Key West Fishing Tournament Kick-Off

KEY WEST – This week in fishing here in the Keys could be described as a bumpy ride for many of the offshore fisherman. A blazing south wind made for high seas and some tough fishing conditions for our contestants in the Kickoff Tournament which starts the seven-month long Key West Fishing Tournament.

The greatest thing about this tournament is that captains may enter their catch at many of the local marinas and each angler receives recognition for their catch with a handsome certificate that they receive by mail. Doris Harris heads up the tournament and says it’s her way of giving back to fishing in our community now that she doesn’t spend much time on the water.

Thirty five boats and 131 anglers competed this year in the Kickoff Tournament. Participants were allowed to fish from their home ports around the lower Keys and could fish with up to 4 anglers per team.

Saturday was a blustery day for offshore anglers making it difficult to travel far for any particular species of fish. Angler Holly Amolio-Barr, of Key West, was fishing on the Double Down with husband and captain, Brice Barr. She described the fishing to be fun but a challenge in rough seas. “At one point I was trying to photograph the sailfish and got complete drenched by a wave.” Barr explained that she had persuaded two of her good friends who were here on vacation to fish the tournament with her, making for an all-girl team. “They were all good sports for their first fishing experience,” Barr said.

Team Double Down ended up with a total of 7 sailfish releases, three were by Barr herself. She topped the category for Most Sailfish Released and was awarded a beautiful sailfish sculpture.
There were only a few boats participating on the flats, one being Captain Tim Carlisle on The OutCast, and his angler Gloria Rampfel, both of Sugarloaf Key. Carlisle has always been very active in the Key West Tournament and this year was no exception. After the first day of fishing Rampfel had 14 released bonefish under her belt. There was certainly no slouching off on Sunday for Rampfel. When the day was done, Carlisle had put her on another 13 bones leaving them with 27 releases over two days. Ramfel took the top award for most bonefish releases.
Other division results include heaviest kingfish, 54.4- pound kingfish caught by angler Jeff Leach of Jacksonville, FL. Leach was fishing aboard Second Generation with Captain Rob Delph. Heaviest dolphin award went to Donna Tucker of Middletown, NJ, fishing aboard Mad Dash with Captain Finnlay Sinclair. Although there have been several more dolphin caught this week, rough seas had made it tough to travel further into the Gulfstream for the slammer dolphin.
Heaviest Barracuda was awarded to Karl Paganelli of Sand Lake, MI. Paganelli landed a healthy 23.12-pound barracuda. He was fishing with Captain Chip Veach aboard the Super Grouper.
Wreck and reef fishing has continued to be pretty good around the lower Keys area this week. Chris Decker, fishing aboard the Rainmaker out of Ramrod Key, managed to take first prize for heaviest mutton snapper. His fish weighing in at 17.8- pounds.

The largest cobia of the tournament weighed in at 76.12- pounds. A new record for this tournament in the men’s 20- pound line class. The catch was credited to Karl Paganelli of Sand Lake, MI fishing with Captain Chip Veach on the Super Grouper. Paganelli is a veteran angler to the tournament who also took the 30- pound class division achievement award in 2005.
Heaviest Grouper went to Ron Glinski of Whiteville, NC. Glinski was also fishing with Captain Rob Delph aboard Second Generation. His fish weighed in at 31.4- pounds.

There must have been some hot fishing action aboard the Capt. John’s Greyhound out of Charter Boat Row in Key West. Two anglers brought home top awards for Heaviest Mangrove Snapper and Heaviest Grunt. Thomas Grainey of Key West landed a nice 3- pound 12 oz. mangrove snapper while Laural Gikas of Rogers City, MI caught a 2- pound grunt.
Most tarpon releases was awarded to David Stern of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, fishing aboard the New Horizons with Capt. Bruce Cronin. Stern landed 8 tarpon over the two days of the tournament.
Most permit releases went to David Pesi of Miami, FL, which fishing aboard the Sea Spirit. Pesi released one permit.

And last but not least was the Junior Division champ who not only won heaviest fish but also an award for furthest traveled. Brendon Roebuck of Chatham, Ontario was fishing with his father Cliff aboard Sting Rea with Captain Justin Rea. The Roebuck’s spend plenty of time fishing on their lake in Ontario so it’s no surprise that Brandon was able to spot a nice 8- pound redfish on the flat, make the cast and land the fish. Roebuck landed several other fish including another redfish, seatrout, bonnethead sharks and jack crevalle.

Other mentionables in the tournament were Captain’s Best Catch which was awarded to Capt. Chip Veach for guiding two winners, one of which is a new tournament record. The other was the Hard Luck Award which went to Sandra Downs of Cudjoe Key, FL. Downs was fishing with her family aboard the Sea Hawk. Several unfortunate events throughout the tournament contributed to this award. One crucial event being the loss of a 20- pound dolphin that jumped off the gaff.

March 14th through 17th marks the first annual March Merkin Permit Tournament here in Key West. This fly fishing only tournament took the place of the Del Brown Permit Tournament which was moved to July after last year’s popular vote. It seemed as though anglers were getting tired of the poor weather conditions in March and July posed a better time for calmer weather and better fishing.

Luckily for the March Merkin tournament organizers, John Ain and David Horn, the weather has been nothing but beautiful and we will probably see a higher number of permit releases this week. Twenty three boats are scheduled to fish the tournament and some of the top permit guides and anglers are participants. Look for fish stories and results next week.