The Two Tournament Weekend of June 3-5, 2005

The Stickmen competed in the 30th Annual Alabama Open this past weekend, June 3-5, 2005, held at Dauphin Island, Alabama.
Along with the Alabama Open, the 11th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tournament would also be taking place at Tacky Jack's
in Orange Beach, Alabama on June 3rd and 4th.  We would attempt to participate in both.

This years team included Jack deVilliers, Sid Smith, David Biron, Don Cooley, Ashton Blessey, A.J. Muller, myself and a new freediver, Eric Merritt.

We would be taking three boats; A.J. and Ashton on his Dusky, Sid, Don and David on the "Sheneeda" captained by Charlie Carr while Jack, me and Eric would go on Eric's boat we named at the dock "Stripper" captained by Earl Kelley.

We made a plan to get up at 0500 and be at the dock by 0600. Don, Sid, David and Charlie would be bunking at my house.  Well at least Don, Sid and Charlie.  Sid and his wife Candice brought their motor home, so they were stationed in my driveway.

Friday morning arrives and my alarm goes off at 0430.  I can barely hear some stirring in my house so I get up brush my teeth, not in a big hurry, and ease out into the main living quarters to find nobody.  The house was empty!  No smell of fresh coffee as usual... nothing. I look outside to see the "Sheneeda" gone as well.  "Those little rascals!"  I think to myself. "They are trying to pull a fast one on me".  I smile to myself thinking of the excitement they must have to think they are getting the jump on me.

I call Jack and he answers. "Hey, whatcha doin'?"  "Sipping on some coffee" he replies.  I respond with "Well, saddle up and get over here".  "Why? Aren't we supposed to leave at 6?" "Yep, but everyone's gone around here, so let's get moving" I say.  "I'm on my way, meet me at the Shell".  With that we meet at the Shell Service Station near my house so that I could get my dose of caffeine for the road.

We get to the dock and Charlie has got the Sheneeda in the water. Since this was the first time we would be diving with Eric, we didn't really know what boat to look for and they were lining up to launch and boats were everywhere.  Many just floating near the dock waiting for people to show up.

I'm scanning the area looking for Eric.  Finally I see some arms waving away.  "There he is!" I yell at the top of my lungs.  "He's over there on the Stripper". I point for Jack.  "Do you mean the Striper?" Jack comes back.  I look again at the boat and see that I had mispronounced the name of the boat.  Timidly I say "yeah" and we load our gear.  With that we are off.

We ease out of the no wake zone and see a boat getting pulled back in. "Hey look, there's David" Jack exclaims.  I look over to see David Biron standing on the bow of the Sheneeda waving at us.  We wave back.  I could see the hatch up and a couple of butts sticking up as someone had their head in the engine compartment.  Ironically, they were being pulled in by a boat named "Murphy's Law".  Weird!  I felt sorry for the guys as we headed on out.

The seas were a bearable 2-3 feet for our 21' boat.  "Let's head to the rig where we slayed the red snapper last October", I say to Jack.  With that we punched in the numbers and were there in about 30 minutes.  It seemed only fitting that we start off the season on the spot where we ended last year.

Me, Jack and Eric jump in to the green water.  The visibility was no more than 5 feet.  The place was barren.  No fish whatsoever.  Maybe that bull shark that use to live here ate all the fish, I thought.  We don't stay long before we get out and move on.

The next spot produced little too.  I shot a sheepshead and maybe Jack got a red snapper but it sure wasn't productive.

We move again.  Finally we hit a good area and everyone puts red snapper on the boat and another sheepshead.

The next spot that stands out was a rig that had a jack up work boat on it.  I took a picture and Capt. Earl dropped us off as he idled and waited for a signal.  I swim up to the structure and see a wad of barracuda.  I try to pick out the biggest of the bunch and hammer down with my new Wong Hybrid w/Riffe's reel.  The ride is on.  I wave to Earl as I pop up for a breath and he responds in kind. Jack follows with a cuda of his own.  Eric stalks for a while and gets digs on one as well.

I swim back over to the structure and make another dive. Amberjack are schooled below and I drop down and pick one out.  Category filled.  Since Earl was not fishing, I make another dive and dispatch one for the him.  I swim it to the boat and hand it up.  He takes it and the fish flops right back into the water.  "You didn't like that one?" I'm laughing at Earl.  "Mike, I am so sorry" he replies.  "No problem, I'll just have to go shoot you another one" and proceeded to do just that.

I look up at the rig platform and there must have been 20 oil field workers getting a nice show.  Everyone leaning over the rails to see the idiots below.  I wave and a few wave back.  The show goes on.  Jack gets his amberjack and I shoot a small rainbow runner.  We work the area for a little while longer and then drag up.

On the way to our next destination, we observe Ashton's boat in the distance.  We pull up to find them taking a break.  Ashton many times will bring along a lady friend and today was no different.  We encourage her to get in and snorkel offering her our protection.  She is about ready to get in when Jack comes up with a big red snapper. "I got a good one" he says as he swims to the boat.  He looks back down then up again, "Nevermind" a shark got him. I look down to see two medium sized bull sharks eating his fish.  Of course their were a few dummy red snappers looking at the main course getting eaten.  I breath up and make a dive right behind the sharks and pull the trigger on a nice red snapper knowing that my fish would be next on the menu but for some reason it was not and I brought it up.

Needless to say, no girlfriend of Ashton's would be snorkeling after that episode no matter how much we reassured her that it was safe.  We left Ashton and A.J. there to sort it all out as we moved on out to deeper water.

It was afternoon now and we were out as deep as we were probably going to go today.  This also happened to be the spot where I had lost a big mangrove snapper and almost lost my new Daryl Wong speargun a week earlier when the tip fell out of a trophy fish but nobody on the boat knew that this was the place.  I wanted to slip back over by myself while Jack and Eric dived the main part of the rig.

I made the long swim against the current to the separate structure.  I knew that whatever fish I shot would have to be taken all the way back to the boat before I could shoot another, so I chose carefully.  I lined up on a nice one but something inside of me said to hold off and I did.  I make another dive and whoa nelly, there she was; a fat mangrove snapper.  I waited patiently for the right time to pull the trigger and did so successfully.  I swim back to the boat with fish in hand.  "Nice snapper" Jack compliments me right away.  "Thanks, it may be a record", I respond.  I get on the boat and we weigh it up. Over 13 pounds was the best we could figure with the hand scales of Eric's.  With that I got Jack to take a picture just in case.

Time to start heading back towards Dauphin Island.  We hit maybe one more spot before bee lining it to the weigh station.  Jack offers me a hamburger (my favorite) on the way in. I savor it as I feel a quiet sense of accomplishment.

We arrived at Dauphin Island Marina at 5:00 p.m. The weigh scales were just opening and we were second in line.

I weighed the mangrove in first and it registered 13.20 lbs. a new Freediving World Record.  I felt happy but I couldn't get too elated because I knew that the Hell Divers Rodeo was going on at the same time over in Louisiana.  If a bigger fish was going to be weighed in, it would be there, I reasoned.

We motor slowly back to the dock to trailer the boat.  We were happy to see the Sheneeda there as well.  Charlie had found the problem and they were able to get out after all.  Good for the Stickmen.

Back at the house we ice some fish down and clean the rest. Some of the fish had to be saved to take to Orange Beach the following day to enter in the 11th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tournament.  Most of us were entered in both events.

By 10:30 p.m. the Wade household was silent as tired divers slept.

Day two begins at 0430 and once again I rise to an empty house.  I quietly pack my gear and drive to the Island.  Jack is already there as he stayed over at our friend Buddy Dunlap' who lives there.  I am tired as I make the trip over the bridge to the Island.  The seas were choppy in the bay, a prelude to what was in store for us offshore.

Today we would head southwest and the ride was bumpy.  We stop off at a shallow rig and don't see much.  I shoot another sheepshead.

The next stop had one boat tied up and another boat motoring around trying to anchor up.  To  our benefit the boat did not have out enough rope to get the anchor to hold and it kept drifting off the rig.  They finally pulled up current and Earl took the opportunity to drop us off next to the structure.  I signaled the guys that were tied up fishing that we would only be there five minutes and they waved back okay.

Jack, Eric and I commenced to load up on red snapper right next to the rig.  We had nine in the boat in nothing flat.  The fishermen watched with amazement as we did our thing. Back on the boat Jack looks at me and states that "We are masters of this environment."  I give him the nod and a wink.

Since we had to make the weigh in at Orange Beach, we had to make this a short day.  I was the President of the Orange Beach Tournament and could not be late.

In short order we were back at the dock and I was back home by 2:00 p.m. just as planned.

Sid, Candice and Charlie ride with me to Orange Beach.  Sid had a 26.45 lb. red snapper to weigh in and I had a barracuda.

We get to Tacky Jack's about 4:30 p.m. Just in time for me to get things organized.  The scales open at 5 and we weigh our fish.  Sid's red snapper takes 1st place and I win 3rd place with my barracuda.  Jack doesn't make it to my advantage and misses out on the fun.

The Orange Beach Spearfishing Tournament ends with lots of happy divers and not one negative word.  I load up the weigh board and bring it home for the next days festivities at Dauphin Island.  We get to bed around midnight.

Sunday morning I am awakened by Norborne Turner, the President of the Alabama Open wanting to know why I'm not at the Island yet. "You're not sleeping are you?" Norborne asks me.  "As a matter of fact I was" I reply.  "Go back to bed" he says laughing. "I plan on it" and hung up.  Five minutes later another diver calls me to ask when the weigh scales open; another one calls and wants to know where the awards are going to be.  "Screw it" "I can't sleep" I say to my wife Robin and get up.

Within the hour I was at Dauphin Island once again.  I help Norborne set up the prize table and give out diver packets.  I write the category names down to put in a hat so that we draw in random order.  I hawk some raffle tickets for a sea scooter and finally eat lunch; the standard fried fish, cole slaw, hush puppies and pork n beans.

The awards take place and Jack wins 3rd place barracuda while I take second mangrove snapper to my buddy Norborne Turner who edges me out of 1st place mangrove snapper with a 14.55 lb. fish that he shot on SCUBA.  I know he shot it at the same spot where I got mine as we talked about that spot all week.  Regardless, I am still very happy to have shot my fish.

Ditmar and Thomas Biller are present and offers their support.  Ditmar rigs up one of the many guns he donates for prizes and mingles among the divers.  All speargun makers should be so generous and involved.  The Billers hang around for a while after the awards making new friends.

Post awards we vote on new officers for 2006.  Norborne, Carolyn and I have paid our dues and are ready to pass the torch.  I have been working with the Alabama Open in one capacity or another since 1987.  Norborne as well.  It's time for some new divers to take the reins.

My final objective was to find out the results of the Hell Divers Rodeo.  It turns out that my mangrove snapper was not beat as of this time, so I guess I will turn my fish in and pray that it will hold for a while.

   
13.20 lbs. (13 lb. 3.2 oz.)

Thank God for a safe and successful weekend.

Happy Hunting,

Mike Wade
Stickmen Freedivers
Mobile, Alabama