Maya is 6 months old this week- trying to sit up but doesn’t quite have it yet.  It is neat to watch the girls start to interact more- Chloe can definately make Maya laugh and they love to watch each other.    Chloe had her preschool Christmas program today- the children were singing and Chloe was yelling, “Look!  There’s my mommy!”.   It was a riot. 

We have not been great bloggers this winter- partially due to our new found addiction to Facebook!  We did finally get our Christmas card finished today so look for us in the mail next week!  Merry Christmas! 

We went to Oktoberfest with a bunch of friends Saturday night- in the pouring rain.  The kids loved it.  Face paint, puddles for splashing and german chocolate cake.  What more could anyone ask for. 

Chloe the... tiger? Maybe cat?

This picture is blurry but Jodi is actually in it so it makes the cut.

Aunt Mary Ann and Maya

The only warm/ dry spot in the tent.

Eins, Zwei, Zuffa!

By TBrax | September 25, 2008

Scott Scarola, Marc Lozier, Aaron Enright, Winston Brown, and Brian Libonati with the 7.24 and 3.86 lb. flounder that earned them the title of NC Flatfish Champions and $1,804. They caught the fish on live mullet and pogies around rockpiles in Snow’s Cut.

While it applies to many situations in life, the old adage “better to be lucky than good” is particularly apt when applied to fishing, and especially tournament fishing. Scott Scarola, Marc Lozier, Winston Brown, Aaron Enright, and Brian Libonati would definitely agree, as luck played a major role in their landing the 7.24 lb. flounder that anchored the 11.08 lb. two fish aggregate weight that secured their victory in the inaugural Fisherman’s Post Newspaper NC Flatfish Championship, held September 19-20 out of Carolina Beach’s Joyner Marina.
“This is the first flounder tournament we’ve ever fished,” said Scarola, minutes before the anglers accepted the signed winner’s print and $1,804 check they earned for first place in the aggregate category and the big fish TWT.
Deciding to target Snow’s Cut in their search for prize-winning flatfish, the Wilmington anglers caught several flounder, including two in the 3-4 lb. class, while fishing a number of rockpiles and holes in the Cut over the morning’s incoming tide. After unsuccessfully fishing another rockpile in 15′ of water, they decided to move to their next hole around midday, but they couldn’t get their anchor free from the craggy bottom.
“We probably spent five minutes trying to get the anchor up, and I finally said ‘we’re stuck guys, I hope you like this spot’,” Scarola explained. “I was saying ‘I hate the Cut’ at that point.”
Electing to fish their remaining baits in the hole instead of immediately cutting the anchor line, Scarola got a strike on a Carolina-rigged pogy shortly after the tide began falling at 1:00.
“I felt him hit, but I thought I was snagged because of the current,” he said. “So I opened the bail and let him run out a little bit. I set the hook and thought I was snagged again, but as I pulled it he moved.”
With only 10 lb. line on the rod he was fishing, Scarola had to treat the fish gently in the current rolling through the Cut.
“Everyone asked if I was hung up,” he continued, “and I said no. Then I brought him to the surface. When he came up, everybody got really excited.”
With only a broken freshwater trout landing net in the boat, the anglers had a conundrum on their hands.
“We were trying to back this truck of a fish into a broken net that was just a trout net,” Libonati explained, “and everybody was just yelling at each other. It was fantastic.”
Finally, the anglers were able to bring the big flounder aboard their 23′ Sea Fox.

Fishing for a short while longer, they prepared to cut their anchor line and head for the scales, and miraculously the anchor pulled free. The anglers were the second team to weigh in, and they watched nervously as 27 more teams brought their fish to the scales. No one, however, was able to best either their big fish or their aggregate weight…
…In keeping with the event’s commitment to conservation, Fisherman’s Post offered a $10 per flounder bonus for fish weighed in alive and in releasable condition. Troy Rezek, of UNCW’s Aquaculture Program, took care of handling the live fish, and collected them for the program in order to further their research into flounder farming methods that will eventually help reduce pressure on wild flatfish stocks.
The event also served as a fundraiser for the NC Coastal Land Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving ecologically important lands and waters in the coastal plain.

Scott and his buddies entered into the First Annual North Carolina Flounder fishing Championship this weekend.  They ended up winning first place!  It was a really big deal since there were 54 boats entered and many were professionally sponsored.  They were interviewed for the news and the Fishermans Post newspaper.  Scott caught the biggest flounder at 7.5lbs!!  Unfortunately, it became property of the tournament but we did eat several of the others that they caught for our Sunday Night Football dinner.

The Big Winners: Brian, Scott, Mark, Aaron and Winston!

We're in the Money!