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| The Fishing Texas Rangers |
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2007 Texas Ranger Tournament
May 12, 2007
Fished the week of May 7th 2007 preparing for the 2nd annual Texas Ranger Tournament. This year we had four guides donating to the trip, we had Capt. Charles Chappell, Capt Robert Sanders, Capt Jeff Turner and myself. The week of the tournament the water was up and the fish were biting, but the day before and the day of the tournament the water fell out and fish were a little harder to catch. The Thursday before the tournament I had two trout at 27 inches.
We were only allowed to weigh ONE (1) fish per species with the big red and trout going to Capt Robert on Friday – Friday was pre fishing, fish pot day with over $400.00 in the fish pot.
Saturday the official tournament day had all boats heading north. Me and my crew, (Chance Collins, Robert Hunter, and Gary Polocek) started out wading near Capt Charles and his group. Capt. Charles and John Martin were making a long wade so I decided to pick them up for a courtesy ride. As I pulled up John told me that Charles had one “dink” trout and nothing more. Well that, “dink” trout turned out to be 26 inches long and 6 pounds. I dropped them off at their boat and went to the spot that I caught the big trout earlier in the week. We jumped out of the boat and right away Gary lands a 5 ˝ pound red. The next thing I knew I was being circled by a shark. I made mention of this to the other guys and Gary slung that redfish over his shoulder like a sack of feed and Chance and Robert were walking – Running on water to the boat. They got the boat, passed Gary with the redfish and picked me up. Well, to save the Captain is most important. We got Gary and moved on to another spot. Its kind of funny because we only moved about 3-4 miles and were wading deeper than we were just a few minutes earlier. The only difference was we didn’t see a shark at this spot. The trout were here and it was only a matter of time, Chance broke off on a nice tournament red and we were getting good hook ups, but time came and we had to make it to weigh in.
We pulled up to the official weigh in location (Harbor Bait and Tackle) to be greeted by Sybil and Kari who were the weigh masters for the tournament. Eric who was fishing with Capt Robert had heavy stringer and took 1st place. He also had big redfish (fish pot), and Capt Charles took big trout, (fish pot).
Special thanks to Harbor Bait and Tackle, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Capt Charles Chappell, Capt Robert Sanders, and Capt. Jeff Turner.
All was good and everyone had a great time.
A huge Shrimp Boil and adult beverages were in store for us this evening.
Hook Down Charters
Capt Wayne Davis |
