Getting ready for the Old Salt Ladies tournament is anything but easy.
By TERRY TOMALIN
Published June 11, 2004
GULF OF MEXICO - The offer sounded intriguing.
"All you have to do is wear a red string bikini and you can fish with us in the tournament," Jill Foraker told Robyn Dawson, an angler who is known on the kingfish circuit by the nickname Pork Chop. "Just think of all the money you could win."
Dawson, who has captained several all-women's fishing teams over the years, ran the numbers in his head.
"Two, three, maybe four thousand dollars," he thought out loud. "Nah ... it's still not worth it."
Foraker and fishing partner Amy Verdensky, didn't really want Dawson to enter the Old Salt 16th Annual Ladies Inshore/Offshore Fishing Tournament.
They were just playing mind games with a man they knew might present the toughest competition. And they wanted some meaningful preparation for the event.
"This may be a ladies tournament, but the men can still run the boat," Foraker said. "The guys take this thing seriously. Every one of them wants to be able to say that their team won the master angler award."
Only one woman has ever caught all eight species - trout, sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, flounder, snapper, grouper, amberjack and king mackerel - in the tournament's 15-year history.
"You are doing pretty good if you can catch six of the eight species," Foraker said. "It is not as easy as it sounds."
Dawson, a salesman for the event's title sponsor, Thunder Marine, said he'd be on the water at midnight in order to catch the offshore species.
He wanted to have enough time to still hit the flats before the afternoon weigh-in.
"The idea is to get an early start and get all your offshore species out of the way first," Dawson said. "But sometimes the fish don't want to cooperate."
Such was the case on this hot June morning.
Dawson had hit a couple shrimp boats hoping to pick up some blackfin tuna, but the fish had moved on.
So then he visited a freshwater spring, a noted amberjack hot spot. But, while there, he found the catching equally difficult.
So as a last resort, the veteran tournament angler went to plan C. He elected to stop at a well-known wreck closer to shore.
"Give me 15 minutes and I'll make something happen," Dawson told a reporter who had a pressing engagement back on land. "We'll get it done."
On the first pass over the wreck, two baits got slammed just seconds apart.
"That looks like a kingfish," he said, showing off the mangled bait.
"If we are lucky, maybe there will be some blackfin too."
On the second pass, another bait got hit, but this time the hook held.
"Who's up first?" Dawson asked.
Foraker grabbed the rod and as soon as it was in her hands, the fish took off for deep water.
After 10 minutes, the fish was close enough to the surface to make a positive identification.
"It is a barracuda," Dawson said. "I doubt you will be able to bring it in on that monofilament line."
But Foraker, with the help of Verdensky, soon got the upper hand.
Dawson grabbed the fish, posed for a couple of photographs, then tossed it over the side.
Barracuda, as fun as they may be to fight, don't count toward the master angler award when it comes time for the weigh-in.
Amberjack - or AJs as they are known in angling circles - was the prey of choice.
The thick-bodied brutes were swarming beneath the boat with ease. But getting through the wall of barracudas would be another story.
"Look at the size of that 'cuda," Dawson said as a 6-foot specimen bit a 30-pound amberjack in half.
The next pass produced another amberjack, but when the hooked fish was just a few feet from the boat, a 300-pound Goliath grouper rocketed up from the bottom and inhaled the fish.
The anglers, however, kept at it. And the third time proved a charm.
The amberjack made it through the gantlet of 'cudas and Goliath grouper and into the fish box.
One down. Seven species to go.
Old Salt 16th Annual Ladies Inshore/Offshore fishing Tournament
When: Saturday, June 19th.
Captain's Meeting: Thursday, June 17th, Gators on the Pass, 12781 Kingfish Drive, Treasure Island.
Species: Trout, sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, flounder, snapper, grouper, amberjack and king mackerel.
Entry fee: $45 for members; $55 for non-members.
Proceeds to benefit the Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation.
For information call the Old Salt Fishing Line at 727 497-1060 or go to www.osfclub.com
