One of my favorite fishing events is the Daniel Island Inshore Fishing Club member tournament. However, I think we should rename the event to the member “fun-a-ment” because everyone has fun. The purpose of the tournament is to meet new members, fish and have fun. So, current members host new members on their boats. My crew for the event was Gus Musmanno and Nathan Holleman. Gus is a freshman a Bishop England and an avid angler. Nathan and I live near each other, but this was out first time to fish together.
Conditions were perfect on Saturday. Clear skies, warm temperatures and calm winds had me feeling pretty good about catching a few fish. As we idled away from the dock, we agreed to focus more on fun and less on winning the event. After a short run, we started fishing in an oyster laden channel. I picked up a rod with Z-Man StreakZ 3.75 on a Trout Eye Finesse jig and cast to a submerged oyster bar. A Trout immediately ate the lure. We were off to a good start. Gus and Nathan began casting Z-Man Finesse TRD lures to the same oyster bar and began catching fish. Most were small but we submitted a few larger specimens for the tournament by texting a picture of the fish on a ruler to the event message thread.
When the bite slowed down, Gus began making lure and retrieve adjustments until he started catching fish again. Pretty advanced fishing technique. I was impressed. He is a great angler and an even better young man. Nathan had a knack for catching fewer but larger fish and he ended up winning the Trout division.
On the ride back to the dock, we tried to count the number of fish we caught and released. After a few minutes, we quit counting and agreed it a lot. A lot of fish and a lot of fun.