FHS Pirate Classic Success

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It was a cool and windy spring morning for the 2nd Annual Fairhope High School Fishing Classic with around 20 young anglers participating. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have a young angler in my household that loves to be on the water. It's difficult to fish hard for one tourney, much less two as this was also the scheduled date for the last BOG (Battle of the Grubs) series that Capt. Robb Hall and I had been participating in. We launched at Dog River under a full moon with the light from the sky too the East and near low tide then headed to fish the flats. In our first location we were able to catch a 22 inch Redfish and an 18 inch trout giving us the indication we might be catching the Speckled Trout "on the chew." Around 7 a.m. Mallory caught a 17 inch Speckled Trout on her artificial jerk minnow and quickly jetted to the top of the leaderboard where she sat for several hours. Unfortunately, the bite stopped as soon as it started and we found ourself moving from location to location picking up a fish here and there. After 9 a.m. we didn't catch another fish in Dog River so we loaded the boat and headed to Fowl River. At this time there were two other young anglers in 1st and 2nd place respectively and all Mallory could think about was how she needed to catch a bigger trout. In our first location, she cast into a small flat. As soon as the lure hit the water we saw the silver flash of a nice speckled trout rising to attack the lure as if it were an afternoon snack. She battled the fish and got it to the side of the boat where we quickly boated the fish. As she spread it out on the measuring stick she got excited realizing the fish put her back in 1st place in the category with an hour left to go in the tournament. Her 20.25 inch Speckled Trout held up and she wont first place in the category, winning some nice prizes. There were several categories and several winners. In my opinion, all anglers who participated were winners because they got to enjoy the great outdoors while competing doing something they love. Big Shoutout to Coach Scott Berry at Fairhope High School for his enthusiasm and efforts to make this program and tournament a success and something the kids will cherish for a lifetime. Also, big thanks to all the boat Captains who made it possible for their anglers to participate by providing rides and the parents for supporting their kids in their endeavors.