My first Jbay tournament

[yakscientist]

This was my very first Jbay tournament, and it was overall a great experience, although a very tiring one as well. I was one of maybe 20-30 paddlers out of 320+ entrants (mostly hobie, but also slayer and native pedal drives too), and when fighting against the wind, it was pretty tough. I did manage to cover a lot of ground though, probably putting in a little over 30 miles total in between 4 days. I mostly caught bluefish on zmans and the old reliable tube n worm, though the tube didn't produce as well after the first 2 days, and not at all on the 4th and final day. I had never really targeted flounder before, but found myself becoming proficient at doing so about mid way through the last day, so next year I intend to spend at least 1 full day finding several keeper size flounder and 1 or 2 for the leaderboard. I caught many sea robins, many bluefish from 20-27" (not the huge 30"+ ones I really wanted, but still very powerful), and a few throwback 16" flounder and 1 keeper flounder. I think I did pretty well for my first year, and once I become more proficient with snagging bunker, I think I will be in good shape at getting a 3 fish slam. The fishery there is a very good one, and a very unexpected one, so close to a major city. Reading through the previous Jbay threads really prepared me, but talking to a lot of snaggedliners at the tournament prepared me as well. Camping was fun, but I was largely unprepared, like John said, the nights were very cold towards the end of the trip. The wind buffeting the tent kept me awake almost entirely through the 2nd night, and the cold kept me awake the third night, so I really only got 1 good nights rest. Next time, I plan on being more prepared for sleeping in the cold, and will bring some ear plugs, and hopefully some sort of portable rinsing system. Those items would really add a lot to the trip, but overall, it was an awesome (but tiring) experience. I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to catch larger versions of fish they are familiar with (rockfish, flounder, blues) and maybe not so familiar with (sea robin, and the elusive weakfish). It was also great to meet some fellow snaggedliners face to face, who apparently are all named Carl. I am Carl, we're all Carl.

[Mark]

Sounds exhausting but also like lots of fun.

You got into some quality fish.

Congratulations.

[Rockchaser]

Nice report Carl.

[Redfish12]

It was nice meeting you Carl(s)! Congrats on catching some fish as a paddling kayaker unfamiliar to JBay! You did much better than I did on my first trip up there paddling an Ocean Trident.