A Sure Thing

      November tournament fishing is my favorite time of the year.  The excitment along with the pressure of finding the heavest fish can be an adventure of a lifetime.  I had me a ringer for a fishing partner.  My lifelong friend John, who is a local guide and fished almost everyday.  His knowledge of how to catch the big fish, hinged with my knowledge of the local waters, made the tounament feel like a sure thing.  So all we had to do is just make the weigh in to win; one would think. 
     John and I grew up fishing together, so we knew we fished the same - All day without stopping.  The Captains meeting had the usual menu - Fried fish, Grilled fish, and Low country boil - yum!  There were a lot of good anglers fishing, so the competition was going to be tough.  The rules were simple.  Lines in the water at 6am and weigh in five fish. The species was trout, redfish, and flounder.  You could weigh in all trout or flounder, but only two redfish could be weighed in with your catch.  Prizes and cash were to be awarded for the biggest fish in each category.  The enrtry fee was 200 dollars per angler and the purse was 5000 dollars.  This just ratcheted down on the tension for both of us.  We had always fished against each other in local tournaments, but we had never fished together in a tournament.  Come to think of it, we hadn't fished together since highschool. 
     The tournament day had the worst conditions possible.  The temperature that morning was 35 degees coupled with a blusterly northeast wind, made the tournament even more arduous.  We started out at 4am that morning.  We had went out the day before and cast for our bait, so all we had to do was get to the drop.  We used a 22 ft. flats boat with a 250 hp mercury pushing it.  Needless to say, the wind had nothing on the speed of the boat.  John hit the light switch and immediately everything in front of us lit up.  He looked at me and said  "Are you ready?"  I replied, "Can I pray first."  With an exasperated sigh he replied, "sure".  After a small prayer,  John looked at me and said, "Thankyou bud, I think we are going to need it today."
     With the words "Cover on your face",  John pushed the throttle all the way down. With speeds reaching the 70 mph mark, we headed south, way south.  Our destination was Jeckyll Island.  We had talked about it the night before, and decided that would be our best bet.  The only thing was to make the weigh in by 5 that afternoon.  After a hour and half of riding hard in the dark, dodging bouys and markers, we arrived at our journeys end.  It was called Christmas creek.  Daybreak had just started, so we waited for 6am.  With 15 minutes to spare we both sat back,  opened a thermos of coffee, and talked liked long lost friends playing the remember when game.  Laughing and enjoying the few moments of reunion,  we both looked at the time on the GPS and said in a joining voice, "Lets go get 'em."  Tucked back out of the wind and the water clear, our first cast were dead on, two trout weighing 4lbs. a piece.  That set our mark, nothing smaller than 4lbs.  Our trick was a big livewell for the fish,  hence we didn't loose any weight by icing down the fish.  There were few words spoken for the next hour other than,"Get the net", and "Thats a nice one."  I stopped fishing for a moment and glanced in the livewell.  We had 10 trout, all 4lbs or better, but I knew we needed those big reds to win. 
     I took my live shrimp and popped the head and tail off, peeled it, and threaded it on my hook.  I shallowed up, and with a perfect cast at the bank,  waited for the big red to bite.  wham!  The cork dropped out of sight!  The line peeled off my reel.  I didn't even set the hook.  This one was hungry.  John reeled in and grabbed the net.  After 10 minutes of fighting this fish, he finally gave up.  With the net gently placed under him, John hurled the big red in the boat.  A quick measurement,  22 7/8 inches - perfect.  We checked the weight 5.9lbs.  John broke the silence with "I often wondered how you caught those big reds."   I replied "you taught me that years ago."  His remark was "You know we are going to fish together for now on."  I replied "You know you will go to Church with me this Sunday too."   We both laughed as if we knew we were going to win.  After landing three more 5Lbs. reds,  I told John, "We need a big flounder to round out the day.  He said, almost shouting with excitment, "Lets move!"
    We headed up the river, way up the river.  It was 9:15 in the morning and we had enough fish to win, but we wanted all the prizes and cash.  We arrived at a spot that John had only fished once,  and that it was a sure thing for flounder.  We switched our bait to pollywogs, a small tadpole looking minow that any fish especially flounder find irresistible.  We cast over into a small pool of water sorrounded by a sandbar.  Both our corks started slowly driffting under the water.  We knew the bite was on.  A double,  and they were big!  I landed mine first, dragging it over the sanbar,  netting it, and dropping it in the livewell, hook still in its mouth.  John, playing his all the while, was hesitant.  He said with a worried voice, "I might not land this one."  Smiling, I boosted his confidence by saying, "That small fish, come on!"  That sort of fired him up.  I pulled the anchor and pushed the boat up to the edge of the sandbar.  I laid down on the front of the bow, reached out and placed the net in the water.  I said, "Just ease him over the net."  He proceeded to do so, but it wasn't easy.  After fighting him for 20 minutes, the flounder lay perfectly in the net.  I yelled out, "Hurry grab the handle!"  John dropped his rod and grabbed the net.  We both pulled the flounder over the sandbar and lifted it in the boat.  John Yelled to the top of his lungs the rebel yell!  I just sat on my knees in amazement.  I had never seen a flounder that big.  We weighed my flounder, a mere 5.2lbs.  I knew there was no comparison to John's.  I put mine back in the livewell.  John weighed his -- Are you ready -- 11.6lbs.  After a few high fives, I pushed us back off the sandbar, and we started back to the weigh in.  We arrived back an hour early.  We sat, anchored not to far from the weigh in, waiting and reminising about the day, occasionally peeking in the livewell at the huge catch we had made.  We both agreed that we would always fish together in tournaments and that John would try to start going to Church. 
     It was our time to weigh in.  We placed the fish in a cooler with a little ice.  As we approached, the other anglers started to murmur, "I wonder how they did."  The winning weight so far was 22.9Lbs.  That says a lot for the competition we had.  We slowly opened the cooler and everyone gathered around in amazement,  staring and gasping at the sight of the catch. The awards and money was to be handed out at the end of the weigh in which was at 6pm.  We weighed in 32.4lbs of fish, and won all the cash and prizes.  One would think that it isn't fair for us to fish together.  The way I look at it is this.  If I can win John back to Jesus, then I have won the grandest prize.  A soul that will enter heavens gates,  and a true friend for a lifetime.
     In Philippians 2:13 it says  "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fufill His good purpose."  My only hope is to be a good steward of Christ and set an example for John.  I hope that he sees Jesus working in my life, therefore he will want the same in his life.  I do know I will one day win him over to Christ.  My only hope is that it is not to late.  May God bless you all.