I fished the Beach Haven White Marlin Invitational aboard the “Reel Determined,” captained by Jimmy Zavacky. We decided we were going to fish back to back days Tuesday and Wednesday.
Captain Jimmy was nice enough to let me stay at his house on Monday and offered to drive me to the marina over the next two days. We got to the boat early in the morning and got the boat ready to go out. We got to the inlet along with a few other boats and waited until the time to go.
When we got to the fishing grounds, we put all the lures on the lines. Then it was time to wait for the fish. We ended up not getting any fish on the first day. We went to the house and had some dinner and got ready to turn around and go back out the next day.
On Wednesday we got to the boat and relaxed a little because everything was already set up from the previous day. We went farther south than we did on the first day. We ended up catching two yellowfin tuna. One was 48-pounds and the other 32.8.
When we were at the scales, we saw a storm rolling in, and it was coming fast. We got the fish back on the boat and stowed the rods in the cabin. When we got back in the marina and turned the boat around to back in the slip, the first gust hit. It was around 80-mph and when the gust hit the boat, the isinglass blew out a bunch of stitches.
Through the events that happened in this tournament, I learned that critical thinking is very important. When we were pulling into the slip I had to think and improvise what to do because it wasn’t a normal docking situation.