The ladies ran the show at the Dottie Dunbar tourney

For the most part, when it comes to fishing, the book title "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" couldn't be more true. To prove this point, tell me if this scenario applies to you. The man convinces the lady of the house that a boat is what they need, using statements like "Just think honey, we can go out every weekend exploring and fishing, and it will make us just that much closer." After some masterful convincing, she finally gives in and they buy a boat. But on the maiden cruise, the weather turns to mush, the seas get scary big and the couple never goes out on the boat again. Sound familiar?

I try to get my wife to go fishing with me all the time and the answer is always the same: "How long will we be out? I don't want to fish all day long." Nine times out of 10, I end up fishing alone. But there is one day every year when all of these discriminatory observations about women and fishing can be thrown out, and that is when the Dottie Dunbar All-Woman Fishing Tournament comes along. This year marked the 17th year in a row that the women took to the water -- and what a day it was.

But before I tell you who won and all the juicy details, I thought you might want to know a little about Dottie Dunbar and a story or two about past tournaments. So who in the heck is Dottie Dunbar? Well, for one, she's probably one of the first people I met when I moved to Hilton Head in the early 1960s. I was six yeas old and already a fishing freak. With my toothpick legs and a goofy snaggletoothed smile I would do anything to go fishing. And my dad knew this so on his way to work he would drop me off at the only marina on Hilton Head --Palmetto Bay Marina-- and leave me there to fish off the dock. That's where I first met Dottie and her family, who owned Palmetto Bay at the time. It was a family affair: Dottie, along with her mom, dad and brother Stuart, worked the marina day in and day out. Dottie was slightly tomboyish and could do about anything a man could do -- I remember her running the forklift and moving boats in and out of slips. But most memorably, the family was about as nice a folk as you could every find. I have nothing but great memories about those days.

As the island grew, the Dunbars sold the marina, but their legacy remained. It was Dottie who came up with the idea of an all-woman fishing tournament. Though she now lives in Columbia, the tournament is still going strong. No matter the weather -- rain, sleet and freezing cold-- the girls always go.

One year really stands out in my mind. It was all of the above -- cold, windy and just plain miserable. My wife, Karen, and three other girls entered and I drew them up a map of where they should go and when. In the midst of a howling storm, I decided to check on them, knowing that they would be in a spot where I could see them from the road. Sure enough, they were there -- but I noticed they never moved. It was then I remembered that I had warned them that the battery was not too good and to keep the engine on so the battery would remain charged. Well, I could tell they were stuck, so I went and bought a battery and trudged across a hundred yards of marsh and knee-deep mud with a battery on my shoulder. Needless to say, they were absolutely stunned when I showed up with that battery. For a couple of hours I was their knight in shining armor -- or at least that is what they said.

This year I agreed to help islander Charlie Fraser guide his wife, Linda. Talk about a fisherwoman. Linda loves to fish, as do so many of the other participants in this tournament. They bait their own hooks and can cast as well-- if not better-- as a lot of men I know. But if I had to say what they do different, it would be that when they hook a nice fish, they like to scream. I got the biggest kick out of watching Linda reeling in a big redfish. With Charlie and I coaching her way too much, she would turn, look at us and tell us to shut our yaps. It was priceless.

To prove the prowess of these gals, here are the stats: this year 23 redfish between four and five pounds each were weighed in at Palmetto Bay Marina. That beats the last pro redfish mens' tournament held here!

Prizes are given for the top three weights for redfish and the top three trout, and here are the winners: In the bass division Rhonda Lee took first place with a 5-pound redfish, followed by Linda Fraser with a 4.9-pound red and Dana Lucceshi with a 4.8-pound fish. In the trout category, check this out: Blufftonian Cindy Sullivan crushed the competition with a 3.7-pound trout. That is a monster. Second place went to Holley Miles and third went to Catherine Waterhouse. So get out there gals, because the fish sure seem to like your feminine touch!

Collins Doughtie is the outdoors columnist for the Bluffton Packet.