Outdoors Column | Fishing teams net big hauls during Sarasota Slam tournament
Big fish, and a lot of them. Last weekend’s Sarasota Slam brought out anxious anglers who charged deep into the Gulf of Mexico and around Tampa Bay in search of a winning catch across multiple divisions.
Seventeen boats competed in the offshore division. Teams looked for the biggest grouper, snapper, warsaw, dolphin, tuna, wahoo and a wildcard with each paying out two places. Capt. Craig Jackson of team Reel Big Deck had the goal of competing in all species when he took off west following Thursday’s captains meeting. He, like others, hadn’t competed in an offshore tournament since last year.
“We started fishing deeper than 500 feet,” Jackson said. “We got a warsaw right away but didn’t think it was going to be big enough to win the division. I thought it would take a 200-plus pound fish to win warsaw.”
With their boat limit of one warsaw on board Jackson noticed storms popping up in the area. He pointed the team’s 37-foot Invincible Catamaran with teammates Ray Lee, Clay Burton, Reece Jackson, Marcus Carlberg and Vic Hall to a new backup plan to stay dry.
“The next stop was in 1000 feet of water. We got a couple snowy grouper while hand cranking, it’s miserable!” he explained. “It started to get dark then so we set up for swordfish as night set in.”
No swordfish showed up during night one, but a wahoo did. Unfortunately for the team the wahoo spit the hook not once, not twice, but three times.
Around 4 a.m. Jackson began to troll west around 10 knots, eventually ending up 220 miles off the coast of Florida. They eventually ran into a weed line that Jackson said led to the best mahi mahi fishing he’s seen in his lifetime.
“There were thousands of them around clean grass matts and they were hungry. I’ve fished a lot of mahi and this was the best I’ve ever seen. There were so many we eventually were throwing them back, they were everywhere.”
After the team got their fill of mahi they deep dropped once again, this time landing a pair of beautiful queen snapper. During night two they would catch a swordfish, but it was small and released to fight another day.
Before heading to the weigh in Saturday morning they would also land a blackfin tuna, adding to their variety.
Back at the dock Jackson’s team was the last to weigh in. Their tuna, 20.34-pounds, would take first in the tuna division. The queen snapper at 21.42-pounds, would be second in the snapper division.
At 8.76-pounds, their mahi would take first. The snowy grouper, 35.4-pounds, won grouper.
Lastly their warsaw, the only one caught during the tournament, weighed in at 121.74-pounds for first place as well. Their winnings would total over $10,000, which helped to cover the expense of the nearly 750-gallons that Jackson said the team used during the deep run into the Gulf of Mexico.
The first place snapper went to Diggin Deeper at 23.1-pounds. Wahoo would go to Laurie Lynn, at 42.9-pounds and the wildcard division would go to team Appropriate Tackle with a 156.2-pound swordfish.
The billfish tournament at the Sarasota Slam, part of the Florida West Coast Bluewater Series, also saw huge fish reach the scales between the eight boats competing. Team Haulin Grass would put up a 148-pound yellowfin tuna to win the tuna division and team On Course IV also tested the scales with a 306-pound swordfish to win that division.
Haulin Grass would also win mahi at 19.04-pounds, while wahoo went to War Chant at 38.54-pounds. Team Papa Pez would take the first leg of the billfish division after releasing two blue marlin for 1,042-points.
Leg two will be the Old Salt Loop tournament Aug.18-22 before concluding Sept. 9-12 at the Galati Yacht Basin on Anna Maria Island.
In the inshore division, team Mermaid Vodka would best 24 boats to take first place slam overall while also taking first place redfish with a pair of 36-inch fish and second place trout with a 21.25 and 20.5-inch fish.
Team Dea Neep would take first place trout with a 22 and 21.5-inch fish, while Richard Stinton Roofing took first place snook with a 43-inch line sider. Team Starfish Co. would take second place redfish and second place snook.
Next up is this weekend’s Fire Charity Fishing Tournament with the weigh-in Sunday afternoon at the Bradenton Yacht Club.
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 7:00 AM.