Bimini Twist’s 54.73 Earns Top Slot at Key West!

Key West, Florida - The Bimini Twist team caught a 54.73 on the first day of the 16th Annual Key West Harbour King Mackerel Tournament and walked away with the event's $7,000 top prize. "We had a great day on the water,  catching fish all day long," said Grant Johnson. "We fished the Atlantic side in 78 feet of water,  basically near the Banana Bar, which was 37 miles from the channel. She ate a fresh blue runner about eleven-thirty. Jerry Stephenson grabbed the rod and the fight was on."

Grant went  on to tell me that they never stopped for bait, catching them while still trolling.

"We had several in the low forties and thirties. We knew that based on years past, this fish probably would not hold up, but we had a breakdown on Sunday morning and couldn't fish. It was frustrating but we're thankful it held up."

Grant's son Blake would be the Top Junior Angler in the tournament.  Grant also added that they saw a blue marlin free jumping and caught a sailfish. That's a super day!

Chris Workman, Kevin Weber, David Albritton, and Tim Dillingham, fishing the Yamaha powered Contender, Get Snookerd, caught the second place fish, a 48.35 also on day one.

"We were fishing near the Fort, 80 miles from Key West," Chris told me. "David caught her about eleven o'clock in 90 feet of water using a live mullet. It was a hot fish taking over 350 yards of line on her initial run. It was the same place we fished last year."

The top two fish in the event were caught between 11 in the morning and noon.

The Reel Conch with Randy Sterling, Jr. a local Key West guide, earned third place and his father Randy Sterling Sr. picked up the top senior honors.

David Heavenridge led the Top Gun team to fifth place honors." Jack, we went to a spot about 50 miles on the Gulf side that Dan Upton and Jack Wood fished a few years back and won the event.  We were in 60 to 70 feet of water about one o'clock and had already gone through nearly four dozen baits. Our last blue runner was deployed in milky water with less than three-foot visibility. That was the one that did the trick. I grabbed the rod and quickly got her to Warren's waiting gaff."

At the scale she registered 46.11. A really nice king to start the season.

The Top Gun is a Yanmar powered Spectre. Ron Kien and Warren Williams make up the team.

Sixth place went to Alex Burgess' team,  Penny-Less, a Mercury powered Contender.

Alex, David Linsinbigler, Jim Wood, and Mike Wood fished this event for the first time and got a check.

"We ran to the Fort and found an area that was very productive but we didn't get the fish we wanted," said Alex. "We had two fish on that we knew were over 50 but each broke off which we understand happened to others also. We brought a hundred goggle eyes and 60 blue runners from Palm Beach, which certainly helped. We basically had an area to ourselves but we saw other competitors in the distance. It was 10:30 when Mike hooked up and that proved to be our sixth place 45.62 pound king."

In the Small Boat Class Chad Lammert and June Gutknecht earned the top slot with a 44.32. Chad and his wife have been fishing king mackerel tournaments in North Carolina before the SKA was even formed. "We've done well over the years but have never had a win until now," said Chad who now lives on the west coast of Florida. "June is so excited because she picked up the Top Lady honors also and won diamond earrings from Key West Pawn."

"We left Sunset Marina following a couple of other boats out but cut the channel a little short and ran up on the rock ledge damaging the lower unit and cracking the prop," Chad lamented. "We got the Still Kickin, a Mercury powered Yellowfin,  off the ledge and inspected everything and thought we could still fish. Once out to open water we discovered that at 3,500 to 4,000 rpm we had a bad vibration so we limped to the Western Dry Rock. We caught a 15-pound dolphin but released it, didn't want the bad karma. Fifteen minutes later our 44.32 hit and within a few minutes we had her to the boat."

Unlike other husband and wife teams, once they get to where they are going to fish, Chad does the angling honors while June runs the boat. When the fish gets close to the boat, June is waiting to hand the gaff to Chad. He said it works great for them and obviously I agree!

Second place in the Small Boat Class went to Peter and Robert Weisberg, Jenilee Pharo, plus Freddy Rodriquez on the Yamaha powered Contender named Strictly Fishing.

"We didn't get our 44.21 till day two," explained Peter who won the Small Boat Class last year. "We ran to the Banana Bar and got her first thing in the morning. Robert guards the back of the boat so when we hooked up no one can get to the rod quicker than him, but he's a good fisherman and certainly carries his weight on the team."

"We didn't catch three kings all day but we did have a 20-pound dolphin, and plenty of barracuda," Peter added. "After fishing all day Saturday I never thought to check the gas gauge. We went out Sunday and when we got to our spot I realized we had very little fuel. I really didn't think we were going to get back so I nursed it and we made it back with just one gallon to spare."

Moving back to the event's top ten, chalk up seventh place to Kevin Hannon, Jim Naset, Chris Blackwell, and Ricky Cook on the ProMarineUSA.com who scaled a 44.32.

Finishing eighth place was the other ProMarineUSA.com team, the Kingpin, led by Ken Dellane.  Onboard with Ken was Chad, Brad and Gary Hickman. They scaled a 43.91 pound king.   

Chalk up ninth place to the two-time National Champions, the McMullan family on the OIFC (Ocean Isle Fishing Team Center) who scaled a 43.07. On the reigning National Champions team were Brant, Barrett, Amy, and Caroline McMullan, plus Courtney, Camdyn, and Jeff Beck. It's hard to keep this great team off any tournament's leaderboard when they enter. Key West is no exception.

Rounding out the top ten was the same team who finished tenth last year, the X-Tended Play. Glenn Bailey, Ozzie Fischer, D.J. Wood, Paolo Bailey, Weston Bailey, and Christian Fischer. This year the team scaled a 42.21. Paolo was our top junior Mercury angler and won the $500 scholarship plus he was the SKA Top Junior Angler.

Once again Lee and Billy Murray plus the crew at the Key West Yacht Harbour put on a great tournament, one we certainly look forward to each and every year to start a new year's competition.