How the winner of Fall King of the Beach 2021 landed a 34-pound kingfish in Tampa Bay

With the threat of a gale warning, anglers last weekend were not sure what they would be dealing with during Saturday’s 28th Annual Fall King of the Beach at Madeira Beach.

That was until late Friday, when event organizers pushed the tournament back a day with the potential of 10-foot seas and northwest winds to 40 mph on Saturday. Slightly better conditions were forecast on Sunday.

Due to the change, anglers were given the option for a refund due to the weather.

“We had registered up front,” said previous King of the Beach winner Brian Hasson. “I almost called my dad and said maybe we get our money back. He’s 62 and can’t always take the pounding. But I was happy we stuck it out.”

When Sunday came, Hasson and many other boats found themselves avoiding the rough Gulf of Mexico and stuck inside Tampa Bay. After dealing with a broken livewell pump, they were behind schedule to the edges of the shipping channel east of the Skyway which can produce big kingfish.

“We got there about 6:45 and were late to the party. When we arrived, we saw two other boats hooked up so we knew there were fish in the area. At that time there were about 15 boats around us.”

Hasson stuck to his plan and trolled big baits like ladyfish and blue runners, wanting a chance at a bigger kingfish. All it would take was the heaviest single fish to claim the title of king with one of the largest fishing paychecks on the west coast of Florida.

“With the dirty water situation, I like big bait. I think small baits have a tendency to get lost. The more active the better,” Hasson explained.

“Kingfish are highly migratory and eat both inshore and offshore baits in both situations. So the bigger the better when going for big fish.”

After watching other boats land fish around them, Hasson and crew were feeling a bit unlucky. For three hours, they slowly trolled with a pack of anxious teams around them. Then they got a bite on one of those big baits around 11 a.m. As the drag screamed from a fast run, it was the telltale sign of a kingfish.

“It did what big fish do, running far away then turning around and running back by us. There were a lot of boats in the area, and luckily the boat it ran at cleared his lines for us, so thanks to the team in the big Boston Whaler. After only about 5 minutes, we saw it was hooked well, it came up and we gaffed it without any issues!”

That moment, captured by Brian Hasson on video, shows he and the excited team members of 99 Problems, Billy Hasson, Mike Layton and Patrick Zimmermann all celebrating. Through the wind muffled audio “That’s a 40!” is shouted by Hasson.

“I was confident in that fish in those conditions, but my kingfish eye is a bit rusty! I overestimated it by a few pounds, but I blame it on the lack of tournaments we’ve had recently because of COVID cancellations.”

With little other action happening and now at least 30 other teams in the area, they headed in early to weigh in.

At the scales the extra pounds weren’t needed. The 99 Problems kingfish would weigh in at 34.53 pounds, topping second place Rescue Roofing’s 30.43-pounder. For the victory they would bring home $54,525.

First place in the single engine division went to Team Morelli/Johnston at 13.91 pounds.

The ladies division was won by Team Sea Dog’s Karen Bixler at 29.88 pounds, while the youth division was claimed by Dylan Weldon at 20.48-pounds.

The largest Spanish mackerel went to Budleiser at 3.78 pounds.

In total there were 236 teams.