How Manatee anglers put together a record win in popular fishing tournament

The middle of May is probably the most uncertain time of year for weather in the Gulf.

The weekend of May 10 and 11 had strong winds, lightning, storms and everything else that would keep boats ashore. But the weekend of May 16 to 18 had nearly perfect conditions with light winds and no rain chance, giving anglers who fished the 41st Annual Crosthwait Memorial Fishing Tournament from the Bradenton Yacht Club a chance to rejoice.

Perfect weather benefited the anglers fishing in the offshore unlimited division the most. A record 24 boats joined the offshore fray, many of those signing up at the captains meeting when the forecast was good. Team Seaveeche was fishing in one of the smallest boats of the division, a 32-foot Contender, but still covered a long distance over the two days of fishing time.

“We did about 625 miles round trip,” said captain Jay Travis of Seaveeche. “We brought an extra 200 gallons of fuel and had about 15 gallons left when we got home. I monitored it the whole time and knew how much range we had. There are ways we could have more range, like with trolling, if needed.”

Heading into the southern Gulf after Friday’s start, teammates Travis, Danny Pool, Justin Hey and Ryan Dinkel immediately got onto big fish.

“The first bait down got a big black (grouper). We got some other fish, but it was a nice start. I said, ‘Let’s go try to catch a warsaw (grouper),’ but the current was ripping,” Travis said. “We were drifting 3.5 knots, and it started to get a little windy, so after hitting a few wrecks with no bites, we went swordfishing.”

The black grouper would go 75 pounds.

On night one, the team caught more swordfish than they had on any previous trip. But there was a problem.

“It was on fire. We went five for five on swords. But none were keepers, they were almost all an inch short. That was painful,” Travis said disappointingly, knowing the difficult target would not be checked off their list yet.

On Saturday morning, they woke up and began to fish shallower for points. They caught a pair of large tuna and big red grouper while also trolling up mahi mahi. They tried again for a warsaw grouper with no bites. On night two, they went back to the swordfish grounds, hoping larger ones would await them.

“We set up again and got the first keeper in the boat by 9 p.m. By 10 p.m., we had another keeper! They were just legal size,” said Travis. “Sometimes you hook into a 100-pounder, and the fight will be hours long. The small ones still pull hard for their size but only take 10 or 15 minutes to get in, not a three-hour fight like a large sword or giant shark.”

With their desired six fish caught, the crew pointed toward home, nearly 200 miles away. Travis, who has fished the Crosthwait for more than 20 years, had an unusual feeling.

“For the first time in 20 years, we motored home early. We got home, ate some food and cleaned up before heading to the weigh-in,” he said.

At the offshore unlimited weigh-in, the record field brought a variety of big fish to the scales. It was easily the most wahoo ever weighed in. A 100-pound cubera snapper, nearly 50-pound kitty Mitchell grouper, 40-pound kingfish and more tested the scale’s integrity.

By the end, Seaveeche would come out on top with 562 points, beating Team Pipe Layer’s 521 and Big Nasty’s 491. For their victory, Seaveeche’s fifth and record for offshore wins, they would bring home $10,000.

In the inshore division, Team Richardson Stinton Roofing continued their Crosthwait dominance. The team of Joe Medred, TJ Stewart, Ed Richardson, Vinny DeCarbo, Chris Cucci and Steve Cucci put up a massive 391 points for first place.

Team Hurricane Fishing would bring home second with 353 points, while Team Rats on Da Cheese would win a tiebreaker for third place over Team ShorelineDesign/Naturdays, who both had 348 points.

In the junior division the Team Poon Shiesty’s of Jackson Stewart, son of TJ, Anthony Scrimale, Braden WIlliams and Gavin Cucci would bring home first place with 261 points.

Second place would go to Chasing Silver, while third would go to JR Florida Fishing Team.

Team Littlefield Electric won the offshore limited division.

This story was originally published May 25, 2025 at 5:50 AM.