Pompano Beach, Florida -The Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam was the second tournament sanctioned by the SKA and produced by Jamie Bunn’s Bluewater Movements this year.  This tournament was originally scheduled as the second event in Division 8 in this year’s Mercury Tournament Trail, but because the Miami Kingfish Masters was cancelled, the Saltwater Slam was added as the last event in Division 10.  In addition, because of the tournament format that allowed anglers to weigh four kingfish, SKA participants were allowed to weigh a fish in both Division 8 and 10.  Several boats elected to do this and had to choose which division that their biggest fish would count for when the filled out their $10 forms at the captains meeting.

The Saltwater Slam follows the same format as last months Saltwater Shootout with teams allowed to weigh four each - king mackerel, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and cobia.  The total weight of a team’s best ten fish determines the overall tournament winner.  In addition to the overall prizes there are dozens of other ways to cash a check in this fun event.  In addition to all the other prizes, Jamie has included the Big Mack category in his payout that only SKA fishermen are eligible to win.  This year’s Slam paid out over $80,000 in cash to its participants.  Check out the tournament’s final results listed below to see how many SKA fishermen were able to put lots of this loot in their pockets.

The Top SKA boat in the overall final standings was the Lunasea, a Yamaha powered Contender skippered by Boca Raton’s Capt. Rich Sujat fishing in his home waters with teammates Mike Hudik, Larry Guariniello, and Glen Colson.  Their 65.88 pound wahoo along with a couple of small kings and a total weight of 89.78 pounds, would not only win the $1,000 award for their 6th place overall prize, but after all was said and done, Captain Rich and his crew would take home over $13,000 for their efforts. 

They started the day fishing the Jupiter Ledge in 90’ of water where they caught a couple of small kingfish before 9am.   Looking for a bigger fish they slow trolled out to the 120’ drop-off where the big ‘hoo ate a small runner right behind the boat.  When they had the fish in the box, everyone decided that they should head off shore to try to capture a 10 pound or larger dolphin to take home the tournaments special KDW prize,  over $ 28,000, that accumulates in each Bluewater Movements event until someone catches all three species in one tournament over ten pounds each.  They were able to catch several dolphin offshore but none that would make the ten pound mark.  Capt. Sujat would like to say a special thanks to Contender, Yamaha, Professional Home Construction, Tommy Greene at Custom Rod and Reel as well as MJM Saltwater Designs for all of their help.

Finishing in 7th place overall was the TwinVee / King’s Wild team, a Contender with Yamaha outboards from Port St. Lucie, skippered by Charles “Skip” Chandler with Paul Langel, Dave Faircloth, Rick Baruta and James Treefelner on board.  They would weigh a 27.86 pound kingfish, plus three smaller kings and a dolphin to scale an 88.13 pound overall score.  They also fished an area just south of Jupiter inlet in 100’ where they were able to catch at least twenty small kingfish.  Although they were loaded with lots of live goggle eyes, blue runners and mullet, the majority of their kings were caught near the bottom on ribbonfish.  In addition, this Star Rod sponsored team would take home almost $5,000 for their 4th place finish in the Big Mack category, 2nd in the Average Joe Division and 1st in the Average Joe Bonanza.

Bill Wummer from Palm Beach Gardens, fishing with Bobby Wummer, Kevin Umphrey, Freddy Joseph, James Howell, and Howard and Matt Tuman on the Spiced Rum III finished in 9th place overall with an 86.28 aggregate.  They also were fishing in the same area off of Jupiter and caught a couple small kings early in the day.  Around 2:30 their 54.65 pound kingfish ate a blue runner right behind the boat and by 3pm they had the throttles down on the Evinrude powered Contender headed back to the Hillsboro Inlet turning basin scales.  For their efforts the Spiced Rum Crew left the Sunday Slam Awards with over $8,800 in their pockets and joins the exclusive SKA fifty pound club.  Their fish would give the Spiced Rum III a comfortable lead by almost 38 points over the Bandit going into the third event in Division 8 to be held in Fort Pierce later in June.  Wummer would like to thank ARG Marine, Evinrude, Admiral Nelson’s rum, Tamer Hooks, Avet Reels, Gordon & Donner Attorneys at Law, and Central Palm Beach Physicians.

Rounding out the overall cash prize winners for the event was the PromarineUSA.com / Young Guns entry that finished in 15th place overall with a 67.85 pound aggregate score.  Fishing on the big Evinrude powered Yellowfin with team captain Lee Way were Grant Cloughley, and Travis Whitfield.  After the Hillsboro Inlet Bimini start, they ran all the way north to Fort Pierce where they caught several small kings, a couple dolphin as well as the first place winning 27.70 pound cobia.   “Our fish were so small, I wasn’t going to make the run back to weigh our fish but my teammates talked me into going to the scales” said Lee.   “As usual they made the right decision.  We really enjoyed this tournament.  With all the categories everyone has a great chance of taking home some cash. We definitely won’t miss another of one these events.”  In addition to their first place cobia, the PromarineUSA.com team took home the 5th place award in the Average Joe Division and placed 3rd in the Average Joe Bonanza category.

Another SKA boat, the Get Sum, a Mercury powered SeaVee skippered by Craigg Maret with Brian Sanders and Stan Hunt on board, weighed the second largest kingfish caught in the Pompano event.   They were also fishing in a group of boats off of Jupiter.  Their 45.90 ate a live sardine right behind the boat.  Later in the day they had an even bigger king on for a good while that would have put them into the top five overall, but it wasn’t to be as the fish got cut off on another boat’s anchor line.  Their fish would earn them $1,250 for second place in the Big Mack, another $2,160 for their third place finish in The Big Three and $1053 for finishing second in the Holy Mackerel division.

Third place in the kingfish division would go to the Pop a Top a non SKA boat for their 40.71 pound king.
The fourth place kingfish would be caught by SKA Division 10 leaders, Jason Naumann  Andy Lemmel, John Beech and Gill Strelec on the Keri-N-On, another Yamaha powered Contender.  This Scales Clothing, Reel Pro Shop and Coastline Marine sponsored team also caught their fish near the Jupiter Inlet.  Their 37.45 king ate a goggle eye fished way back in their spread in 120 feet of water at around 9 am.  “This was the toughest 30+ pound kingfish we have ever caught” said Capt. Naumann.  “The fish took us close to 30 minutes to land and wouldn’t give up!”  

Another good SKA team, Lance Young and his crew, couldn’t find a king big enough to weigh but would capture the cash for their second place finishing 38.53 pound wahoo caught on their big Mercury powered Fountain, the Young Guns.

In the Division 10 race there were only a couple notable changes in the final standings as the Keri-N-On had already locked up the division title with three fish that averaged over 42 pounds each with a 128.19 total, but the Twin Vee / Kings Wild’s 27.86 pound king would move them up from tenth place into the second spot with 112.05 total points and the Lil Devil’s 14.83 pound fish would move them up from fourteenth up into sixth place.
In the Class of 23 race the PromarineUSA.com / Gator Fan skippered by David Albritton finished first with a 113.72 point total followed by Rich Cook’s Lost Boys Fishing Team and the Brute, skippered by Capt. Dick Russel, would take home third place.

After two events in Division 8, Bill Wummer and his crew on the Spiced Rum III have a 38 point lead on Ron Mitchell’s Bandit going into the third stop in the Division 8 race.  The Pit Boss, skippered by Dan Daniels, leads the Class of 23 boats by five pounds over the Bill Poertner’s Imagine That as Division 8 heads to Fort Pierce the last week in June for the Blue Water Promotion’s Saltwater Classic.

Even thought the fishing proved to be quite tough, the Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam was lots of fun for all who participated and Jamie Bunn and his Bluewater Movement crew made all the SKA fishermen feel more than welcome.  Many have commented to me that they wouldn’t miss these events in 2010.  It was also special for me to back helping with this event and spending time with several close South Florida friends that I had not seen in several years.  I had been the weigh master for these tournaments when Jamie first started his organization and really have been impressed by how hard he has worked to make his events so successful.  I can’t wait to go back in 2010.