Murphy's Law

I don't really believe in Murphy's Law but we didn't have a whole lot go right for us this past week at the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Tour Championship in Orange Beach AL. We did have one very important thing go right for us however; we got there and back safely. In fact, that's the most important thing. But it is also just about the only thing that went right for us.

When my tournament partner and I first started practicing for this tournament about a week ago, it was very windy. The wind is not a tournament anglers friend. It creates choppy water that muddy the water up as well as make long runs dangerous or even impossible. So we decided to pre-fish close to the start of the tournament the first few days and just deal with the milky water. We caught a few fish a day but nothing that would provide us with a tournament win. The last two days before the tournament we decided to trailer the boat to places that would be 60-90 miles from the start of the tournament. We found a few more fish there but the wind was predicted to get worse, not better. So the game plan the night before the tournament was that we would stick close by and hope that our fish got bigger for the tournament.

We woke up on tournament morning to find out that we had absolute quagmire conditions. Heavy downpours, lighting, and high winds. As if not catching a lot of fish in practice wasn't enough, now we had to deal with mother nature as well. At the start of the tournament we took off running to our first spot in the southern end of Moblile Bay. It was a torturous run in a ridiculous amount of rain. I wore shooting glasses that were hi-vis yellow just so the raindrops wouldn't hurt my eyes while running.

When we got to our first spot we found that we were fortunate that the wind was in a direction that left our stretch of shoreline calm. We quickly boated two smallish fish and decided on moving onto a spot that we had heard held larger fish. While idling off the flat, we notice that another team (by chance they were real good friends of ours) was waiving at us to come over and talk to them. When we got within ear shot they told us that they were broke down. I checked the radar on my GPS and it was obvious that another huge rain squall was coming and that we all needed to get out of there. So we tied them off to the back of the boat and towed them back to the tournament headquarters. The storm squall chased us there the whole way and we arrived just in time to take cover. Wind, rain, lightning all came down around us for about an hour. By this time we had only been able to fish for a grand total of an hour and it was almost noon.

When the weather lifted to a point where we felt somewhat safe fishing we left the dock in search of bigger fish in places we had never fished before. We scooted under a little bridge on the East side of Mobile bay and began pitching Gulp Shrimp under shrimp boat docks. We caught a few flounder and a trout and were sure that this was a good sign that there is at least life in this little bay. About an hour later I hooked a nice redfish that quickly entangled me in a crab trap buoy. We rushed over to the trap and scooped up the fish, buoy and all. After swapping a smaller fish out of the live well for this 4lb fish we were almost out of time. So we headed back with our 7lbs 6oz stringer. It was good enough to put us in 37th place for day one. Not what we had hoped for but good enough for us considering what we'd been through that day.

The next morning we were awakened by the loud, house shaking, roar of thunder. We didn't believe that the tournament would start on time. So we called the director and asked about the status of the start. He just said, "come on, we working with a green light. We're starting on time." In disbelief, we threw on our fowl weather gear, dropped the boat in water at the flooded boat ramp, and headed to the start of the tournament while ducking lighting bolts during the whole 6 mile trip.

The 2nd day started much the same way as the first day of the tournament. We had to run the boat in blinding rain to our first spot. But the wind had switched directions and our once calm flat was now a washing machine of muddy water. We knew this wouldn't work so after about 20 minutes of fishing we decided to just "wing it". We headed to the closest protected water we could find and just began fishing. Sadly, the only bite of the day came from one of the biggest jack crevelles I had ever caught. Oh well, it brought a smile to our rain soaked faces and we had to take a picture.

Time ran out and we had to make that depressing run back to the weigh-in with no fish in tow. It's not the only time I've had to come to the weigh-in of a tournament empty handed but it doesn't happen often, and when it does, is stinks.

Sometimes things just don't work out like you plan. Sometimes it hurts you and sometimes it helps you. Some of the teams in the top 5 for the tournament had their plans change because of the weather as well and they just happened to be fortunate that their change of plans helped them. It's frustrating but hey, I can't let it get me down. I have charters to do and I'm excited to get back home and fish with my clients. "Murphy" may have gotten me last week but the fish at home had better watch out. I've got a score to settle. I need to see some fishing rods doubled over this week and the redfish and snook at home better be ready.