Fishing tourney brings Bradenton anglers together for a good cause. Here are the winners
Now in its seventh year, the Yellowfin Charity Classic Fill the Fin at the Bradenton Yacht Club brings together anglers for a great cause.
The entry fee is unique, a children’s gift that is used to fill a 36-foot Yellowfin center console, with toys going to Toys for Tots and The Children’s Home.
“We bought a bunch of Lego sets,” said reigning champion and captain of team Double Bounty, Peter Smith. “Each year we think of what we wanted when we were kids. Other years it was a bunch of NERF guns, but this year lots of Legos.”
The tournament kicked off last Saturday morning Dec. 4 at safe light with a shotgun start. At that time, Smith and his teammates Jake Hine, Michael Michochero and Tyler Kingree weren’t there.
“We showed up as everyone was leaving. We were catching bait at the (Skyway) bridge and lost track of time. We had a plan to be ready for anything so wanted bait for that,” Smith explained. After checking in, they were off to fish.
“Being late, we were nervous that someone would be sitting on our first spot. We crossed our fingers, and luckily no one was there.”
But for Double Bounty, the water wasn’t there either. A cold 50-degree start to the day and a negative tide of -.8 first thing in the morning left most of the area they were near dry.
“The first hour we were seeing fish, but they weren’t cooperating. I think we only caught lizard and ladyfish. We kept working and finally found a good pocket of fish to put on the board.”
Unlike other slam tournaments, the Fill the Fin is first about quantity then quality. Each team can weigh in three snook, three trout and three redfish for a nine fish slam.
The most total inches would be the victor. Ending at 4 p.m. leaves little time to upgrade or chase big fish, which Smith took into his planning.
“We got three trout between 19 and 21 inches first and said hey we’re not doing so bad, and went to go get redfish. After getting a bite here and a bite there we had a pair of over slot (28 inches) and one lower slot redfish (21 inches). It was around 12:30 or 1 so we said time to go get snook.”
When they arrived at the snook spot, it was instant action. Catching seven linesiders left their three biggest at 33.5, 28.5 and 28-inches. With a total surpassing 230-inches Smith was satisfied with how the day had developed.
“We had 232 two years ago and 243 last year to win. We were happy but thought the easiest fish to upgrade would be the smallest redfish, so we went back to the redfish hole. We got one bigger red and three bigger trout so it was a surprise!”
With a total of 236 inches and all their fish submitted by 3:30, Double Bounty would take home the top prize once again.
“I’ve got the best group of guys out there fishing with me,” said Smith. “It’s really a split captain thing between Jake and I, we really keep each other in check.”
The biggest redfish combination went to team OnlyFins and Kyle Domion with a 33 , 32.5 and 32 inch fish whose team donated 40 bikes and a trailer of toys.
Snook division went to AJ Grande with a 32.5 , 32 and 28 inch snook while the trout slam was claimed by Beau Bell and team with a 25, 24.75 and 24.5 inch trout.