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Old 04-07-2009, 11:04 AM   #1
FishDie
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Interstate 4
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Thumbs up Results - Great Tournament!!

2009 TBSC Winter Invitational Winners:
1st Place - Top Spearfisherman ....... Nick Russo...............135.15 pts
2nd Place -...................................Charlie Dombson........128.05 pts
3rd Place -....................................Trey Stickland..........110.80 pts
4th Place - ...................................Cory Phillips...............92.45 pts
5th Place - ...................................Bryan Anderson..........91.10 pts

Top Female Shooter........................Teresa Hattaway.........50.25 pts
Top Junior Shooter..........................Michael Mazzo............18.30 pts

Winner of the TBSC/Cliff Ellis Humanitarian Award.......Charlie Barnes

Largest Grouper Winner....................Nick Russo.................16.95 .lbs
Largest Snapper Winner...................Cory Phillips................ 6.15 .lbs
Largest Amberjack Winner................John Herrera...............30.15 .lbs
Largest Hogfish Winner....................Nick Russo..................12.75 .lbs
Largest Sheepshead.......................Bill Vandeman............... 3.40 .lbs
Largest Cobia/Cuda........................Armando Suarez............25.2 .lbs

Just want to say thank you to ALL of the sponsors, volunteers, and TBSC guys for making this first tournament of the west central coast of FL a great success!! We pulled up to the weigh-in with 10 minutes to spare and everything ran smooth. From the support crews working the fish, scales, and weigh-in slips it was flawless. The prize tables were stacked and it looked like everyone went home very happy with their picks from the table.

The format of this tournament is very different from all the rest with respect to your pick from the prize table and in my opinion that is what makes it such a great tournament to be a part of. If you don't already know your pick from the prize table is NOT governed by how many fish you shot or how big of a fish you shot, it is completely random. You could've entered the tournament and shot one 2 lb snapper and walked away with a 54-inch Spearfishing Specialty gun, just like our friend Dave did. This tournament brings the focus back onto the camaraderie of our sport and the fun of competiton.

Big thank you to Hungry Howies for sporting the hot pizza, it tasted great as always and it was demolished!

We lefted the ramp at 5 am and headed out to our first stop in 120. 2 miles out of the pass we were moving along at around 15 knots when I looked up to see white water breaking and rolling down at us. "Big wave!!" is all I could shout as Trey steered us into the breaker and we went airbourne. Both engines red lined and shut down. Alarms are beeping as Trey is attempting to re-start them and another breaker bears down on us with no power Thankfully the bow stayed pointed into direction of the waves and we bounced up and over the crashing white water. Trey finally got the engines fired up and we were able to move out of the impact zone before the next one jacked up on the sandbar. Interesting couple of minutes at 5:30 am 2 miles outside of the pass. On our way in later that afternoon we could see where we got caught - the north side of Egmont channel has a sandbar that extends way out past the first couple markers as we could see the swells still breaking on it. The impact zone was 5 feet deep with the early morning low tide.

We shot fish in the good vis conditions and slowly filled our categories. Jacks were first, followed by gags, snapper, and missed opportunities on cuda and cobia Never could find the hogfish once we moved into some of the more shallower spots. Trey managed to shoot a nice 3 lb brown snouter on our secret inside the bay spot, lucky SOB!! We had everything except our cuda (which seemed to know they were being hunted all f'n day and ended up being the deal breaker for us) and our hogfish category filled but Trey and I still managed to squeeze out 3rd (Trey) and 5th (me) place. Not bad for only running 30 miles out

Again, big thanks to all the sponsors, Tampa Bay Spearfishing Club, and most importantly to all the volunteers! You have no idea how key your help was in making this year's TBSC Invitational a very successful tournament!
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