I don’t know what was on special at the bar, but it sure was ladies night on the docks behind AJ’s Saturday.
“Wooo! You go girl,” yelled a chorus of female voices sitting in the bleachers, watching as Amanda Raines was announced as the leader for grouper in the ladies’ charter division. Moments earlier, the Marietta, Ga., resident had brought in the ladies’ biggest amberjack of the day.
Though squeamish about touching the fish’s tail for a ceremonial photo, Raines acknowledged the audience’s applause with a smile as she turned to them and mouthed, “I’m the only one who caught anything!”
Raines wasn’t the only lady with reason to party Saturday night. Robin Haynes may not have caught the biggest party boat grouper, but she might as well have.
“It’s her fish,” said Mike Faulk, the Niceville angler who caught the gray monster.
“And we’re gonna eat it,” Haynes said, as she gleefully failed to avoid a cascade of dripping rainwater coming off the Sweet Jody. “It was a long, slow, steady, hard fight.”
Faulk said the weather had been beautiful until they were heading back to the dock. At about 5 p.m., the heavens opened and a wind-driven rain sent spectators diving for cover by the bleachers or inside AJs Restaurant and Seafood Bar.
Rodeo weighmaster Bruce Cheves said the weather was par for the course as Week 1 drew to a close.
“The whole tournament, nothing’s been nice,” Cheves said, praising the captains and then the observers. “I got to hand it to y’all, too. You’re sitting under a bunch of rain holes, you’re sticking it out.
“That’s part of what makes it so fun.”
— Julie Hatfield
