Badsport, a 23’ Mercury powered Contender, led the charge for largest kingfish of the event, a 42.85 caught on the first day of the two day event.

Ben and Nick Hinson and Chris Anthony had the big king on around nine am. “She hit a live blue runner,” said Ben. “About ten minutes into the fight the line went slack and we saw a big king leap from the water, but we think she was not ours.”

As our big king came over the gunwale the team then knew what happened. “The treble hook had let go when she bit thru the leader but the nose hook held deep in her belly,” Ben explained. “We literally drug her backwards to the boat and the waiting gaff.”

They will go down in the event’s twenty-nine year history as being the best of 2009, a very distinguished honor and they won a new Key West boat with a Mercury Outboard and a Loadmaster Trailer.

They also moved to the top of the standings in Class of 23 in Division Five with 111.80 points. They’re going to the Nationals maybe as Division winners!

Second place in the big fish category fell to Bill Stanley and Fred Miles on the Twister, a custom built boat with Mercury power.

“We were fishing fifty-one miles from Sister’s Creek in 110 feet of water,” said Stanley. “It was a late fish, about three forty and was the only fish we saw all day.”

This fish ate a ribbonfish on the surface but it ran back to the boat and they never knew it was a king till fifteen minutes later.

 “We’ve never had a king act like this, but once in Fred got her to the boat we knew she was a good one,” added Stanley.

 When tournament announcer Roger Walker announced 40.55 for the weight of their king, the Twister team knew they were in the money someplace. It ended second place Big Fish on the final standings. “I just wanted to thank God for helping us find this fish,” Stanley added.

They will have to fish the final event and probably weigh a fish to get to the Nationals. They are on the bubble in twenty-fourth.

Salt Life / Foul Hooker bumped the third place team in the standings after day one with a nice 40.20. David Tennyson had a fish on while Richard Iwaniki was clearing lines about noon. “That’s when she hit our down line attached to a ribbonfish. Richard picked up the rod and began cutting the other lines,” Tennyson admitted before going on stage to get their rewards.

“She made a long first run dumping nearly half the spool,” he added. “We chased that king for forty-five minutes before we could get her close enough to gaff. Then we started our fifty-eight mile run back to the scales.”

They will qualify for the Nationals with this forty-pound king.

The St. Augustine, Florida team wanted to thank Salt Life, Yellowfin, Mercury, and River Marine.

Chris Wiles and his Sea Dub / Caribbean Breeze team earned eleventh place in the tournament with a 34.50 while Tim and Bob Price picked up fifteenth place with a 33.35 fishing Chaser.

Rounding out the SKA effort in the Big Fish category was Dawn Stevenson on the Sotally Tober. She scaled a 30.75.

Moving to Class of 23, it was Robbie Bishop’s Fishbuster who sat atop the leader board at days end on Friday. This year’s event for the Class of 23 was an aggregate event. Robby, Ricky Bishop, Brian Ferrell, and Kristen Bishop scaled one fish each day, a 27.75 and a 33.40 for 61.15 points.

The Fishbuster team fished south of Mantazas in sixty-five feet of water. “Ricky caught both fish,” said Robby. “The first one came at eleven o’clock on Thursday and the second fish at nine o’clock on Friday. Both kings ate large pogies.”

Robby went on to tell me that their best finish ever in this event was a third in the aggregate division. Now they go into the record books. Plus they moved to second in the Division Class of 23 standings with 94.78 points. They’re Nationals bound!

The Fishbuster is a Mercury powered Bluewater. The team is and has been one of the “teams to beat” in Class of 23 in Division Five.

The other SKA team in the money was Joshua Generazio’s Fishocity team who finished fourth with 42.30 points. They too should be qualified to go to the big show in November.

Randy Nader’s Exterminader team needs to be congratulated for earning second in the Aggregate Division. Randy weighed two kings totaling 62.60 pounds. That broke down to a 30.50 and a 32.10. “We literally fished  all three days in 105 feet of water off Ponce Inlet,” Randy Nader told me. The third day was Tuesday’s Junior Angler Tournament.

His team of Lance Cote, Jerry Moulton, Samantha and Jaynie Nader, plus Layne Cote, all shared in the team’s effort.

“Lance actually caught both fish,” Nader added. “The first off the shotgun line using a blue runner and the second from a double pogy rig. We saw the day two king come across a large swell and strike the bait. Never have we seen this before. We could see it was a nice fish”

Samantha caught a nice Cobia and Randy also said that they caught a lot of fish on Thursday but it slowed up on Friday.

Jaynie and Lanye were the top SKA Junior Anglers.

They are now in fourteenth place in the Open Class in Division Five. They fished a Mercury powered Yellowfin.

Next in the SKA ranks came Lon Bryan, Andy Miska, and Paul Dozier on the Southbound, a Yamaha powered Yellowfin. They weighed a two fish aggregate of 55.85 pounds.

Next came Hoosier Daddy / Catch –Ya-Later scaling a two fish aggregate of 55.85 pounds, same as Southbound. Shaw Hallman, Deedo Nelson, Danny Tompkins, Brent Arnold, Greg McDonald, and Robert Thornton made up the Yamaha powered Contender team.

David, Adam, and Cory Howard fished the Hooked For Reel into sixth with 55.35 points. Their big 31.95 king moved them into second place in the Division and gave them a nod to the Nationals.

Wound Tight, with Jim Scharfschwerdt at the helm, picked up seventh place with two fish totaling 54.05. Mike Crabtree, Jamie and Wanda Scharfschwerdt, and Brendan Legel fished the boat. Legel is the nephew of Deona and Jack Holmes who hooked him up with Jim to fish the Junior Angler event. Jim then asked him to fish with the team in the General Tournament, which he gladly accepted. Thank you Jim!  Brendan was second place SKA Junior.

Ninth place fell to Geoffrey and Monica Stam, plus Lyle Rose on the Turn 3. Their 31.35 caught this weekend out of their 50.15 aggregate will earn them a trip to the Nationals.

Finally, Ken Miley’s Double Standard picked up tenth place in the Aggregate Division. He scaled 49.00 pounds of fish.

Byron Darner won the Mercury Scholarship prize fishing the Let’s Go. He weighed a 21.40.

Congratulations to all who won or placed in the 29th edition of the AT&T Greater Jacksonville King Mackerel Tournament, still the largest king mackerel tournament in the country. That says it all!