Here’s an episode of Panhandle Outdoors with some great footage about the tournament itself.
Also an article from the Panama City News Herald.
Winston Chester and Steve Petty had an eye-opening experience last week when they took Staff Sgt. Dave Flowers and his wife, Liz, on the Forgotten Coast Wounded Warriors fishing tournament out of Port St. Joe.
Steve supplied the boat and Winston was the deckhand. Also along was Jeff Peck, a camera man at Fox.
They left out of the marina behind the Bluewater Outriggers Tackle Store and went on a five-hour tournament trip with red snapper, king mackerel and dolphin among the categories they could fish for. First stop was the bell buoy to catch live bait.
There were several other boats there doing the same thing, and while they were chatting back and forth it was mentioned Steve and Winston had a Wounded Warrior on board. One of the other boats told them to come alongside and they gave them all the live bait they could use.
Steve put them on some fine snapper and Staff Sgt. Flowers and his wife caught many fish. One of his red snapper weighed 10 pounds, and his wife caught the prize-winning shark.
Brenda Garth, president of the Forgotten Coast Wounded Warriors, did much of the hard work getting this together for our veterans, with the help of George Duren, owner of Bluewater Outriggers.
Staff Sgt. Flowers lost a leg while serving in Afghanistan.
June grass: The slime or June grass or whatever you want to call it has arrived right on schedule. It gets on your bathing suit, but mostly covers your line if you try to surf fish. For all practical purposes, fishing from the beach is over until August. It still is possible to fish from piers, but get too close to the beach and your line will gum up with the green grass.
Snapper season: After talking with several local fishermen it seems as though the excitement about snapper fishing didn’t last very long. One said, “How many snapper can you catch before it gets boring?” It hasn’t gotten that way for me, but this summer heat really makes fishing a job. Go at daylight and get back by 10 a.m.
Tarpon arrival: The tarpon are here for those who fish with chicken feathers (fly rods). Go stake out or go search for them with green backs and spinning rods. Tarpon can be found from Mexico Beach to Camp Creek. It depends on how far you are willing to run.
I spoke with a man who caught one last week on a fly rod and he said it took him 58 minutes. You would not have thought the fly he used to catch this fish would have gotten its attention it was so small. As he was about to release the fish the hook snapped in two. He got several jumps and besides, tarpon taste terrible.
Snapper, tarpon or speckled trout are biting. Just go early and come home early.
