wahoo tournament held over the wekend

[captscott]

Yesterday was great..we had all three boats going out in our first of a series of head to head competiton between the 3 crews this Lump season. Standard bimini start was half our before shooting hours, total pounds wins..as success is measured in pounds in Grand Isle and parts west of Venice proper..Just before light, Leon was leading the pack of two sportfishers on the Cabo while I tailed in the Albemarle - this was a devious by plan by me to make him think he was in the lead but was truley to protect my running gear..At or about 530am, VHF reports confirmed that Twin Vee captian Darryl Couvillion was still waiting on his group at the dock and had failed to clear the Seabouy by daylight. Off we went, each to different areas in search of the mighty and seasonally plentiful wahoo..awesome weather set the stage for a no excuses event with the winner getting to change the oil in my new transmission. After last week's indian summer, those of us with windshileds and 3/4 enclosures still found it a little cold, but bearable in the tower by afternoon; by which time 2 of us had taken the pressure off ourselves.

Leon had 8 wahoo before 12 noon and I had 7 in the box and it was full, my fish were running on the 50-70 pound range and this presented a problem..a full fish box is one of the only problem's I welcome offshore but it would soon be solved..I called Leon on the radio for a rendezvous..we then backed up stern to each other so Leon could put our fish in the overnight box and just like the Seattle Fish Market, Corey Peterson and friends slung wahoo from the cockpit of the Albemarle into the cockpit of the Cabo where team Drost kindly placed them on ice for us..not sure if this is a legal manuever in hindsight but it didnt conflict with our tournament rules..It was also nice to get a fresh pallet of "Best Stop" turkey tasso flown in specially for the event and lowered by helicopter compliments of ther Lawton Companies, our unofficial sponsor from Lake Charles, Louisiana. After some pleasantries with the sponsor committee of Mitch D. Will Tall and Steve N. (No last names used as word has it they told thier wives they were golfing). Leon and his party then went off to put out a few live baits on the kite at the Lump (swinging for the fence a little early I would say). While they wasted their time teasing hammerheads, my crew and I added 7 more wahoo to our box before running in at 2pm...Darryl had the tournaments legal braintrust with representatives from the law firm of Thompson, Nunnery and Farnsworth; A late start forced a bold move by Capt Couvillion to explore a totally new area didnt pay mighty dividens but all told, they were able to save face by picking up 1 wahoo..he reportedly got to the Lump about mid day and tried to get heavy fish in his chumslick while on anchor..about the time he got rolling with sharks, blackfin and bonita a siesmic chase vessel informed him and everyone else on anchor that they would have to move off the Lump to give way to the vessel working nearby with 7 miles of cable and gear in tow..from the chatter on the VHF his request for compliance went over a flatboat on anchor at the Lump in February, with those in ingorance of the rules and regulations becoming verbally abusive of the London gentleman on the other end of the microphone..so much for not shooting the messanger..With Leon and I on the way in Capt Darryl made a late move and headed to a historically productive area going a heartbreaking 0-8 on hooters, apparently with 3 of the fish coming off the hooks in plain view and just out of gaff range..he was also denied a petition to the rules committee for partial points for released fish when he cried angler error on the first two fish they hooked. It was reported that team captain Todd Thompson (who found the fuel treatment I was storing in a blue vodka bottle to be much to his liking) repeatedly set the hook on the intial run on the first two fish; giving way to a new termanology for our service "the guy pulled a Thompson" or " .."Please don't Thompson that fish you donkey" .. Meanwhile, back at tournament headquarters (well before sunset I might add) there was some dispute over trophy presentation for the days head to head wahoo competition..this when Capt. Leon was explaining that he won because he caught more fish before all of us by noon when his crew wanted to stop and do something else..to which I responded..That's like Matt Leinart saying USC pulled a three-peat because USC was leading at the third quarter in a sanctioned national championship but Texas had more points at the end of the game..By the way USC fans where did they end up in the rankings this season?..Still when Darryl arrived with his one wahoo well after sunset, and long after the other fish were cleaned and bagged; The 1st and 2nd place team thought it best not to kick Darryl while he was down but being the consumate gentleman and sportsman we arent, we only slung a few cheapshots at him in order to motivate him for his next trip! Tune in for next weekends results when all three of us fish head to head on Saturday in the second leg from this season's series televised on ESPN 8 the Ocho airing weekly in the 2:30am Monday timeslot..all kidding aside, we have at least one boat going out this week every day but Wednesday (the better weather day)..we'll see if the mild weather holds..I have decided that if we dont have a customer we are going anyway.. until then Wahooooooooo-ho..But Seriously, if anyone wants to get a trip together, I will be in Grand Isle on my Cell phone available evenings - 504-451-7579 or call the office which will forward it to me..1-888-FISHWUS - (888) 347-4987..

We had one boat out today which logged 12 blackfin, limit of AJ's and one wahoo..dont know the details because the customers called to tell me the tally and that they had a great time, and that Leon's phone failed the float test while he was tying up the sternlines..

BTW-I had a ball changing the oil in my transmission