6/20/05 - second place grady finish in the grady tournament

[alantani]

launched out of santa cruz on saturday for the grady white tournament and fished a large area from 36.52 north to 36.49 south and 121.57 east to 121.58 west. we needed 8 fish, we stuck 5, all on watermelon apexes at 60 feet in the morning to 175 feet on the wire at 11am. we took second place with a fish that weighed in at 20.1 pounds dressed.



it was mostly "pick on richie" day. richie is my nephew. he's 18, almost 5'10" and 200 pounds. as big as he is, it's hard to believe there's any japanese in him. oh, and he's all thumbs. i told him get up in the morning and he rolled over and went back to sleep. we found out on the way down that he forgot his fishing license, so we waited for him to get another one. i was circling the ramp area, dodging boats, and i saw him casually strolling back to the dock. i yelled at him sharply, "jeez, rich, can you walk a little slower?" now with a late start, we plugged in the numbers to mulligan and i'm thinking that the bite would be OVER by the time we got there. half way out, a boat crossed my bow running hard. i looked out to see the wild wave, a couple of other party boats and a dozen private boats. we changed course toward the fleet, dropped our lines in and richie immediately stuck a 9 pound fish. turning back over the same spot, my dad hooked up on another that bottomed out my 20# scale. it slowed for us, but we continued to pick our way south and wound up with 5 fish total. we had 6 hits, one shaker and 5 in the box. by the end of the morning, richie was actually starting to be helpful.



noon came around and we called it a day. back at the ramp, richie was supposed to go in for only a quick bite to eat. i pulled the boat out the water and parked it. rich came strolling by 45 minutes later and he was immediately rewarded with a soap bucket, wash cloth and rather terse orders to get all of the blood off the boat. i continued to stow our gear and finally stopped for lunch and a beer.



with the tournament over and our prize money collected, we headed back home. i have to admit, the kid worked pretty hard at scrubbing the boat down at the ramp and also once we got home. and he never once complained. i gave him the jackpot money, figuring he had at least $300 worth of abuse. hey, i have to protect my status as his favorite uncle. maybe it's a good thing i'm his only uncle!