My two girls Robin (14) and Jamie (15) along with their cousin Zack (15) have been really looking forward to the MBGFC Jr. Angler tournament that was held this past Sat.  My hat really goes off to the MBGFC for the work they do putting on this event and the overall feeling they give off to the kids.  Great event for the kids.

After reviewing the satellite images and deciding that blue water was not in striking distance we made the choice to fish the nipple/131 hole area.  We kept the boat overnight at Orange Beach Marina, which made leaving out so much easier! Met up with friends the Graves at the pass at 4:30 AM and headed to the nipple.  Arrived at nipple a little over an hour later.  Put out dredges on both transoms, Mold craft lures up close, Islander/ballyhoo midway back and ballyhoo on the long riggers with a Ahai jet way back center.  Trolled in pretty, but dark water till noon.  Around noon a school of 50#ish YFT started skying just off the bow.  As we approached the school we get two screaming knock downs.  One on the way back jet on a Tiagra 30 and one on an up close Sr. Mold craft Chugger on a 50W.  To make things fair we had assigned which rods each kid would be responsible for, as it were, Zack had the tuna on the 30 and my daughter Robin had the tuna on the 50W.  Both drags are screaming like there is not tomorrow!  We clear deck and settle in for the fight.  After maybe 5 minutes Zack’s fish just comes unbuttoned??? No worries Robin’s is solidly hooked up.  Maybe 30 minutes later we see double line then leader.  I gaff the yft and a solid 50 lbs yft is on the deck!  My daughters first blue water fish!  High fives all around.

Fish rest of day without another hit.  We see schools of tuna but are not able to coax them into hitting.  To top off a great day we saw numerous whales throughout the day!  Could not get pics of whales, but did get some good video that I may post later.

Robin wound up winning 1^st place tuna and nice plaque and a Nintendo Wii as well as getting her picture taken under the banner.  Really cool for Robin!  I had my kids totally involved, they helped prepare the ballyhoo, set drags, even hooked them up the Braid harness and tied line to my truck and had other child drive off to let them see what a drag screamer on a 50W feels like!

They can’t wait to go again!!  Dad just needs a bigger boat!!

testing drag settings

rigging ballyhoo for circle hooks

Sunup at the nipple

1 of 2 dredges I pull

Nephew Zack hooked up on a YFT

I could not get her to get any closer to the YFT!

Taking fish to weigh dock

Robin rec her Wii and plaque

MScontender

Skip

Guess the water wasn't that bad for YFT to be around. You just made some awesome memories. Good job.

team 

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I am a strong believer in dredges, especially in outboard powered boats where we don't have those throaty diesels to raise fish.  I also run two dredges, and I add two loooooong daisy chain surface teasers.  All this hardware is a pain when you get into the thick grass, or when the little dolphins attack, but the rewards are worth the trouble, as evidenced in your pictures.

Is that a Calcutta dredge?

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