West Florida was well represented during the recent Bass Pro Shops Big Cat Quest Tournament.
Second Place went to the Florida team of Ed Turk, of Milton, and Ronnie Dixon, of Fountain, Fla. Their five fish weighed 154.45 pounds.
“It started out pretty bad for us. We headed for our honey hole and when we got there someone else was already on it. So, we went down river one bend and caught fish. God has his hand on us,” Turk said and chuckled.
The July 16 tournament was held on the Apalachicola River near Blountstown, Fla.
“We caught our first fish by 6:30 p.m. before it ever got dark,” Turk said. “Then we caught fish all night; probably about an hour apart. By 2 in the morning we had four fish and at 2:30 we caught our big fish that weighed 38 pounds.”
“Everything we caught were blue cats. We caught ’em on cut skipjack on a Carolina rig in anywhere from 12 to 24 feet deep. I give all the credit to my fishing partner, Catfish Ronnie,” Turk said. “He put us on the fish.”
Lonnie Fountain, of Jasper, Ga., and Jonathon Long, of Talking Rock, Ga., claimed first-place honors. The Georgia team had a five-fish limit that weighed 186.40 pounds. Fountain and Long also caught a big Apalachicola River blue weighing 48.15 pounds.
Third-place honors went to the Calhoun County team of Bill Steward and Jamie Lee with 126.55 pounds.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton man takes second place in fishing tournament