When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
In 2002, my sister Erin passed away after contracting sepsis following a surgery. Since then, my other sister Jen has organized a fishing tournament in her memory to raise awareness about sepsis. This year marked the 13th annual B.U.G.S Classic fishing tournament.
I enjoy the tournament because it’s a great time for me to come home and visit friends and family. Erin Connelly, one of Erin’s best friends and a third sister to me, always comes down from Georgia to help. This year, my uncle Paul and all three of his daughters came down as well. Generally, I only come for the weekend since I have work, but now that I’m funemployed, I took two weeks off to enjoy the pool, eat at Frenchy’s, and go for some day cruises with everyone.
Tournament week consists of two major events: the captains party on Thursday and the fishing tournament on Saturday. The captains party is the last opportunity for angler’s to register for the tournament but we also hold a silent auction and raffle. The raffle always includes some pretty cool Budweiser gear and this year we had a SweetWater Kayak.
Every year I think that the set up for the captain’s party gets easier and easier. Some of it is practice, but a lot of it has do with the core group of friends and family that know where to be and what to do. Also, we have a great venue at Kelly’s in Dunedin that give us the whole outdoor area to set up.
A few weeks before I was supposed to leave Google I got a message from my best friend Mark asking if I knew anyone with a boat for the tournament. At that point I was too busy trying to wrap things up so I sent him over to Jen for help. Here’s his text:
Hey Jen, this is Mark Faimalie. I had some interest in participating in this years B.U.G.S. Tournament and John suggested that I reach out to you. Obviously not having a boat or fishing pole, gear, or a lot of experience I realize that it’s probably a long shot but I figured it was worth a shot to see if you were aware of any openings on boats that would be willing to take on a greenhorn fisherman like myself for the tournament.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t in the same boat. I’m not sure why, but it seems that fishing skipped my generation. My sister and all her friends were avid fishermen and now my younger cousins’ generation is too. Luckily, Jen was able to get us on a boat with George Lenoce, one of Erin’s old friends, who used to be a fishing captain himself.
On the morning of the tournament we all headed out on my dad’s new salt water pontoon boat, the B.U.G.S Tug. We used it as the starter boat and it’s where all the captain’s checked in to grab their measuring stick. Mark and I hopped onto George’s boat outside Erin Island with two cases of beer. I wasn’t sure if it was a bad omen or not when George and his buddy said they wouldn’t be drinking, but Mark and I had all day to finish what we brought. I figured the day would have to be somewhat successful since we had live bait to start the tournament. The past four or five I’ve fished in it we’ve either had to get bait after the start or by the time we got to the first spot it was all dead.
Our first stop was near the north end of Honeymoon Island. Our main target was snook, but all we could catch were trout and a sting ray. At one point I saw a sting ray jump a foot out of the water.
The nice thing about fishing with George is that he’s patient. With a lot of anglers, if the fish aren’t biting within the first 15 – 20 minutes, they are moving on to the next spot. We probably hung out there for at least two hours. Another trait about George is he’s a great teacher. He helped Mark and I bait our hooks but also explain why he hooked it in a certain place. He also explained why he chooses certain locations for different fish and how the tides affect them. George did all this despite money being on the line.
Our next stop was an area where it was shallow enough for us to wade in the water. Mark and I stayed on the boat until we saw that George was the only one catching anything while wading. At one point Mark thought he saw something swimming around him. I wasn’t too confident in his observation since he mistook the anchor for a fish earlier in the day, but it turned out to be a shark of some sort. Needless to say, we got back into the boat pretty quick.
By the end of the day we had caught some big trout, a small redfish, and no snook. We needed a snook to enter into the slam or a bigger redfish for the individual bracket if we had any chance to win. I am a true believer in beginner’s luck and Mark did not disappoint. At the last spot he landed a 21 2/3″ redfish, good enough for 3rd place.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather and a more fun day. Mark is already trying to figure out how he can get out on the water again and I’m right there with him. Here’s a highlight video of the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC1zU5j1aYc
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