Fishing Journal 2015_07-11:
The Sunshine Foundation Fluke Tournament 2015 came upon me with no real warning. I had my dates off although my calendar displayed the correct date. Along with other big changes going on at the moment in time it was easy to mess up the dates.
The plan was to stay at my friend and fellow kayak anglers camper which is located 20 min from the tournament spot. Leaving Friday afternoon after 5 hours of work. The decision to take all back roads to Egg Harbor proved to be a good idea and also was nice to take roads through areas in NJ I have never been. Most people think New Jersey is an entire state of industrial companies and polluted but there is a higher percentage of Jersey that is farmland and old colonial style towns.
Going straight to the captains meeting since being unable to get there until 6:30 Eric Chamberlain and his son Brandon were there. I went in and registered and received a T-Shirt and a captains bag. Then it was back to Ricky’s camp. Eric made dinner in a dutch oven consisting of beef potatoes carrots and broccoli calling it cave man food. It was decent. Someday I will own a dutch oven.
The alarm went off at 4 am. Ricky had coffee going and he made us all an awesome breakfast with scrambled eggs bacon and potatoes!. Great way to start a day of fishing hard! Then we were off. We drove down a pretty much single lane road through all of the marsh and over wooden bridges. I had never seen anything like it in NJ.
At the drop in we just backed our vehicles to the water and dropped the kayaks right there. After launching i decided to try a little jigging right at the ramp. First cast fish on! It was a short fluke coming in at 15″. Fishing wasn’t really that great. It was pretty windy all day. By the end of the day Ricky had 6 shorts and i had the same of 6 short fluke landed. Nothing close to a keeper.
On the way back I caught a few blue claws of really nice size just hanging on my jig! We fished 7 hours and the outgoing tide and part of the incoming.
Around 2:00 PM we headed in. Drove back to camp and hung out for a little while before heading over to the awards BBQ. The food was decent. It included Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Burgers, Dogs, Corn, and watermelon. They were selling a nice beer glass for 5.00 which included free refills of coors lite. The awards were handed out and no kayakers all 13 of us entered drum roll. No Fish! The tricky tray prizes were insane!
After the awards dinner we went back to the camp and I hung out with Ricky and his wife Becky. Ricky and I took a walk around camp. Showing me around some really nice spots. The sunset photo is from a point on the Mullica River. Chips Folley Campground is a really beautiful place. Its one of those hard to find Gems of New Jersey. 
Ricky and I had planned on going fishing again in the morning but he was pretty spent. He had a guide service on Friday and now had fished all day Saturday in the tournament.
I feel this tournament was well put together. I was surprised there was only 13 kayakers registered in the tourneys 4th annual. Its fun to fish new areas and especially with good friends!