Over the last several years, although I have not placed, I have thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Fishing for Miracles King Mackerel Tournament. I have always thought the tournament was fun, well organized, and was happy to see the great contributions tournament organizers made to charity. This year my fishing team and I had reluctantly decided not to fish the tournament. Our reason was simple, we had only King fished one other time this year and did not feel practiced enough nor ready for this years tournament.
On the Thursday afternoon before the tournament, while I was working diligently at my desk beginning to schedule my Friday’s work day, I received a telephone call from Ken Suggs of Reel Johns Tackle Shop. Ken asked if I had plans to fish the tournament. I in turn conveyed my out of practice situation and how I was disappointed I would not be participating this year. Ken in turn told me that he, Scott Hammond from the shop and Andy another good friend of theirs were fishing together on his boat. He went on to explain that their forth team member was not going to be able to fish until Saturday and he was calling to see if I would like to fish with them on Friday.
I jumped all over the opportunity asking Ken what I needed to do to contribute. Ken explained that all the details were already taken care of and that all I needed to do was show up at the dock at 4:30 am. I could not have asked for more, not only was I getting the opportunity to fish, it was like someone had rolled a red carpet down the dock for me and asked me to simply climb aboard.
We arrived at Dee Oliver’s house, Ken’s father in law and the owner of the Reel John’s, at 4:30 am and loaded the boat with ice, chum, and groceries. Ken and those had spent several hours on Thursday evening catching some menhaden and had put them in a large bait tank keeping them alive overnight. They also had some frozen ribbon fish from the shop and by 5:15 “The Wet Therapy” was loaded with bait and we were making our way though Wappoo Cut.