This past weekend my friend James Murphy and I fished in the 8th Annual Gene Doyle Memorial Fishing Tournament. The fish that you aim for in this tournament are Snook, Redfish, and Trout. The tournament is held to raise money for kids to travel all around the world. The tournament is family oriented and a lot of fun. About 75 of the 100 anglers are all repeat anglers which show you how much fun everyone has. In this tournament you "max out" in all three species by catching 3 of each kind of fish and recording them. When you "max out" you get a bonus of 100 points on the first day, and on the second day, a 150 bonus points.
On Day 1 of fishing, which was Saturday, it started out as a really great day. Bait was easy to get as it usually is this time of year. After we got bait we headed into the check-in point so that we could get our cameras and measuring stick. After we got our stuff and told us it was time to go we took off and headed a spot Mark Ward had recommended for Trout. We had never caught Trout in Naples and did not really expect to now, but sure enough Mark's spot produced enough fish for both me and James to "max out." After we finished catching all of the Trout we could handle we headed back to Rookery Bay for the Snook and Redfish. Since we had scouted the weekend before, so we had a pretty good idea of where the fish would be. We soon both had caught enough Snook to earn us the bonus's. The Redfish was really the hardest to find, but I did catch one, just before we had to leave, it was a nice 22incher.
On Day 2, we had pretty much the same routine except we woke up8 minutes later. After getting the easy bait, we headed in to pick up our cameras, and be off. We were a little late to the check in, but thats all right because 10 minutes is nothing. After getting our stuff we headed to the Trout spot yet again. After being there for about 15 minutes James was on a Trout, he got it in the boat and it was a nice 18incher. James eventually filled all of the spots for his Trout while I only had one. We decided to leave and head back to Rookery for another round. After the Trout, the rest of the day seemed to go like that. Except for the two nice Redfish we got in the boat not long after the Trout. The sizes of the Redfish were 24" and 23".It was all real slow until the end. James also closed out all of his spots in the Snook category while i still didnt have a single one. We had been catching them all morning but they were all about 15 inches, those releases would be what I needed in the end. Towards the end of our afternoon, I hooked and landed two small Snook, but they were Snook so I kept them.
Later that night we went the award ceremony, James and I knew it was going to be close between me and the leader of my division, seeing how he was only leading by 60 points the day before. After waiting for an hour for the speeches to start, we had to wait even longer for some raffles. They announced the winners of Biggest Snook, Biggest Redfish, Biggest Trout, and Grand Champion of the Youth and Adult Guided divisions. Then there were some more raffles, one of which I won. Mark you'd never guess, but I won some of our honey! When I went up to accept it, I told them the re-raffle it. After some more raffles, they announced the Youth Open Biggest Snook, Biggest Redfish, Biggest Trout, and Grand Champion. Two of those trophy's I walked home with. I won the Biggest Trout at 18inches, and Biggest Redfish at 24inches. James and I went nuts, all of our "hard" scouting had payed off, with the Redfish trophy, and with the Trout I have to give the credit to Mark for that one, but I would not have even been in the tournament had it not been for James Murphy, and his family for letting me stay at their house for two days in a row, they saved me from waking up a 4:00. James thanks sooooo much, couldn't have done it without you!!!
Thanks,
Mitch
For the final results in the tournament you can go to
www.genedoyle.org
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