May 12-16, 2004
JP Griffon Tournament
Brown, Orty, Kunz, Denton
5/12 Wednesday (orty and brown)
Did a quick run north around 5:30…wind strong 20-25 out of the south…fished he fence line with one keeper trout.
5/13 Thursday (orty and brown..Denton later)
Got up early to the threat of bad weather…decide to go for it, and try to beat the weather by going north. Ran all the way to the land cut, and stopped at the oil field cut. As we got out to fish the wind picked up out of the south..up to 45 mph, and gusting to 60 mph (no rain)…wind was blowing us forward…Still managed to catch fish, orty caught a 17” trout and a nice 27.5” redfish on topwater…I also caught a keeper trout… Took a tour bac into the oil field cut, water was WAY up from the winds. Fished on and off, caught a 22” Red on a Sand eel (purple) in the back of the cut. Decided to head south all of the water was Chocolate Milk with tons of grass from the high winds and storms. Got back to the port at noon…Moved to Sunchase from Mansfield club..Waited on Jody, and then ran south with the wind still blowing..Fished West Bay with No Luck, but had a blast listening to Jody’s stories…No one is funnier.
5/14 Friday (brown, orty, denton, kunz)
Major storms all night and into the morning. Robert Griffon decided to delay the first cast until 9:00 am and allow fishing until 6:00 pm. Left the port at 8:00 am and ran north to the land cut, and stopped at the oil field cut. Jody fished the east side, and Kunz fished further north ( aobut ½ mile)..Orty and I fished the water around the oil field cut. Orty caught a small red right away, but neither of us had any luck after that…Orty continued to work back into the Oil Field Cut, and I lagged behind..after a while, I circled back out to the Land Cut, but moved 300-500 yards north and started working south towards the boat. Worked the grass line throwing pumpkin seed Norton for a lon while, and then switched to Topwater (bone spook jr.)….On third cast with Top beyond the Grass-line to a little deeper water, and then worked back towards the grass…Big blow up, Big Fish..fought to the shore which is where I headed once I knew it was big..Just under 31” and weighed 8.7lbs. Hard to beat this situation..Top Water, Trout of a lifetime, Great Friend with you, fishing in the Griffon…WOW..Three casts later I caught another 20” on the same pattern..then it shut down. Priceless look on Denton and Orty’s face when I swung the big trout over the side of the boat..
Orty had 4 keeper trout to 20” and Denton had two solid Red’s 4” and 25”, and a 16” flounder..All in all, we were in good shape.
Ate lunch and then repositioned..Kunz on the corner of the OFC, Denton back to the east side, Orty and I spread out Soth of the OFC…Several keeper trout, and Orty caught a 26” Red….As we swung around to pick up Kunz north of the OFC, the tide was gushing out of the OFC into the Land Cut…literally like a raging river..this area had a TON of bait working as well as birds, and Kunz was starting to pick up trout..Decided the best idea was to poition the boat out in the Cut, so we could cast to the best spots…For the next 1 ½ hours we traded off timeon the back of the boat catching solid fish after solid fish…Caught 30-40 trout with 10 or so at 20” plus (largest was 22”). Ran south to upgrade, but had no luck around Bennies. Weighed in 35 plus pounds Day One..
5/15/04 Saturday (Kunz, Orty, Brown, Denton drinking sparks)
Griffon Day 2..Light north wind…and Clear.
Left at 4:45 am….Very tired after a long Friday and several nights of HORRIBLE weather including a unbelievable Boat save by Orton and the Kunz…literally held on for dear life…ANYWAY…
Used the Garmin, and tracked in the dark to Land Cut, same place. Denton east side, Orty south of the OFC, Kunz was further r north on the west side, and I stayed in the same area as the previous day…we were still fishing north to south..Fishing bone ssjr again, caught a 27” trout not far from where the 31” fish was the day before…back at the boat, had the 27 incher, and several small trout between us…Orty decide to run us to Gladys , not a lot of action, as we worked the Nothe shore looing for Reds…Did hav another LARGE (between 27 and 31”) trout on, and right up to me..caught it on pumpkin Norton..faught it to within 5 feet, and with one lash head shake it popped off…swam straight past me up into the super skinny (5”) water..ran up to try to net, and somehow missed..This loss of a fish in he tourney really crushed me..Oh well, Denton got quite a show.
Did continue to work the area, and caught three reds to 23” and a 17” trout…We decided to head south…Went to Dubs, no luck. Ran to Norht of the East cut, and caught an 18” trout on a drift…Then went south of the East cut..caught a bunch of smallish but keeper trout…Ended the day at weigh in with 26 lbs…Not good…What could have been. Ended up in 8th place with 64 lbs…But as always, had a GREAT time.