Fishing the south shore of Tampa Bay we launched right on time, 6:45am. I brought a Zara Spook Jr in Red and White and a Exude Gold Dart, rigged on Slayer Inc weedless 4/0 1/16 oz jerk bait hook. My plan was to catch my Snook early, then work on the Redfish and Trout to complete my inshore slam. Making a direct run to my planned spot, I was welcomed by a huge blowup on my third cast of the top water lure. Shortly afterwards I had another one, but being a top water lure you usually miss more than you catch. That was the case today. So after my next strike I hear this terrible sound, like someone blowing their nose. I look over and notice these ducks on the water, except they aren’t real ducks, they are decoys. Next thing I know these guys startup the motor on their skiff and come cruising out to get the decoys. Just great. They ended up spooking my snook out of the hole and I never saw them again.

Later on as the tide turned and came back in, I spotted some tailing redfish. Probably 4 or 5 nice reds. I made what I thought was a perfect cast out in front of them, only to watch as they spooked the second the lure hit the water. It was a bigger school than I thought. I stayed out as long as I could looking for something to take a picture of, but it wasn’t to be.

My buddy Chris did manage a nice redfish though.

There were a total of 7 slams caught today ranging from 37" to 73" but not all counted due to the rules.

Here are the winners with a lot more story to follow-

Slam Division-

First Place-JoseC with a 59.25" slam. He won $235.00
Second Place-Native1-with a 55" slam. He won $141.00
Third Place-ChrisR-with a 51.25" slam. He won $94.00

Trout-
First Place-Cooknfish. 22.2"
Second Place-Kspops- 22"
Third Place-Bseggs-21.25"

Redfish-
First Place-13-31"
Second Place-Skinnywater-27.25"
Third Place-Norm-26.5"

Snook-
First Place-Kneedeep-30"
Second Place-Dawgfish-23.75"
Third Place-PBR-22".

Besides the cash the top two chose between a Wang Anchor and a print from finatic designs.

The first, second and third place winners received product or gift certificates from-

• Hook1
• Dogfish Tackle- Holy Mackerel-Mention the Paddle-Fishing.com Tournament Series for a discount when you go in!
• Canoe Country Outfitters
• Masthead Enterprises
• Backwater Paddles
• And other assorted merchandise from Paddle-Fishing.com.

Thanks go to Josh for the first aid kits and for suite tickets to a Tampa Bay Lightning game that will be given away at a future PFTS event.

Big thanks to Ed Halm from Backwater Paddles for his more than generous donation and making the drive to come join us. Nice to meet you Ed!

Thanks to all the anglers who participated, hope everyone had a good time. The format worked very well for everyone except for TerryB who lost his only two lures in the first half hour of the day. The ultimate hard luck award has to go to Kneedeep who had the field trounced with a 73" slam but failed to put his marker in his pictures for the first two fish. Sorry Paul and thanks for understanding.

Hope to see everyone and more at PFTS #2.