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Sully, along with the SWBA gang put on a inaugural "Spots for Tots" tournament in Newport Bay as a toy drive last sat. Entry fee was an unwrapped toy along with a few small side pots to keep it interesting. 31 boats showed up to support the event despite a dismal weather forecast which held off until the final moments of the awards.

Many took this event as an opportunity to get some/their kids on the water, very cool to see. I brought my daughter Raina & Karl brought his 2 older boys Zach & Hunter, some old Newport veterans. I knew Raina was excited about her first tournament but when she came into our bedroom at 1:30 A.M. asking if it was time to go fishing yet, it started to became a little clearer how excited she was. At around 4:15 A.M. when I was finishing loading up the truck/boat & returned to the house was surprised again to find her sitting in the living room with her backpack ready to go.

Karl's boys were a little slower to get going so we hung at the ramp until they got there, just missing the start. We chose to start on a corner dock to give the kids a full casting radius which we quickly learned was necc. First cast I flipped a Big Hammer grub way back into an empty slip & handed the rod to Raina telling her to begin a slow retrieve. About halfway back I asked her to stop reeling to allow the bait to sink, immediately the rod doubles over & chaos ensues. The fish managed to wrap the piling at the end of the dock as Karl is still trying to get the trolling motor working, again? Amazingly we get it unwrapped & into the net, high fives all around!

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Raina with our big fish of the day! "It tried to pull me out of the boat"

We bounced around for a while after that giving the kids some casting practice, tripping on the massive high tide. Karl hooked one on the crank but Hunter quickly took over wrestling our #2 fish to the boat. The kids are stoked because the fish in the well now has a friend & that's all that matters. Until Karl trained a few seagulls how to catch peanuts mid-air, next thing you know the Century looked like a scene from "The Birds".

After a few short fish & bathroom breaks Karl got a squeaker to round our our 3 but the fish hit at the boat so we still had to get Zach hooked up. Karl & I failed but in a last minute attempt to upgrade Karl & I were working some docks hard. Then we hear Zach's tell tale laughter from the back of the boat & he is bent solid on his little push button (which he can make sail). Another cluster as the wind is blowing harder than the TM can keep up with but we manage to keep the boat off the docks & get what turned out to be our only sandy.

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No way the kids were going to let us hit Newport without a shore lunch, Push Ups (thanks Karl) & some pigeon chasing.
It appeared the weigh in boat was having to much fun so we had to swing in for a visit:

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Safety 1st, right James?

Thanks again to Sully & the SWBA crew for another fond memory & setting aside so much of your time for a great cause!

Sorry for the late report, just haven't been able to get my head above water.