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The Delph Fishing Team Reels in a Monster at Marco By Ian Warner

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The Marco Island Contender/Mercury King Fling opened Friday, March 4th to high winds and moderate chop. Held at the Esplanade docks in downtown Marco Island, SKA members gathered before the Captain’s meeting, discussing the rarity of bite and the wave conditions to be faced in the upcoming two days of fishing.

While the prefishing might have been light, the first day’s weigh-in was anything but, with the Delph brothers pulling in a whopper 67.13-pound king early. Team Chaos and Kingpin both landed nice 50-pounders to round out second and third on the leaderboard. Over a third of the contending fishing teams weighed, and that wasn’t the end to the excitement. Suspicious of how closely the Delph Fishing Team had been concentrating their efforts to a local commercial fishing vessel, Team Chaos utilized their option to contest the Delph’s fish under SKA rules.

Sunday’s fishing was equally exciting, with two more 60-plus-pounders being weighed by Team Yellowfin and Penny Wise and multiple other teams upping the ante by bringing in 50’s and good 40’s. At the end of the day Team Chaos opted to rescind their previous objection, citing that suspicions were not grounds to accuse another team of foul play, and the Delph’s fish proved to be the smoker king of the weekend.

It was early on day one when the Delph Fishing Team’s winning fish hit, around 10:30 about 165 to 170 miles out, trolling live blue runners. “Rob was working back on the engines when Billy said ‘Hey, that bait is getting nervous’,” stated Mike. “So I walked over and picked up the rod and this fish came up and flashed on the bait. He whipped around the blue runner and there he was, broadside, and he was just magnified by the water. He was just huge. It looked like a big light bulb behind the boat!”

All of a sudden the line just started screaming. “If the bow was 12 o’clock,” Mike reported, “then the fish swam under the boat coming from seven o’clock and came out the other side at about one o’clock. He was going so fast that when Billy told me to run to the bow I started turning to go and there was a rod in the way in the rod holder. By this point the line was already well underneath the boat so I had to basically jump off to the side of the boat and stick my hand all the way down to my elbow under the water. At the same time I’m feeling that spool melt with my thumb and I’m thinking, ‘Holy cow, he’s going to dump me’.”

Mike yelled for Billy to back up and he “whipped that boat around just perfect,” recalled Mike. “He backed away from it and got off and paralleled the line and at the same time I’m running down the side of the boat trying to keep my hand as far down in the water as I can. That Yellowfin has that nice, high bow on it and they’re great for rough water, but it’s a son-of-a-gun for getting that fish when he’s underneath the boat.”

Mike finally brought the rod way up around the bow and got up on the monster king. “There’s times you’re so pumped up with adrenaline you realize you need to slow yourself back down. I started to feel the first hook pull and said, ‘Whoa, slow down, Mike.’ But we got back in control,” stated Mike.

They got back up on the king and it made a big circle and drew up alongside the boat. “Right before Robbie gaffed it he said, ‘Well it’s an alright fish,’ and I thought it was going to be a bigger fish. Then he gaffed it and I saw him go to lift and there was this hesitation and I knew it was a good one,” Mike smiled. “We had that fish in the boat in probably five-to ten-minutes,” recalled Rob. A great ten-minute’s work, the 67.13-pound monster mackerel would hold throughout the tournament to earn the Delphs the first place Contender boat/Mercury power/Loadmaster trailer prize package.

Team Yellowfin, Captained by Mark Liberman, and crewed by Wylie Nagler, Joe Windslow, and Rob Lynch, weighed two big fish to garnish second place honors. “I wish it was a aggregate tournament,” joked Wylie, owner of Yellowfin Yachts, as their two day total would have topped 110-pounds!

On day one the team landed a 45.28-pound mossback that held fourth place at the end of day one’s weigh-in. However, it was on day two that the team landed their 65.32-pounder, the biggest kingfish caught by Team Yellowfin in their five years of fishing the SKA. “We were near where Penny Wise caught their king,” stated Wylie. About 130 miles out this huge king hit their shotgun line as they trolled in 85- to 90-feet of water. The fight was over in five to ten minutes.

“That fish rolled over and laid down. He didn’t even make much of a run. I think he was just ready to die,” reported Wylie. “I’ve caught plenty of 40’s that were a whole lot harder to catch than that one was. I think it must be when they get older they just don’t have the stamina to make those kind of runs anymore,” he concluded.

Pennywise would have done well had this been an aggregate tournament as well, landing 44.98- and 63.30-pounders on days one and two, respectively. Captain Jack Penny, son Mike, co-captain Ken Dellane, son Steve, and Bryan Brandano were fishing in the same general area both days, about 130 miles south, when they landed both fish, the second being the biggest king they’ve caught in their three years fishing the SKA. Trolling surface bait mullet from their 36’ Contender in about 60-feet of water Pennywise found themselves with a fight on their hands on day two. “He peeled off 250-yards of line, then ran back and forth and right under the boat a couple of times,” said Mike, recalling the half hour fight. It was surely worth the wait, as the big king sent Pennywise back to St. Petersburg Beach with top Junior Angler honors for Steve Dellane and third place overall.

Team Chaos caught a healthy king early on day one, a 58.19-pounder around 10:30 on a wounded blue runner. “It’s the biggest king I’ve ever caught in the SKA,” smiled Don Lamb, the team’s angler. Together with Captain Dan Hess, Bill Wummer, and Ryan Lee the team was 110 miles out trolling a wounded blue runner on the surface when the fish hit. Despite a 30-pounder hitting a line that hadn’t been cleared yet while the big fish was getting reeled in, the team reported a smooth landing. It was a great way to start out their second year fishing the SKA, and while it was knocked down from Saturday’s final standings of second place, it was still good for fourth at the tournament’s end.

Captain Scott Routh, Brent Klein, and Adam Routh of Devocean had two good days of fishing as well. On day one the team went out about 80 miles and caught five fish in the 30- to 35-pound range before landing their 38.86-pounder and heading to the scales. The fish was good for ninth place but they knew they had to do better. On day two they received some “good info” according to Scott and headed out 125 miles to a spot. Trolling in about 90-feet of water they could catch nothing but small fish until 11:30. Finally a top long line baited with a blue runner enticed a 54.41-pounder and they hurried to the scales to earn Adam second place Junior Angler and the team fifth place overall.

Late on day one Captain Greg Samuel of Kingpin was about to call it quits. The team, consisting of Billy Chilson, Bob Lail, Carl Carder and Greg, had run 120 miles south through three- to four-foot seas and only managed one small fish. “We were pulling lines to come in when the big girl hit,” he reported. They have spectacular timing as the king turned out to be his biggest ever at 52.39-pounds. They decided not to fish day two, but their big girl was good enough to earn Kingpin sixth place.

In The Rough was another team with a great two day aggregate. Landing a 29.15-pound king on day one Captain David VanLent, wife and co-captain Rosemary, Aaron Gesquiere, and Jeff Hall knew they had to go out and make another run at it. After a long day of trolling (they were third from the last to weigh-in) they scaled the fourth heaviest fish of the day, a 48.68-pounder. This nice king earned Rosemary top Lady Angler and Aaron third place Junior Angler for the tournament, and the team seventh place overall.

Team Triple Threat was yet another team that weighed in two good fish and really pulled through on Sunday. Heading 60 miles out to the Captain Craig wreck this Georgia team bettered their day one fish by over 16-pounds with a 46.74-pounder. “We had a blast,” smiled Captain Terry Adkins of the RFA and Freedom to Fish Trail. He and Tim and Robbie Cheek were rewarded for their efforts with eighth place.

Pilgrim’s Keith McCullar, Ray Jordan, and Mark McKinley also added pounds to their day one fish by landing a 41.00-pound king on day two, good for ninth place.

Mad Gaffer, a mother and son team, had a nice 40.16-pounder. Stuart Fitzgerald, Kathie Stuart, Clint Walker, and Mat Collier landed this fish “about two hours” out on day one, and were sitting with sixth place and top Lady Angler at the end of the day. They decided not to fish day two and the fishing efforts of Pilgrim, Triple Threat, and In The Rough managed to knock them down to round out the top ten.

It was a tight race for 11th through 15th places as only one pound separated these five spots. Digestible and Captain Mark Wicker got knocked down from sixth place on day one with their 40.14-pound king to 11th place overall as they didn’t weigh a second fish. Captain Ozzie Fischer and Team Yo-Zuri Hybrid earned 12th with a 39.33 mossback, which they ironically landed when they left their spot to go look for bigger bait.

Team Boston Whaler and Captain Brett Clarke didn’t manage a fish on day one but pulled through on Sunday with a 39.29-pounder, edged out by only four-hundredths of a pound to win 13th. Captain Bryan Wallace of Desperado was right on their tail with a 39.20 king weighed late on day two as well.

Finally, Legal Limit and Captain Mike Gourley rounded out the top 15 with a nice 39.14-pounder caught on day one.

It proved to be a doubly sweet day for Legal Limit, earning 15th in the open class but more importantly dominating the Class of 23’ by a 5-pound margin. Hailing from Ocala, Captain Mike, Paul “PJ” Meyers, and Jeff Silverthorne landed the team’s first win in 7 years of fishing the SKA with the biggest fish they’ve weighed while competing in the 23’ and under class.

“It was funny, when we were leaving I said to Mike, ‘Mike, we’ve paid our dues. We’re due. This is our tournament,’ …and then, boom, this fish hit,” grinned Jeff. The 39-pounder was caught 80 miles south in 75-feet of water on their last of only 2 threadfin they had managed to find. They were fishing for more bait and attempting to clear line from their prop when the king hit. “I think if we can put a big fish in the boat two weeks from now, we’ll do pretty well,” he concluded.

Fishing from a 21’ Action Craft, Big Fish Dish found the seas “high”, to say the least. Captain Randy Greenhow, Paul Sharp, and Rick Greenhow from Lakeland, Florida, managed to run south 50 miles to a temperature break. On day two, fishing at a depth of about 65-feet, they got what was only their “second strike in two days.” They did great for their first time fishing in Marco Island, landing a 33.90-pound king to earn second place honors in the Class of 23’.

Rounding out the top three for the little boats was Team Wilshire from Naples. Heading out their first day into five- to six-foot chop Captain Andrew Gunn and Mick Peterson couldn’t land a fish on day one. However day two wasn’t as bad with only a little chop, and at 11:00 they were trolling their last 3-pound bluefish when their winning king hit. The 32.37-pounder would hold on through the end of Sunday’s weigh-in, making Team Wilshire’s first tournament with the SKA their first win, a great way to start off the year.

Besides all the action at the docks and the scale, tournament director Johan Kriek arranged a variety of music, displays, an antique and exotic car show, and multiple vendors for spectators to enjoy.

Alex Alexander was on site as well representing the Isle of Capri Fire Rescue & Marine Division, raising money towards their goal of a new Contender boat. The charity has been working with local 1st Choice Marina and Marty Bistrong of Contender for a custom boat to aid local boaters, as the nearest Coast Guard station is over an hour and a half away. Throughout the three-day event, and through the generosity of SKA members, Alex raised over $2,000 towards their goal.

All in all, the tournament was a great success and a great opener for Division 11. With action in this area this intense we can be assured that things will continue to heat up in Sarasota.