A Last Second Win in a First Time Tournament

Click to see the MBKFA BAGWELL VIDEO

This past weekend unveiled a competitive edge in my daughter, Charlee, that I have never seen before. Charlee has played competitive soccer in the past, but the attitude and commitment she displayed over the last two days around fishing her first tournament was impressive.

We left the house and headed toward Mobile, Al, for the 8^th Annual Bagwell Spring Tournament, hosted by Mobile Bay Kayak Fishing Association, I could feel the adrenaline coming from the seat beside me as Charlee sat, staring out the window.   When we arrived at Bass Pro Shop  in Spanish Fort, Al for the captains meeting, Charlee immediately made friends Gracie, daughter of Jorge Cancel, and we all sat, ate dinner, and awaited the rules and regulations to be explained to us all. As the meeting concluded, I grabbed a pizza to go and Charlee grabbed her captain’s bag, thank you Jorge and Gracie for the special bag, and we headed over to Benton Parrott’s house for the evening.

The night went longer than expected as excitement was in the air, Benton and I sat up and shared stories and prepared our tackle, as Charlee and Katy played games in the darkness outside.  Around 10pm we decided it was time to call it a night, as the morning was going to begin at 3a.m.

As the alarms sounded throughout the house, it seemed as though we had only slept for 5 minutes, I got up, shared a cup of Joe with Benton, and then warmed up the truck.  My normal routine with Charlee is to have everything loaded and ready, so I can just carry her to the truck, while she is sleeping, lay her down and then wake her up as we are arriving to the launch, but this time was different.  As I entered her room, for the normal limp body carry, she was already awake and ready to go.  She jumped out of bed, got dressed and walked her tail to the truck and climbed in.  I was convinced at this point there was no way her energy would last all day, or for that matter, the hour plus drive to the launch, but in true Charlee fashion, she never nodded her head in exhaustion.
As we arrived at our launch point, a dark spot in the middle of nowhere, a place where Benton says go here, take a right, take a left, and then take a right on this trail and then park, the gps didn’t even know where we were.  When we

finished the 4 wheel drive mandatory excursion, I unloaded the Hobie PA 14, that we borrowed from Russ Pylant, the only yak big enough to haul us both and all of our gear comfortably, we got everything prepared for the journey.  I had tie wrapped a Larry Chair in the rear cargo area for Charlee,  and had fish bags strapped to the front hatch and the rear deck, the rods in the holders, headlights on, and we were off.
After nearly an hour paddle, I was amazed Charlee was still awake, we made it to our fishing location. Within minutes, speckled trout began coming over the edge of the yak.  Charlee was throwing a cork with a Rockport Rattler Jig head tipped with Gulp, and I was throwing topwater.  

We found our way to an underwater ridge that I knew I could fish one ledge while she fished the other, it was a perfect scenario.  I anchored the yak, and told Charlee to just chunk her lure off the right side, and start popping her cork, and I would fish left.  After two cast, I heard her sound off, “I got one, I got one”, it was music to my ears.  As she battled the spec the rod was bent like she had a whale on the other end, I was almost convinced she was hung up until the yellow mouthed speckled trout came to the top of the water and did its trade marked head shake all the way to the yak.  Charlee was reeling so fast, I actually netted the fish almost two feet above the water line. It was like a fast ball coming at me at 70 mph. 
As we calmed down and the excitement subsided, we were both amazed that she just pulled in a chunky 18 inch trout that almost topped three lbs.                      

The pressure was now off, she landed a good fish, and now it was time for fun.  We continued to fish the ridge and the topwater was on fire, but the fish were small, and since the cork approach for Charlee was fading, we decided we were going to make a move in search for scenery and some trolling.  I knew an area that had a few holes and ledges throughout it, so that’s where we went.  I loaded both of her rods with Rockport Rattler jig heads fitted with a Matrix Shad, both in the Tiger Bait color.  As we threw the lures out behind us, I kept the yak at
around 2mph, and as we would cross over the holes, I would tell Charlee to get ready, and you could see her head turn up to watch the rod tips.  Within seconds of every warning, the rod bent, Charlee would quickly grab the rod from the holder and begin reeling, I have never smiled and laughed so much at her excitement.  With every fish she reeled in, I was in defense mode, because each fish was coming in at Mach 1 and I knew I was going to have to catch the fish going airborne, rather than netting the fish in the water.  My net spent more time in the batter up position than it did in the normal underwater position. 
After Charlee’s 6^th spec, I asked her, “how many is that”, her reply was “one.”  I said,” you just caught 6 fish, what do you mean one?” She said,” I don’t know dad, I’m not counting, I’m just catching em,” that was the best response I could have ever asked for.   

At the end of the day, we landed over 20 specs, with Charlee having two big enough to weigh.  As we made it back to the truck, we were joined by Benton, who had a beautiful 5 lbs. trout and a nice red.  We rested at the launch for a minute, took a few pictures and then loaded up in a rush to make the ferry in time to get back to the weigh in.

The weigh in cut off time was 2:00 and it was noon now, we had all kinds of time to relax and enjoy the day, so we thought.  As we reached the ferry, we were informed we missed it, and that the next ferry ran at 1:15 and it was a 35 minute ride across.  I’m no mathematical genius, but I knew when the ferry hit land, if it stayed on time, we would only have 10 minutes to drive to the weigh in.  To make matters worse, we didn’t even know where the weigh in location was once we got off the ferry.  As we waited I started laughing at the situation, what else was I to do at this point but laugh, and Charlee immediately chimed in, “what are you laughing at? It’s not very funny; I don’t want to be disqualified.”  At that point we had a talk about

making the best of a situation and that sometimes it’s best to cherish the experience and the day than it is to dwell on what could have been.  I think she got it, but you could feel the disappointment through her silence, she wanted to weigh in.
As the ferry arrived, we loaded up, joined with Benton, who we assumed had the big trout award if we were to make it in time, and Matt, who had a stringer of which we thought was big enough to take first overall, and then Charlee sitting there with her fish, that we thought was heavy enough to possibly place.  That 35 minute ride across open water was one of the longest I have ever been on. I tried to keep a positive outlook the entire trip on the ferry, even though I couldn’t help but prepare for the worse in the back of my mind.  We all laughed and cut up and did all we could to take our minds off of what might have been, if we didn't make it in time. 

Finally, the ferry slams into port, the gate drops and the engines revved, 8 minutes until weigh in closes.  I ended up being the first of the three of us to get off the ferry and all I knew was go left and look for a pink building on stilts.  As we turned left, the radio off, windows down, and eyes peeled for the pink building, we passed a road and at the end of it we saw the building.  Brakes locked up, tires squealed and we were in reverse as fast as we could go.  We made the turn, and barreled up in to the weigh in like Dale Jr. on pit road.  Charlee and I both jumped out and ran to the weigh masters table, we made it.  As we turned back to fetch our fish bags from the truck, Benton and Matt pulled up in the same fashion, and came running up just in time and before we could get back to the weigh in tables, they announced it, if you haven’t checked in yet, the scales are now closed. Thankfully, we all made it in time.

So what’s a tournament without a dramatic ending anyway, I’m just glad Charlee got to experience the experience, staying up late, getting up early, fishing all day, and making it in time to weigh in with just seconds to spare.  It was a great time for us all, a weekend away with just dad and daughter, a tournament, a visit to 5 rivers wildlife building, bbq, drinks, and great friends.  

 

 

 

 

 

Charlee finished 1^st  in the Junior division, Benton finished 1^st largest speckled trout, and Matt finished 1^st overall, that dang ferry was full of winners……And then there was me….. no trophy….. no prize money……no monster fish…….. But, no matter what anyone else says or thinks……..

                           I was the biggest winner of them all.

Charlee spend half of the weigh in 15 feet up in an oak

Charlee was featured the M&B cover May edition

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