How Gulf anglers reeled in a 62-pound wahoo in Florida fishing tournament

Captain Tyler DeGraff was glad he had a seaworthy team fishing with him at the Boca Grande Bottom Blast Fishing Tournament.

“I think there were about 20 boats originally signed up. But once the weather and forecast came around, teams were given the option to back out, and I think 10 weighed in,” said DeGraff, who runs Fin Seekers Fishing out of Englewood.

Joining him for the tournament were anglers Mike Patterson, Dan Harris, Robbie Sanger, Michael Halunen and RJ Cox.

“We had a good team, seaworthy guys, and decided to make a run for it. The biggest thing that helped is we went with plan B to go south and follow the trough out. We fished for the first part in a northwest wind, then it switched, and we followed the trough back north on the return home. Round trip, we did probably 500 miles, and at its worst, we were in 5- to 7-foot seas.”

Over the tournament’s three days, teams competed for the biggest in a variety of categories of kingfish, snapper, mahi, grouper, tuna, wahoo, warsaw grouper and a wildcard. DeGraff began the tournament fishing shallow, where they landed a variety of somewhat exotic species.

“We started catching a bunch of nice live baits, grunts and pinfish, knowing we’d be going for big lacks (grouper) later in the tournament. We stopped shallower and caught some African pompano and small mutton snapper. When the wind switched, it let us go deeper to 250 and 300 feet of water, but the bottom fishing wasn’t very good, with how rough it was making it difficult.”

With a tuna and wahoo category, DeGraff shifted his sights for day two, deciding to do what seemed more productive in the rough weather.

“I knew we would put in a good trolling day with the weather not so good. It was difficult to get on spots. We found some birds with tons of life. Flying fish, tuna jumping out of the water and active surface life,” DeGraff recalled.

“We got a couple tuna, then started trolling Nomads, and the wahoo started biting. We got a 30-pound and a 20-pounder in the boat. An hour later, we lost a few that were peeling drag. We gave it a little more time and got a 62-pounder in the boat!”

Getting more categories covered, the team ran back to shallower water to do more grouper fishing. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the big black grouper they wanted and instead caught red and gag grouper.

At the weigh-in, teams talked of how difficult the bottom fishing was. No warsaw or black grouper were caught, and the grouper category was won by a kitty mitchell and red grouper.

With their variety, DeGraff’s team also weighed in a barracuda, not aware of what other teams might bring to the scales. Surprisingly, it would bring home first place in the wildcard.

Their 26-pound tuna would also bring home first place, while the wahoo would be second place to a 67-pounder. They would win $5,000 for the two division bests.

“When it’s rough, anything is weighable,” DeGraff emphasized. “You never know what someone else has. Usually, if it’s tough for you, it’s tough for them.”

Up next for the team is the Crosthwait, coming up in mid-May. That has eluded the team, and DeGraff says winning that one takes a well-rounded catch.

“The Crosthwait, you’ve got to show what you got. You have to weigh-in six fish. One lucky fish isn’t going to win it,” said DeGraff. “Some of those guys do well on getting their variety with swordfish and big warsaws. It’s such a good event, we can’t wait to do it again this year.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2025 at 5:50 AM.