How a team of young fishermen won first-place prize in Manatee County snook tournament

2024 has been off to a great start for a team of young anglers.

“We’re on a good streak,” said Sami Benghuzzi, captain of Team Hurricane at the Big Art Memorial Snook fishing tournament. “First in the Crosthwait, second in the Fire Charity. We didn’t have my boat yet, so couldn’t fish the tournaments before those. We have done many tournaments in the past, but recently all we talk about is fishing tournaments year-round.”

A team of brothers (Sami, Zach and Noah) and friends Clayton Hoffman, Tyler Breitenstien, and Holden Bentley, all but Sami’s brothers are 22 years old. The young team has been successful by focusing their fishing efforts on finding tournament-sized fish and staying on them year-round.

“We’ve been sleeping in cars and finding big fish, it’s all we fish for. Every time we go fishing, that is what we fish for. We plan out the tides, the time we’re going to fish and how. We fish light tackle in the daytime and heavy tackle at night. It’s been good.”

During the Big Art Memorial Fishing tournament presented by Blenker Boatworks, a Friday afternoon captain’s meeting released the anglers to fish overnight before returning Saturday afternoon to Blenker Boatworks on the Manatee River. The goal was snook. The biggest four and single biggest would take the variety of divisions for 28 men’s teams, nine women’s teams and eight junior’s.

At 7 p.m., Hurricane Fishing had their first snook on the board at 39 inches. But with night setting in and a full moon rising, an unfamiliar action occurred, according to Benghuzzi.

“All night long, it was the weirdest snook bite. We got one bite every hour and it never really fired off. We stayed up all night long, and I was taking a little nap but heard some screaming around 6:30 a.m. That’s when we got the 42-inch snook.”

With a pair of bigger line siders, the team kept fishing. After making their way from Longboat Key down to Venice, they still needed to upgrade. Finally in the late morning with a few hours of fishing time left, they brought in a doubleheader of fish.

“After the big one, we went until about 11 a.m. without another bite. Then we doubled up at a 37- and 38-inch fish. I said ‘We’re not going to beat that, let’s race back and submit early. Go right now.’ The tiebreaker was first to weigh in, so we wanted to be early.”

With a 154-inch total and other boats also experiencing a slower nighttime snook bite, Team Hurricane Fishing bested second-place Rats on Da Cheese by 3 inches. For the Men’s Division win, they would bring home $5,040. The 42-inch snook would be the second biggest of the tournament, bringing home another $500. Team Dea’s Nutz would bring home $5,250 for the biggest snook at 44 inches.

Winning the Women’s Division was Team Solo Cup at 98 inches, while the Junior’s was won with 87 inches by Team Sandbar Savages.

Overall the tournament would award a massive $20,000 in cash and donate another $20,000 to the family of McKenzie Klemkosky.

“I’m truly at a loss for words,” said tournament organizer Dea Gullet. “I’m incredibly thankful for the wonderful community I’m a part of and for being involved in such an awesome tournament. We may be small in size, but we are strong.”