Page 41 - Waves April

M Maxed axed axed axed axed OOut ut ut FFFishingishing

for him. Three days after the tournament, he passed
away. I grew up watching him fish and he had his rod
in the water just weeks before passing. I was hurt and
filled with anger that he was no longer here. I had to
make sure I finished off the series right and win it all for
my Pappy! It was a special day to say the least. I know
he was watching over me and pushing me right up to my
last cast!

Shout-out to my sponsors – Hunter Welch – Fish-
stix Rods, Jason Paul – Stinky Pants Fishing,
Michael Bosse – Down South Lures and Billy Ray
Wagner – SaltWater Soul.

his past weekend was the final of three Hook
Spit Junior Angler Association “Speckled Trout
Shootout” tournaments. I finished 1st in the
T Matagorda event and 1st in the Corpus Christi
event with my buddy Wyatt Foster. The final event was
in Galveston and I had to fish solo. I decided to go all in
and chose to walk-in for this tournament.

The first hour the weather was nice. Light winds, light fog
and a decent tide greeted me at sunrise. I caught my first
fish about 10 minutes in and after that it was a grind. The
wind and fog got really bad and boats were crowding me
all over the water. I caught my second fish about an hour
later. I grinded for my third fish and ended up getting
into a decent school of 2-4 lb. fish. Other boats were
watching me catch fish and in a matter of 10 minutes, I
had every boat in west bay on top of me.

It was difficult to keep the fish alive on
my stringer, shuttle them to my truck
and get into the cooler with aerators so I
could get them to weigh-in alive. No one
wants to lose ½ lb. for ‘dead fish’ penalty.
I managed to get to weigh-in with two
live and one dead. My big fish went 6.7 lbs. with a total
stringer weight of 12.6 lbs. which put me in 1st place. Find Max Online @

A couple days prior to the Corpus event, my great grand- www.facebook.com/max.conner.395
father, Pappy, age 90, was diagnosed with stage four stom- Instagram: maxconnerfishing
ach cancer and I promised I would win the tournament
Waves Magazine | May 2019 Issue | 41