TKAA tourney

I fished the TKAA Heroes on the water tournament sept. 25th and had a great time! I decided to fish the Back river because the night before at New point comfort I only ended up with one small striper. I launched at Wallaces in Hampton and fished the flats close to the ramp but the wind was killing me and the water was muddy so i decided to head across the river to fish a creek that was productive for me before. I'm REALLY glad i made this decision. In just the first couple casts i hooked a tiny speckled trout that was way undersized. Within minutes after that I hooked a nice red drum on Alice's 5'6" light action rod and fought it for a good 5-10 mins. I was so excited to land the fish! I put it on the tape and it came to 25 inches. Not bad for the first keeper fish of the day! It's exciting to catch a Drum that size on light tackle but it being a tourney makes it 100 times more exciting. I continued to work my way back in the creek and i hooked a striper and landed it. I took the hook out, it kicked out of the boat and PLOP... into the drink. It was a small striper (around 17" i guess) but later i found it would have been a 2nd or 3rd place striper...oh well. After the striper i caught about 8-10 small specks under 14" all in the same little hole. I was working my way further back in the creek when i made one more cast to the hole and got distracted by something. I put my attention back to fishing pulled in the slack in the line and felt a little resistance. I figured it was another small speck but when i set the hook it was SOLID. It was another good fight and ended up being a bigger red drum than the last at 26 1/4 inches. I fished for a few more hours after that seeing red drum everywhere but not much luck catching anything other than an 18" drum and a tiny spot. I made my way back to the ramp 1 mile across the river through the 20+ mph winds.

Just like last year the weigh in was awesome! Wayne Bradby and crew did a great job! Really nice to see the HOW (heroes on the water) and Project healing waters Veterans get out and do some fishing. Some of them had never even fished before! Can you imagine! Some got their first fish ever. One guy was standing, casting, and catching with his flyrod! They are great organizations with great causes. I just might volunteer for it next year.

After everything was said and done i got some lures and stickers from Aqua Dream, got 4th place for the red drum and won a $100 entry fee for a bass tourney, also got various stickers, bags and things from Hobie. A few of my friends placed also. Forrest won 1st in the bass division and won a killer Kayak. Rob Choi won 57 hats and 2nd place for flounder, and Kam won 2nd place for his 20" speck. Great times!!!!