Penny-Less scales 48.02 to win Greater Palm Beach Offshore 440!

By Jack Holmes
Managing Partner

Palm Beach, Florida—The Greater Palm Beach 440, benefiting the Friends of 440, was scheduled to be a two-day event on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately Saturday was totally un-fishable due to east winds that made the inlets un-passable. Sunday saw seas come down to four to six feet but caution at the inlets was still the order of the day. 

David Linsinbigler, Alex Burgess, plus Jim and Mike Wood topped the leaderboard in the Greater Palm Beach 440 scaling a great 48.02. This win also gave the team 1000 points in their quest to win Team of the Year honors in this year's Pro Tour. The team fish a Mercury powered Contender,

David did the right thing this weekend. He couldn't fish so he reluctantly turned the boat over to the team and then fidgeted all day on whether he did the right thing. It was very rough. When the team got back in he was relieved but overwhelmed when his team won the event and 1,000 points for the Pros.

The team started at Lost Tree for about an hour because decent fish had been caught there for the past couple of weeks but no luck. "We picked up and ran right to Jupiter and were the first boat there and immediately began catching fish. In 105 feet of water at 8:45 our 48.02 hit the kite bait," explained Alex who caught the jumbo king.

All told the team caught five or six other kings, small dolphin, and a couple of cobia.

"I was really proud of the job they did this weekend."

John Jackson's Late Start team, fishing a Mercury powered Yellowfin in the Small Boat Class, earned second place honors with a 44.78 and also had a 37-pound king on board. "We went south to the Breakers, a famous hotel on the beach, where we had picked up a good fish on Friday," explained a teammate on the boat. "The fish had left the area so we quickly ran further south to Boynton. It was the right move as we picked up the 37 right away. We caught smaller kings throughout the day but as we were getting ready to return to the scales, our 44.78 hit a goggle eye off the kite."

Their 82.10 two fish aggregate was the top aggregate in the event! A great day's fishing.

The team also had two small dolphin on board and a nice blackfin tuna that would go 25 pounds. They are very well disciplined and will be contenders for the Division title by season end!

It was appropriate that Billy Wummer take some money out of the event after helping us put the tournament together. His Spiced Rum III team of Sherri Beswick, Howard Tuman, Freddie Joseph, Wayne Beswick, and Don Lamb, earned third place with a nice 42.76 plus picked up some good Pro Tour points.

Like the Penny-Less team Wummer dropped lines somewhere else, at the Breakers. Later they called Wummer to get to Jupiter. He took the advice.

"At eleven o'clock our king ate a ribbonfish in 120 feet of water," Bill told us. "She ran under the boat and we had a lot of slack line but Don did a great job of getting tight on the fish. A few minutes later she came to Wayne's waiting gaff."

The Evinrude powered Contender team also scaled a 24 pound king plus two dolphin and Sherri Beswick was awarded Top Lady honors.

"We are happy for the Penny-Less team and thank them profusely for calling us in," Billy added. The team is sponsored by Gill Media, Arg Marine, Contender, Evinrude, Cruzan Rum, Gordon and Doner, Newport Cove Marina, JCamm Lures, Sailfish Marina, and Central Palm Beach Physcians.

Billy will host the Division 10 Big Dog and Fat Cat KDW tournament out of Sailfish Marina July 6th and 7th. You'll love fishing the event.

Fourth place fell to Jason Naumann, Gill Strelec, Andy Lemmel, and John Beech, on the Keri-N-On, a Yamaha powered Contender.

"We woke up Sunday morning, went to the boat, but when we opened our bait pen all were dead," Gill explained. "I immediately called Jimmy Engles who dropped everything and supplied us with several dozen baits. Most of the kings we caught were off the kite using goggle-eyes."

The team then ran to an area north of Hillsboro Inlet where Gill reported fishing was excellent. "Our fourth place king went 40.27. We also caught 7 or 8 20 pound plus kings, two sailfish, two dolphin, a big 'cuda, and an AJ. John caught the big king and I gaffed her."

It should be noted that Gill gave the tournament four beautiful wrapped fish art mailboxes as prizes. If you haven't seen these mailboxes you really need to go to and check them out. The fisher people loved them and I liked them so much I ordered one.

The Keri-N-On is sponsored by Scales Clothing, Gill Media, American Dealer Group, and Reel Pro Shop.

No Mercy rounded out the top five with a 32.50. Shawn Steverson, Ike Maulden, Ryan Tubbs, Chip Sheehan, and Lindsay Duffield, fished out of Boynton Inlet. "We had caught fish there before so we went back," said Shawn. "Our 32.50 pound king ate a flat lined goggle eye at eight o'clock. We really caught a lot of fish, including many dolphin and four sailfish. We just couldn't keep a kite bait in the water for all the peanut dolphin."

They won the Dolphin Division with a 15.13.

The No Mercy team fishes a Yamaha powered Contender and are also sponsored by Daiwa and Leeward Rods.

Shawn ended his interview with, "Our only excitement was watching a big bull shark attack and eat a nice blackfin tuna before we could get her to the boat."

Peter and Robert Weisberg plus Freddy Rodriquez, fishing the Yamaha powered Contender, Strictly Fishing, caught and scaled a 37.75 to win the Small Boat Class.

"While most teams ran north or south we stayed right out front of Palm Beach," explained Peter. "We've fished there the past two years successfully and did ok this year. Robert did the honors on the big fish, I gaffed her, and Freddy ran the boat.

"We basically drifted from 220 feet in all day," Peter went on to tell us. "Our very first drift cost us a really good fish when she broke the fluorocarbon."

Eddie Mitchell and Clay Harris shared in the Junior Angler category. They scaled a nice 32.39 while fishing with George Mitchell on the Snake Dancer.

Hunter Irvine who fishes on Young Guns won the 2nd place Junior Angler honors plus the $500 Mercury Scholarship Award 

The Friends of 440 earned monies for their scholarship program to help young people whose parents cannot afford to provide an education for their children because of job related injuries. The Friends of 440 are made up of workman comp attorney's and rehabilitation organizations.

Offshore 440

Open Class

Small Boat Division