The weather was just gorgeous for fishing, with a light wind, 92 degrees, and the seas were two feet or less. This in itself was unbelievable, because if you have been following our tournament trail this year, then you know how many tournaments we fished in 8 to 10 foot seas. Summer has finally arrived to south Florida, thank you God.

Kevin picked Howie and I up at my place at around 4 am and we loaded up the truck and drove to Fort Pierce to meet up with "Nice-Guy" Bill and the Penguin.

All was going as planned and we were right on schedule. We had everything that we needed to win this fishing tournament. (Well, so I thought?)

We met up with Captain Billy and the Penguin, loaded the boat, and headed out towards the Fort Pierce inlet. On the way out to the inlet I looked over at another boat that was next to us, and spotted their downriggers. That's when it hit me...I forgot our downriggers in my garage!

"Oh boy...you guys are going to kill me," I said in a low pathetic voice.

Billy just told the crew that we will make it due, and we'll use trolling leads, and a make shift downrigger by using the downrigger balls and tying them to the cleat with monofilament. That's why I call him "Nice-Guy" Bill, he never gets mad and he always understands.

• Capt. "Nice Guy" Billy Wummer
• Bobby "The Pier Rat" Wummer
• Kevin "Two-Rods" Umphrey
• Howie "Sam Scott" Tuman
• Jeff "The Penguin" Mcdonald

We checked out with the committee boat just inside the Fort Pierce inlet at 6:30 am and headed north up the coastline to a place called the Vero Cove. We were boat #12 in a 125-boat tournament, and knew we needed to fish hard to place.

We arrived at the Cove around 7:00 am and put out our live baits. We were fishing in 15 to 25 feet of water and it was clear. The cove was loaded with bait! The schools of threadfin herring were everywhere.

I'm talking so thick, that at one point Big Kev looked at the depth recorder and said to Howie, "Hey, we are only in 3 feet of water!" I laughed at him and told him that the bait was so solid that the recorder wasn't even picking up the ocean bottom.

Within the first half hour, Penguin's rod, which was shotgun (way back) went screaming out. He hooked up and brought in a nice 25-pound kingfish.

Over the next hour we caught a few small barracudas, one bluefish, and had two cut offs on the wind on leaders above our short light wires.

Then the morning bite paid off, Big Kev's make shift downrigger that he had tied to the port cleat and only ten feet down went off. The reel went screaming out with the light drag setting, and Kevin was on!

He had hooked up in only 20-feet of water, so the fish had no where to go but out. Kev fought the fish and worked it towards the bow as I worked on clearing lines and ran the boat to pursue the fish. The big king came up to the starboard side and Captain Billy sunk the gaff home! We now had a 34.15 pound kingfish in the boat.

After some yelling and high-fiving, we left the other king boats and pointed the Spiced Rum's bow to the east, and put the proverbial hammer down. We knew that with an early kingfish in the box we only needed either one nice dolphin or a nice wahoo to be out in an early lead.

First we ran out to like 270-feet of water and put out the baits again. But, the water was so nasty and dirty that it wasn't long before we were pulling them back in, and moving back into cleaner water.

Once we got back into the 120-foot mark we put them back out and began slow trolling once again. It wasn't long before the shotgun bait once again got smoked. The reel was screaming, and I saw the fish jump.

"Dolphin....Nice dolphin!", we all screamed at the same time.

I ran the boat to chase the fish, as Captain Bill settled in for the battle. We like to get up on all of our fish, and whip them quickly, giving less chance to lose fish to jump offs, pulled hooks, and sharks.

Kevin was standing by the gaff, as Billy was saying his prayers. Bill wanted me on the gaff, but I was running the boat, so Kev would have to do the nasty. If he missed the fish, Billy would be beside himself! I didn't want that much pressure on me...would you?

Even Kevin knew of the pressure, and that all eyes aboard the Spiced Rum were on him and waiting to see what would happen. The dolphin came up in the bow, and Kev reached way down and stuck the fish. The big fish almost pulled Big Kev off the bow into the water! But, Kev pulled back and hurled the dolphin over the gunnel of the boat and jumped on it, so that it couldn't escape.

The dolphin was captured and weighed around 30 pounds on our scale. Later it would weigh in at 29.4 pounds.

Drinks Anyone?......Kev?

We slow trolled the rest of the day away with only one more knockdown on a small dolphin of 10 pounds. With two fish weighing in around the sixty pound mark we headed for the scales with time to spare, just in case.

Arriving at the scales early we were ready to weigh in. Big Kev and I carried the fish bag up to the scale and unzipped it, revealing our catch to the crowd. They were yelling and clapping as we pulled out the two biggest fish to be weighed.

Both fish were weighed in and had a combined total weight of 63.55 pounds. We went right to the head of the leader board and remained there for the afternoon.

I think the hardest part of the whole day was the pressure right there at the weigh in station. Just sitting there, waiting and watching, as the other tournament boats filed in to weigh in their catches. And the not knowing what they were weighing in, was weighing all of us down!

Big Kev had the right idea, to start drinking. Every time that I turned around, Kev was bringing back a round of drinks for the crew. I lost count how many mixed drinks that Big Kev put down, but by the time they announced us winners, he had a really good "glow-on." None for me thanks, I had to still drive these guys home later that evening.

Once the last boat had weighed in, and we were still in the "top dog" position, I knew it was all over for the fat lady. Yes, we had won the whole thing! Team Pier Rat has prevailed boys! We took home the grand prize of $15,000 along with another $500 for the calcutta. Not a bad days fishing hunh?