20 1/4" trout, 17 1/2" redfish and a lizardfish for a bonus...Tincan had a 17
" trout and a pinfish for a bonus fish.....I speculated the trout might be good for a second or third place finish, but figured someone would bring in a 25" plus redfish.....
All the players arrived at Jerry's Bait and Tackle for the weigh in at 3:00... After the dust settled and the numbers were added up....I had tied with Trout Trent for first place..tie breaker was the time the big fish was caught...I caught mine around 9:00 that morning and he caught his after lunch....So, I lucked into a first place finish.....Trout Trent finished 2nd and Butch Taylor third, I think....can't remember the rest of the placements... I'm sure crabtrap will post the official results....
Another fine day on the gulf with great friend and an okay guide

