We left the capt meeting and finished up getting everything together on the boat that night and set the alarm for 2 am. Never really did get to sleep from the excitement. On the water at about 3:30 and headed for 3 barges. Turned on the underwater light and put out 3 rods and sat down listening for a clicker at about 4:30. Shortly thereafter I see the line on the 30 going in a little bit different direction than the other 2 rods. Pick it up and investigate. Fish on and running. We cleared the other rods and settled in for the fight. After maybe 10 min and almost dumping the 30 twice broke it off. Couldnt believe it but set right back up and put everything back out. No more than a few minutes later the line on the 30 is doing it again. Gave him a little slack to make sure he got the Owner in his face real good. Fish on again. After fighting it for a good 30 min and realizing I could use a good harness because the little rod belt we have wasnt doing much for me I start gaining pretty good. We get color after a while and get the big nurse shark up next to the boat. Decided it was coming back with us just to be safe and get on the board. We found out that it is not easy to tail rope a nurse shark, theres not much to grab onto. The fish was pretty tired out so my dad grabbed the tail best he could and I put the rod in a rod holder and leaned over and started making wraps and knots and hitches and stuff around the shark. Cleated all the lines off and got everything back together on the boat and got ready to bring the fish on the deck. When the nose was up against one side and the tail was pushed up hard against the other side I was pretty excited to weigh it. I was thinking 180. Made a nice slow ride back to the scales. Weighed in the first fish of the tournament at 164.2 pounds. MyAmy brought in their hammerhead right after us and showed everybody a real shark. That was a big fish. Sunday we headed out before daylight and got out about 10 miles and set up a chum line. It was a fun ride out in those seas :boo We chummed hard for a few hours just to have flipper eating the snapper out of the chum kind of messed things up. We decided to call it and hope that my 164 would hold up in the JR angler. Kind of wondering if there is any official results? Anyway it was a fun tournament. Thanks to Tommy and crew and Outcast.
