Kwazar’s 49.03 is Best in Biloxi!

By Jack Holmes
Managing Partner

Biloxi, Mississippi—Marcus Kennedy and his Kwazar team members, Max Williams, Robert Young, Brett Rutledge, and Tyler Kennedy, had a big day fishing the South Pass oil platforms. I believe they were the only ones who went southwest out of Biloxi. "The fish are everywhere right now," explained Marcus to me. "Tarpon fishermen are even catching kings in the 30-pound range in the Bay right now."

Marcus told me that at this time of year you've got to have ribbonfish and you have to troll them deep. "We trolled ours 80 feet deep around the Main Pass rigs when at noon she hit. Max brought her to the boat." They had one other king on board that was in the mid-40s. "It was a great day on the water, I'm just a little disappointed she didn't go 50 but we still got the win for the tournament and the Pro Tour."

Papotanic with Jose Reyes, Bill Platt, Gill Strelec, Donnie Bennett, and Mark Bledsoe was the first Texas team to finish in the top five. The team, fishing a Yamaha powered Invincible, scaled a nice 47.01 good for second place. That was a nice finish, got them a paycheck, but it certainly helped them in the Pros, the same as it helped Kwazar, who is third in points compared to Jose's team with ninth place points. One tournament left for both of these teams in Orange Beach, Alabama in the Upper Gulf.

John Thomas Dusek, Pat Varga, and Mike Rizzuto was the second team to finish in the money that came from Texas. They fished a Yamaha powered Yellowfin named Boogeyman and scaled a 45.92 to earn third. "We haven't fished competitively since '07 but we're back," John began to tell me. "We went 55 to 70 miles south of Biloxi. We caught good fish all day but we had so many problems with sharks. It was one o'clock when the big girl skied 15 feet in the air close to the boat. Mike fought the fish and was successful in getting her to the boat."

He went on to tell me that the area they were in was within sight of seven rigs so it's where they stayed all day. "We really thought the fish was bigger, she was 60 inches long. I guess she was spent out." I believe most of the fish had the length but again the tails were all so small.

Fourth place went to Ritchie Byrd's Byrd Dog team, Jimmy Langham, Frank Lilley, and Ron Wiggins. Ritchie explained to me that they went to one rig and stayed all day.

"We were 65 miles southeast of Biloxi," he said. "We flew our kite, caught lots of fish, and had a great time." The team must have as they went through a hundred leaders. He went on to tell me, "We caught the 44.79 in the prop wash right at lunch time. We had a forty in the bag prior to that. Bait was plentiful. It was that kind of day that you remember for a long time."

The third Texas team in the top five belonged to Chris Jacobs and his Runnin Late team. Fishing an Evinrude powered Cape Horn, the team of Jacobs, Nicholas Garthwaite, Terry Edwards, and Cody and Lisa Hayes scaled a 43.16 to earn fifth.

"We were 50 miles southeast of Biloxi," said Chris Jacobs. "It was between 1:30 and two o'clock. Nick couldn't get a bait down before line would fly out of his hand. Lisa, who caught all our fish, grabbed the rod and it wasn't long before we zipped up our fish bag with the 43 on ice."

"Nick directed our pattern. When we stopped first we caught 25-pounders, then we would move, and we caught mid-30s," explained Chris. "Our third stop was the charm."

The sixth place team came from Jacksonville, Florida. "We wanted to bend a rod and we needed more Pro points so we made the trek and were glad we did," said Steve Lucie who fishes a 32-foot Intrepid with the team name Mellow Yellow emblazoned on the spiffy wrap. Biloxi has a great fishery and we proved that by weighing a 43.04," said Steve. "Conrad Lau, Andy Pettit, Jimmy McIntire, and I had a ball!"

Finishing seventh was another Texas team, the Johnny B with John Benkenstein Jr. and Albert Vrazel with a 42.18 while Fred Watkins led his team of Ken Jansen, Todd Gardner, Sherman (Butch) Smith, and Kayla Williamson on the Get Layed to an eighth place finish with a 37.53.

Backlash was the top boat in the Small Boat Class. Joe Shell, Junior and Senior, plus Chris Shell fished a Yamaha powered Cape Horn and scaled a nice 44.50. That was actually the fifth largest king caught this weekend. It wasn't that they had a good fish but the fish moved them squarely into the number one spot in the Division Seven Small Boat Class with 140.95 points. That's a great aggregate for any team. There is still a chance for our current Small Boat National Championship team, Strike Two to catch Joe, the same for Cecil Capps on the Sea Hagg, but it's a tall job. Kudos to the Backlash team!

Second place in the Small Boat Class went to Stephen and Paul Smith on the Yamaha powered Contender named Striking Distance. "We went 76 miles one way where we had found some fish earlier but the area was alive with barracuda so we were forced to move and after doing some serious rig hopping we ended up in 75 to 80 feet of water about twenty miles from the Palace Casino Resort," Stephen reported. "There we found a lot of 20- to 25-pound fish, but later in the afternoon we made a pass real close to the rig we were on when two lines went off. Dad picked up one rod and I got the other. As luck would have it he lost his and mine was the 40.43. We just worked hard and never gave up!"

A special thank you goes out to Keith Crosby at the Palace Casino Resort and to Danny and Lori at Gorenflo's Bait & Tackle for all their help. See you in November! 

Open Class