Relentless preparation pays off for Bradenton’s Team Reelentless. Here’s how the team prevailed

Last weekend’s annual Old Salts Fall King of the Beach featured a huge field of 489 boats fishing the entire west coast of Florida.

As a result, a record number of 292 kingfish were weighed in vying for the title and a huge payday.

The record number of fish weighed in caused an excruciating wait for Bradenton’s Team Reelentless. It was 10th in line when the scales opened, bringing a monster in its bag.

While most anglers load up early Saturday to get the tournament started, Capt. Charles Cherko, Kyle Cherko and Austin Martin’s tournament started the day before.

Team Reelentless went out early, realizing bait was important for the monster kingfish it was after.

“We went out Friday afternoon to bait up and spend the night on the boat,” angler Kyle Cherko said. “With all the red tide, people have been pinning their bait out offshore and we had heard a lot of it had been dying. We decided to get our bait and stay out there to not risk it. ”

When fishing time began Saturday morning, the decision paid off immediately.

“We started fishing on anchor with big blue runners and caught blackfin tuna and six or seven 30- to 35-pound kingfish in the first hour,” Kyle Cherko said. “After that we started to slow troll for a bit, and that’s when the big one hit.”

A monster kingfish was tight on the line and with a blistering run, the crew found itself chasing a smoker. Nearly all the line would be dumped off the spool even with the boat in gear after it.

When the fish came closer, the team saw the size before it made one more hard run. After a 15-minute fight, the fish was boat side.

“We gaffed him and brought him into the boat and started freaking out. It barely fit into the fish bag,” Kyle Cherko said.

Just over an hour into the tournament, the team was all around monster fish. The team continued fishing, landing another 40-pounder before watching another monster fish sky on a bait behind their boat but miss the hooks.

To avoid any issues, the team opted to head to the scales early, confident in its catch. Being 10th in line, it saw another monster fish behind them. When their fish hit the scales, it weighed in at 46.82 pounds.

Behind them, Mark Goodwin and Economy Tackle had a 45.33-pound monster weighed in.

“We were pretty confident after that,” Kyle Cherko said. “People were saying there was a big fish back in the line but no one really came close. When we saw the last 10 boats, we knew we had it.”

Having “it” would be one of the most coveted angling titles in the area, and a series of winnings that included $60,000 for first place, another $13,650 for the TWT Division, and another $21,270 for the High Roller Division.

The total winnings would be $94,970, a huge payday for the team that came close after a second place finish in the spring event.

“We’ve kind of celebrated pretty good, took off work. It’s pretty amazing,” Kyle Cherko said. “This will keep us fishing. We’re going to take our old motors off the boat and repower with some new ones.

“We brought it home from the St. Pete boys. We’ve been fishing this tournament a long time and this feels unreal.”

Second place went to Economy Tackle with the 45.33-pound kingfish. In third place was Team Googanator at 44.63 pounds.

The largest Spanish mackerel was caught by Medically Necessary at 6.34 pounds.