It was way to early when my alarm clock started screaming at me at 4:50 a.m. on Sunday November 9th. I didn’t get much sleep from the anticipation of competing in our team’s second fishing tournament. In fact, I hadn’t slept much since I got the call from one of my fishing partners, David Sewell, last Friday letting me know that we had been invited to participate in the Charleston Inshore Anglers’ Sheepshead and Trout Tourney. Finally the moment was at hand.

My first job of the day was to pick up lunch, beverages and ice at the grocery store and arrive at the City Marina to meet up with another one of my fishing partners, Captain Mike Illig. I arrived at 6:10 a.m. actually 10 minutes later than I was supposed too. I blamed it on being in a wheelchair. Poor excuse, but I’m sticking to it. Once we loaded all the coolers, fishing gear and bait we were off.

That day we were fishing out of the Anchors Away Program’s deck boat. I love this boat. It has a large platform in which I can move around in my wheelchair without much difficulty. This boat has been a staple for the Anchors Away Program for the past 15 years. It has served hundreds of individuals with disabilities ever since.

Captain Mike had our strategy all worked out. First, he said we’ll try to catch some Bluefish, and then we’ll go after Sheepshead and later in the day go for Trout and Redfish. We knew we had three categories in the competition. Largest fish with scales(no sharks) ; largest Trout and largest Sheepshead. This strategy sounded great to me. I didn’t know what a Bluefish looked like but I was eager to find out. We located a group of birds working some baitfish, a good sign the fish were in the area, so the hunt was on.

Within a few casts, Captain Mike had a Bluefish hooked and handed me the rod. As I reeled in the fish, Captain Mike had another fish hooked on my rod. We landed both fish and continued to catch several more. We kept the largest fish returning the smaller ones back into the harbor and set off to fish for Sheepshead.

Now for those of you who don’t know Captain Mike, let me tell you, he is a die hard fisherman. He is a student at the College of Charleston getting his degree in Marine Biology. Being a mere 24 years old and blessed with good looks and a heart of gold, this kid can fish! I feel honored to be his teammate. But enough of that, back to the story.

We fired up the boat and headed for an area that Captain Mike had witnessed fishermen pulling out some large Sheepshead. Then it happened. The motor quit. After numerous attempts to restart the motor Captain Mike determined it was necessary to perform emergency surgery on the motor. Now being from the medical profession for the last 15 years I don’t get too excited about surgery! It’s a necessary procedure needed to correct a problem. However in a fishing tournament, repairs to a motor could cost us the opportunity to finish the day. This could possibly eliminate us of any chance of winning. My only option at that point was to eat a Butterfinger and soak in the beauty of the harbor. After drifting with the outgoing tide for 15-20 minutes. Captain Mike emerges from the rear of the deck boat and starts the motor. “I was able to buy us some time, but the problem is not solved. I had to directly run the fuel line into the back up gas tank and that’s all we have to use for the remainder of the day”. Anyway we were up and running again.

We pulled up to a place that had concrete footers covered with oysters about a foot out of the water. We tied the boat directly to the footers and Captain Mike went to the front of the boat with a tool that looked like a gardening hoe. He proceeded to knock off the oysters with the hoe. He told me that was like ringing the dinner bell. He took a pole and dropped a line down to the bottom. After a few seconds he was reeling up a small Sheepshead. I followed his lead and dropped my line to the bottom. Although I had never caught a Sheepshead before I translated their bite to that of crappies and found myself pulling several out of the hole. Now we had caught fish in two in the three categories and we were feeling good about our chances. It was time for us to move to another Sheepshead hole on the other side of the Ravenel Bridge.

We decided it would be prudent if we filled up the back up gas tank before setting off for the next hole. We filled up the five gallon tank and took off for the next hole. On the way, I started fixing us a sandwich. About the time I had fished the lunchmeat out of the cooler the boat died again! We would get it running and it would die again. Then again. We finally nursed the boat to a place that was full of wood pillars sticking out of the water. There were several other boats in the area and all of them were fishing for Sheepshead. We spent the next hour or so trying to catch fish but only had a couple bites. We made the decision to go back to the hole that had produced our first Sheepshead.

Once we were back at the original hole, I was fishing off the front of the boat and I looked back to see Captain Mike pulling his line up with his bare hands. He yanked in a 3 ½ pound Sheep Head. After slapping high fives and rebaiting our lines, Captain Mike had another large Sheepshead on. I grabbed the net determined to land the big fish. What a fight! Twice Mike had to stick the tip of his fishing rod in the water so the fish would not break his line off the bottom of the boat. I had missed netting the fish three times before we finally landed a huge Sheepshead. Captain Mike weighed the fish on his portable fish scale and it looked like we had a 6 pound winning fish in the boat. Time to go after Trout.

We headed to the Wando River where Captain Mike had caught Trout before. We placed several poles out with mullet, and crab. Some on the bottom and several with bobbers. After 30 minutes and no bites, I happened to look back at a pole my roommate loaned to me, and noticed the bobber was under water. I took up the slack and reeled in a nice 16 inch speckled Trout. Now our excitement level was at its peak. We knew we could weigh in fish in all three categories and possibly finish 1st in each. But would our motor get us back to the dock? Several times the motor did stall on us. In fact Captain Mike had to tilt the gas tank on an angle so the fuel line would reach the bottom of the tank. We made it back to the marina with less than 2 ounces of fuel left.

It was now 2:00 p.m. and weigh in was 3 hours away. Should we dare risk going to Captain Mikes’ honey hole where we were sure to land a keeper redfish? That was the million dollar question. One that still haunts us to this day. We decided to not risk the trip because of the motor and headed back to the slip to tie up the boat. It was a great trip back to the slip. I can honestly say my smile was ear to ear.

After unloading the boat and doing a few cleaning chores we headed to James Island for the weigh in.
After unloading the boat and doing a few cleaning chores we headed to the weigh in on James Island. This is where we got the privilege of meeting the members of the Charleston Inshore Angling Fishing Club.

We proceeded down a wooden boardwalk to a small building that the club calls the fish house. Several of the members were sitting around consuming beverages laughing and telling stories. Most of them lies I presumed. We were greeted by a bunch of guys who looked like they had spent the day out in the sun. I noticed two young kids fishing off the dock located outside the fishing house. As introductions were being made, one of the kids hooked into a redfish and managed to land it. This fish I guess to be larger than the Bluefish we had in the cooler. The boy’s father measured the fish and placed it in a cooler all ready full of fish. My hopes faded a little. It was obvious their father knew how to fish and he had the cooler filled to prove it!

Captain Mike stepped up to the scale and pulled out our largest Sheep Head. The fish weighed 4 pounds even, not the 6 we had read on our finicky scale. That on put us in 3rd place in that category. Next Captain Mike pulled out our Trout and placed it on the scale. Our fish placed 4th. When we looked at the leader board we noticed several fish that would outweigh our Bluefish so we didn’t bother to weigh it in. A few more fishermen brought in their catch to weigh in. None of these fish outweighed ours. We had done it, placed in the top three in our second tournament. I felt overwhelmed with pride. Over the nest couple of hours we enjoyed our time with our new friends.

On the drive home I could not help but think if the motor was running better the outcome might be different. But I was happy that we did as well as we did and delighted to have met some nice people. A great day overall.

Team Anchors Away was formed to promote the ability of persons with disabilities. Our mission is to fish as many tournaments as possible and all proceeds of our winning are used to continue the endeavors of Anchors Away. We would like to thank our sponsor Skibo’s Restaurant who provided our entry fee for this tournament.
-John Friend

John Friend moved to the Charleston area in 2007. John is a paraplegic and an accomplished wheelchair athlete.

Captain Mike Illig runs a charter service called Avid Angling Fishing Charters (www.AvidAngling.com) and donates his time to the Anchors Away Program (www.AnchorsAwayProgram.org).