Re: tournament advice
Lucky Jim<br />I love to fish but tournaments are more like work.<br /><br />I have not fished the Gulf Since 1967 or 68 but that was a fun time. Very simple rules, is that just the standard fish and Game reg's?<br /><br />With rules like that sounds like a fun tournament, I hate the ones with hundreds of rules. Thing like can not touch the water, can not come within 100 feet of another boat. Can not talk to anyone or use any radio, ect.<br /><br />One I fished we vilolated one of the rules by talking to two people. We were fishing way up one of inlets of a lake and a young girl came right up to us scared and crying. She was lost and did not know where she had launched but was able to decribe the area. She did not look old enough to ride the Jet ski alone. We figured out where she launched but did not think we could give her good enough direction to get her back in her state. We were doing badly this day anyway and with 2 hours to go still did not have our limit so we decided to take her to her launch. When we got her near the launch we stopped and she pull up along side where we could ask her if this looked like the spot. She said yes and that she could see her family. She was all smiles and headed in. We moved to a spot we knew near by to finish our day. Next thing we knew her dad pull right up to us on the same jet ski to offer us a reward. We explained we were fishing a tournment and not allowed to talk to anyone by the rules. Also that seeing her face light up when she knew where she was was reward enough. We finished the day in that area then went to weigh in. We reported what happened then weighed in. They decided was ok and our weight could stand. We took 18 out of 200 boats with one fish less than the limit and no big fish. It turned out nobody did very well and only 11 boats had a 7 fish limit. We made our entry back and 5 or 10 bucks. Had we not reported it and someone saw us we would have been disqualified for the year at this club,<br /><br />Even thou it has been closed people who have fish the area a lot in other years will have a big advantage. In ocean water tides will have a big effect. Fish will stack up in different areas on the flood tide than the EBB tide. Is the spotted trout the same as a spec trout? We use to catch them along the beaches is shallow water just out side the break water. This was on the Mississippi Gluf Coast.
Maybe a DOA shrimp might due? dunno...<br /><br />Wish ya good luck.. 
