Four friends and the amazing race to catch 100 fish
Daniel Island has a great fishing club. Of course, I am a member. Club meetings and events are a great way to meet neighbors and socialize.
One of my favorite events is the member fishing tournament. It is not a big prize money tournament, but it is big fun! Especially the good-natured trash talking on the tournament text thread.
For the fall member tournament, I was assigned to fish with Trent Gustafson, Shannon Elarton, and Glenn VonRosenburg. Our plan was to target trout on the falling tide and redfish at low tide.
We launched just after sunrise. Trent started fishing with a topwater lure. Shannon and Glenn fished with Z-Man Finesse TRD lures. The bite was steady but not hot. Trent did catch a 17-inch trout that put us on the leaderboard.
We decided to leave the steady bite and search for a hot bite. Trent pointed his 26-foot Avenger up the Wando River, turned on the tunes, and we were off. Along the way, we set a catch-and-release goal of 100 fish. This was something that Shannon and Glenn had never done before. So, Trent and I were motivated to make it happen.
We stopped at a small creek that was draining into the main river. The trout bite was hot. It was not unusual for two of us to be hooked up at the same time. For the next three hours, we fished at multiple creek drains, and our fish count hit 75. As the tide slowed down, the trout bite did as well. It was time to target redfish.
Trent drove the Avenger to a shallow area in the upper Wando. Redfish were holding in small channels adjacent to oyster bars. We moved from oyster bar to oyster bar and caught redfish, trout, and flounder.
Steadily, our release count approached 100.
Glenn caught and released a 29-inch redfish. Our team was at the top of the leaderboard for trout and redfish. Shannon posted updates on the tournament text thread as we approached 100 fish. Her excitement was contagious. There was a lot of hooting and high-fives when we hit 100.
With 100 in hand, we called it a day. Trent pointed the Avenger downriver and blasted victory tunes for the ride back to the dock. Along the way, Shannon asked me to take a selfie with her. When she set up the shot, it made me laugh. A few days later, I still laugh every time I look at the picture.