How a Manatee County team nearly swept all categories in Casting for the Kids tourney

Before Hurricane Ian struck on the Florida Gulf Coast, angler Keith David Stonestreet joined his teammates Matt Mangone, Justin Rudrud and Rich Linkenhoker of Callahan Tires/Rats On Da Cheese in one of the few remaining local inshore tournaments for 2022.

Based out of Sarasota last weekend, the third annual Casting for the Kids Fishing Tournament happened only days before the monster storm. They thought the pre-storm bite and pressure dropping might be great fishing, but it was still a bit too far away.

Even then, the team found themselves taking home much of the hardware after 18 hours of fishing time against 29 other teams.

“We knew the storm was down there but it was still pretty far away during the tournament,” Stonestreet said. “I don’t think it had an effect on the fishing yet, that was probably closer to Monday or Tuesday. In fact the weather was beautiful during tournament hours.”

The start time Friday night and variety of categories to fish for had the anglers more concerned about their strategy. The was an overall slam category with the biggest snook, redfish, trout and mangrove snapper in inches.

There were also calcuttas with the biggest three trout, redfish and snook and a trashcan slam of the biggest catfish, jack and ladyfish. The limited time meant focusing on one category at a time while keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

Leaving from Sarasota, the team ran north to more familiar waters around the Manatee River and Terra Ceia Bay.

“Since it was an evening start, we wanted to get some fish on the board and started trout fishing. It’s always nice to go into the night with a couple points.

“We caught a few, but nothing great. I think before we went snook fishing we had three around 16 inches,” Stonestreet recalled.

With darkness set in, they began to target snook but couldn’t get any to eat for the first half of the night. Finally in the early morning hours they got the bites they were looking for.

“Around 3 a.m. we got a 42- and 31.5-inch snook. It took a long time and the bite was non-existent other than that. We stuck it out for a bit and didn’t get anymore. After that, we caught more bait and set up for redfish before all the guide boats first thing in the morning.”

The teammates made quick work of redfish, getting on a big fall school that made it’s way into the bay. With multiple fish over 30 inches they added to their slam with the biggest at 33 inches. A quick trip into Tampa Bay and a 12-inch mangrove rounded out into their team total.

“When we had everything, we focused on upgrading overall for the slam so went for trout. We got a 19.5-inch and then went back to snook fishing to get a third and also tried for trash fish slam as well.

“In the last 15 minutes, we got another 35 inch snook, 22 inch jack and 23 inch catfish to go with a 19 inch ladyfish. It was enough to fill all the categories.”

Filling all the categories resulted in an amazing finish. Their overall slam took first place, while their three redfish took first place calcutta, and their trash can slam winning another cash prize. Combined the three firsts resulted in a $3,750 prize before donating the trash can slam winnings back to the charity.

The other two calcuttas, snook and trout would trail by less than an inch for second place in each, nearly sweeping all categories!

Along with their donation, the tournament would raise $117,374 for Casting For The Kids, helping support childhood cancer families.

This story was originally published October 2, 2022 at 7:00 AM.