Earlier this spring, Jay Tinsky (JT) ditched his kayak for the day and spent his 60th birthday fishing the fly division of the annual Sarasota CCA fishing tournament on my Maverick Mirage with me. For those who don’t know or haven’t fished with JT, he is an exceptional angler and is about as well traveled as an fly fisherman can get. He does bucket list fishing probably better than anyone I’ve met. In fact, he could use a second bucket just to hold the places on his list that he’s already checked off. He also acts and fishes more like someone in their 30’s or 40’s. He brings a lot of energy, skill, and knowledge.
We started the morning on dock lights. His best chance at a big snook was ruined when he jumped a baby tarpon on the first light. The commotion caused by the tarpon sent the rest of the fish in the light down to the bottom with lock jaw. He did manage to pull a few snook off of another light, but nothing that matched the tournament required snook size.
By about mid morning we changed strategies. We ditched our plan to go after a slam after it became apparent that JT’s best shot at placing in the tournament would be to focus on trout. So from there he focused on trout and methodically worked areas that held the larger trout.
JT ended up winning the trout division. A well earned tournament division win for one of the areas better anglers. Congratulations JT and thanks for bringing the good winning juju to the boat.
