Considerable conversation is swirling concerning king fish tournaments, bad weather and what ought to be done in the advent. Old salt Fishing Foundation received the following input from an anonymous member – Old Salt Moderator

It’s Fall King Fish season and along with that comes rain, wind and rough seas. The King Fish tournaments have been going on in this area for over 20 years, and the one sure thing every season is that the weather conditions do not cooperate

While I have fished my fair share of tournaments both on the Gulf Coast and the East Coast, the majority of my Kingfish experience has been behind the scenes, getting sponsors, gathering donations, setting up the events, running the weigh in and hosting the awards. It seems like the complaining about the weather has never changed. Now the complaining has moved to social media, while in years past we only had our VHF radios, the weigh in line and the awards banquet. Fishing in April/May and October/November is sometimes downright scary and even dangerous.

As a tournament coordinator everyone should know that it’s not easy to reschedule an event or even move it one day either direction. The size of the event does matter somewhat, but for the most part it’s a rain or shine event. The rare instances for a cancellation/change are a small craft advisory or hurricanes. For some of the local tournaments months go into the planning and set up, liquor licenses are purchased, tents are erected, cities are built, to reschedule would be catastrophic to the charities that benefit (there would be nothing left to give). While I could put so much detail about what it takes to organize an event, I know that really it doesn’t matter, what’s most important is the safety of our fishermen and their families.

All of the events in this area are Captain’s choice, which means you can choose to fish or not, but once you’ve paid your entry fee, you don’t get it back. Some of the events have tried to keep the entry cost low so if you do have to make that choice, you can and just know that your money went to a good cause. Some of the events like King of the Beach have fishing boundaries, so you can fish close to shore and remain safe knowing that no one else is going too far offshore either.

It’s the love of fishing that makes us want to get out there and do it year after year, so it’s really up to you; are you going to fish or are you going to stay home?