# I lost again



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Just when you start thinking your the baddest dog on the block, a bigger dog comes along and bites your head off. This time the bigger dog was my wife.
This Saturday was the 14th annual Sargent October Fish Tournament. This has always been one of my favorite tournaments and I've won 1st place redfish 11 out of the 14 years. I've been on solid reds for the last month, and I saw no reason why I wouldn't win 1st place again this year. But there was one small problem with my plan, MY WIFE. 
We got down to my spot at first light and I started setting out surf rods to catch reds. While I was doing that, my wife grabbed her Custom Purple Abu Garcia 6500 Pro Rocket on a matching purple Castaway rod, and a hand full of dead shrimp, and went down the beach about 50yds to try to catch some croaker and whiting.
Before I could get my second rod casted out, the first rod slammed down hard and started smoking drag. I hollered for my wife to come down and get some pictures of the bull red I was about to land, and you wouldn't believe what she told me. This is the exact quote, "I'm trying to win a tournament here and I don't have time to take pictures of your fish." After some begging I did get her to take 1 picture, but she refused to take pictures of anything else I caught the rest of the day.
After I released my red, I got 3 rods set out, while she went back to throwing her dead shrimp. I started throwing the cast net to get some more mullet and I look down the beach and see her at the edge of the water trying to grab something. I was thinking it was probably just a hardhead, so I just kept throwing my net. I couple minuets latter she comes running down the beach at me with a 27 15/16" 7lb 9oz red clutched in her arms. I was thinking it was just a fluke, and I figured I would be pulling in a nice fat 9lb or 10lb slot red any second, but I never did. What did keep getting pulled in were more slot reds, whiting, and croaker, all by her on dead shrimp fishing 20' from the sand. I caught several bull reds, but not a single slot all day.
We quit about 3 to make it to the weigh-in, and of course she won 1st place. There is no way I will ever live this down, so I think I'm just gonna sell all my fishing gear and quit fishing.:biggrin: 

On a side note, I did have a fellow 2cooler and his family come fish with us so his son could catch a bull red. His wife and son both got to catch some, but I had left to go get my wife more shrimp, so I didn't get pictures, maybe he will post some.
Today we went back for a little while because my brother in law and his buddy were coming down. As soon as we got set up, another 2cooler showed up. Right off the bat we were catching fish left and right, then it just died and never picked back up. Everyone caught fish and wee all had fun, so that's a good day in my book.
If anyone spots me on the beach, don't be afraid to stop by. I'm always happy for company and I'm always willing to share my knowledge to help others do what I do. On the other hand, you may be better off asking my wife. After all, she's the WINNER, and she keeps reminding me every few minuits.:rotfl:


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

...


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

And as if she hadn't won enough, she found a arrow head when she was landing her 2nd slot red. She found one 2 years ago, so this is number 2.


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## fishingtwo (Feb 23, 2009)

Tell her congrads and thanks for posting

cant be top dog forever


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## dchimitt (May 28, 2017)

Very nice. I'll be taking a few guys from church next weekend. A couple have never caught a fish in their lives. I'm really hoping their 1st will be a big bull.


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## dchimitt (May 28, 2017)

I should add that I've not caught a bull yet either. I've got a good feeling about this trip though.


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## RogerTherk (Aug 24, 2011)

you are the couple!!


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Sometimes losing can be winning, at least you might think of it that way in this instance. Congratulations to your wife.

Thanks for sharing and all the great pics. I hope to get down there some day and hopefully have a chance to meet you and see how a pro does it.


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## Ag03Aj (Oct 17, 2012)

Sounds like a great weekend of fishing!! We made it down yesterday and couldn't find any mullet. Luckily we caught a few croaker and whiting. We set those out around 10 and by 11 we had 3 bullreds and 1 shark. We fished a spot close to a tree on theedge of the water heading towards Mitchell's cut. IT was a great time!!!


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

Impressive... Ha.. when she wins Johnny, that just says a lot about you bro!!!! good job!


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## Hayniedude24 (Jun 15, 2016)

SharkC, have you recently thought about maybe itâ€™s time to let go of the tourneyâ€™s? I mean hell, all the greats have a clock and eventually know when to pass the torch. Sheâ€™s beat you twice in a row now, yâ€™alls son is tearin your *** up on the sow trout and stringers and you know heâ€™ll be gunning for you in the surf as well. Anyway, just food for thought brother. :cheers:


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## cva34 (Dec 22, 2008)

Congrats Sounds like you both won....


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## Skiff_man49 (Apr 24, 2018)

Sharkchum we had a blast here are the pics... We were excited to see your wife get 1st place!! We will have to meet up again soon. Thanks for the help too brother!!





































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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Skiff_man49 said:


> Sharkchum we had a blast here are the pics... We were excited to see your wife get 1st place!! We will have to meet up again soon. Thanks for the help too brother!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's awesome. I'm glad your son got to catch his first bull red. Hopefully ya'll can make it back soon to catch some more.


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## gotmuddy (Dec 19, 2013)

I'll make sure and congratulate her personally when I see her this weekend. Looks like for once I am gonna get lucky and the weather will be good.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

I had to fish by my self yesterday. The tide was to high to drive down the beach, so I wen't to Lil' Stubby. I caught several bull reds, but it was to much trouble by my self, so I went and caught a mess of big croaker and whiting for dinner. It's hard to beat fresh fried croaker.


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## SaltwaterSlick (Jun 11, 2012)

Man Chum, that's some good groceries right there!! Real good eatin' fish!


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## Skiff_man49 (Apr 24, 2018)

Awesome!!

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## Ditto2 (Jul 19, 2016)

I haven't seen croaker that big in forever. Nice catch. Reminds me of my grandmother. Cut the head off, scale and gut and fry whole. 

No matter how many more tournaments you win of how many you already won, you will never heard the end of you wife =winning in 2018. Good memories.


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Lookin at that last pic makes me hungry.


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## eliris (Dec 4, 2016)

Man u make it sound so easy... "Yeah didnt have anything better to do so went to stubies and got me a buch of bull reds..." Just like saying "yeah went to the cages to hit a few of balls..." I wish i had that gift. Then again it's all about practice

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## Hayniedude24 (Jun 15, 2016)

WillieT said:


> Lookin at that last pic makes me hungry.


That is some good lookin grub.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

eliris said:


> Man u make it sound so easy... "Yeah didnt have anything better to do so went to stubies and got me a buch of bull reds..." Just like saying "yeah went to the cages to hit a few of balls..." I wish i had that gift. Then again it's all about practice
> 
> Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk


 It really is that easy. It's not a gift or a skill, it's knowledge learned from a life time of trial and error. Think of it as a formula for success. As long as you have all the ingredients, your formula will be the same every time, but if you are missing some ingredients or substituting some ingredients, your formula can blow up in your face.
The formula is simple. You need the right rods, reels, line, leaders, hooks, weights, bait, location, tides, and weather. These are the main ingredients for success. You may could get by missing one, or maybe even two, but if your missing three or more, your headed for failure. 
For instance, I can probably still catch a few fish on a slack tide, add high barometric pressure and I may still be able to catch 1, but if I'm fishing in a area with no bait or structure, I probably won't even get a bite. 
Just like on Monday when I was on the pier. It was a rough surf with high winds and a strong rip current. With my 12' rods with a 8oz spider weight I was able to cast into the strong winds and get my bait to hold in the rough surf and strong current and I was catching fish. There were at least a dozen different people who saw me and came running down the pier with their cheep walmart spinning reel combos with double drop juju bead leaders and 2oz bank sinkers thinking they were gonna catch fish like me. They couldn't cast more then 20' into the strong winds and their small weights were allowing their bait's to wash back to the bank within seconds. In this case all the conditions were right and there were plenty of actively feeding fish, but what set me apart from the other people was having the right gear for the task at hand.


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## eliris (Dec 4, 2016)

I agree... All but one of the ingredients can be learned form your posts. However there is one i believe no amount of reading can make up for doing it... That's location! Unless you train your eyes to identify the hot zones by actually going out to the beach and try and err a few times, you wont get it. You might get lucky at first, but i guess that's part of the trial en error...

Back when i was young (and free) i used to go flounder fishing back home in Peru almost every weekend. Flounder down there look for very similar structure than the bulls here, and i had my eye tuned to spot those areas in no time...

Anywho... I just have to keep trying whenever i have a chance to go... I'm not giving up!

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