Gulf Shores, Alabama – IFA Redfish Tour event

We arrived in Orange Beach Alabama on Wednesday September 10 with hurricane Ike pressing towards the Texas coast.  We experienced tropical storm winds and high storm surge for several days.  Fishing to say the least was very poor.  We managed to find a few fish the first day, but the next two days did not produce much in redfish or fish in general.

Off to the Captain’s meeting at LuLu’s on Friday. We check in and draw number 20. I mosey over to the raffle ticket table and pick up two tickets. Being well taught on raffle tickets by Atticus and Littoral, my raffle ticket procurements were going to be staggered. We grab a nice cool drink and chat it up with Capt. Pete Turner, Jason Melvin, Fred Myers and Dwayne Eschete. There was a lot of chatter about the tournament being postponed until Sunday.

Three more tickets are procured from the raffle ticket counter. Jerry takes control of the meeting, goes through all the rules, and announces that the tournament is postponed until Sunday. We say great another day of looking for fish, maybe we can find some.  I was sitting there taking in the raffle – we get down to the grand prize, a Minn Kota Riptide.  I was thinking – “I added another $25 to the raffle pot.”  The numbers 023 was drawn.  Yep – you guessed it – I won the trolling motor.

Carrabelle NFGFC Tournament Sept. 6, 2008

We had 14 teams participate in the Carrabelle tournament.

Thanks to our sponsors, everyone left with a door prize. Congratulations to Katie Showman. She went home with her second Falcon rod this week. Thanks to Jay Evans, Sponsor of the “Badcock And More” mystery fish prize,  Jim Chalkley “Chalk” and I went home with $100 for weighing in the largest Gaff Top catfish, weighing 4.48 pounds.

Thanks to Larry Cobb and Andy Brunson, everyone had something to eat at the weigh in.

Congratulations to Casey Cook, Pat Irwin, and Brandon Faris for putting another winning limit together.

Jim Chalkley and John Vickers secured a second place finish with 10.38 lbs of trout. We also were awarded with the largest trout of the tournament at 4.17 lbs.  Along with the Badcock and More mystery fish bonus – we left with a very nice payout.

We caught the trout on Bite-A-Bait Topwalker lures, Cajun Thunders popping corks rigged with Texas Tackle Factory grubs.  We caught a some fish on Zara spooks and Skitterwalks as well.

Thanks to NFGFC for putting on another fine tournament and my sponsors Bite-A-Bait lures and Challenger Performance tackle for giving me the tools to compete and place in the money.