Bradenton-area anglers secure fishing tournament victory with ‘perfect’ catch
“Recovery time is definitely longer than it used to be,” said Captain TJ Stewart of Team Richardson Stinton Roofing.
“Every year we say we’ll give it up, but we enjoy it so much being out together and hanging out. As the kids are getting older, it’s not as tough to get time away from the family. And whenever we talk about giving it up, everyone keeps telling me we’ve got to keep going, they want to beat us.”
Last weekend, Stewart joined teammates Joe Medred, Vinny Decarbo, Ed Richardson, Steve Cucci and Chris Cucci for the 19th Annual Fire Charity Fishing Tournament. It’s an event they’ve won or tied for first every year going back to 2020, where they placed second after the tournament was postponed two months due to COVID-19.
The event started early on Saturday morning and ended Sunday afternoon. Many times in the past, Stewart and the team have fished through a sleepless night to get their catch.
This dedication makes them still the team to beat in inshore fishing tournaments. Stewart’s team came in hot after winning the Crosthwait Memorial in May.
“I’ve been in Boca Grande tarpon fishing since May 6, coming back for these tournaments,” Stewart explained, who still guides his home Tampa Bay waters the rest of the year. “Since I’m fishing down there, we always hope we don’t have to run that far south to find fish in these, but it’s an option. Luckily, in this we only had to go down to Venice, so not all the way.”
On day one, the team started with a quality catch, but not quite the size they wanted.
“We had a 33-inch snook early and tons of 24-inch redfish, with two around 31 and 29 inches. Then we caught a bunch of trout, with two at 21 and 22 inches. It was good fun fishing, but we still had to grind a bit into the night. We tried going tarpon fishing at the Skyway, but there were so many boats, it was a disaster.”
They would slowly get bigger fish, ending up with another 39-inch snook to end the day.
Still looking for a way to increase their points, the teammates kept hoping for a tarpon. While Stewart got some rare sleep during a tournament, he was awoken by his teammates.
“At like 1 a.m., they got a tarpon, it was a small one and perfect size,” Stewart recalled. “That got us all back up and amped. We decided to do a reset from there, got a 41-inch snook and then headed to take showers and get refreshed.”
At sunrise Sunday morning with hours of fishing time remaining, they weighed their options. They thought the best chance to upgrade points was a trout. The six anglers spread out when a 28-inch trout provided a big upgrade.
“I wasn’t sure if we would have enough in this one, there’s so many good anglers out there. The next group of anglers coming up catch fish and we were beatable. It’s getting tough nowadays,” Stewart said.
With their six fish total of 399 points Stewart’s team would once again claim the crown over Team ShorelineDesign/Naturdays, who had 374 points. The margin of victory, 25 points, is exactly the same amount that the last trout added to their total.
They would also claim the Triple Crown Fishing Series Presented by Palmetto Bait and Tackle title for being the best team over the three-legged spring and summer fishing tournaments, adding another trophy to the team’s seemingly endless list of accomplishments.
Despite all of his own winnings and giant catches, Stewart’s most memorable moment from the 2025 tournament season might not have been his own. His son, Jackson, was able to get first place in the Crosthwait Memorial Junior division. Most people might think TJ is helping him, but that isn’t the case.
“He doesn’t listen to anything I tell him,” Stewart said jokingly. “He’s got all these great ideas, and about half of them work. About the only help I give him is some rods to use. He wants to do it himself. I never won the junior’s division, so he’s got that on me.”
In the offshore division, Team Seaveeche would claim first place once again with 381 points to follow up their win at the Crosthwait. Second-place Team XOS would closely follow at 377, while third-place West Bound and Down was also close, at 375.
The Nearshore division win would go to team NRFD with 363 points, while back inshore Derek Ball would win the Kayak division, Team ZNS Engineering would win the junior division and Shrimpin ain’t easy would win the inshore amateur division.
And once again, the Fire Charity Fishing Tournament raised a spectacular $75,000 for the community. For more information, visit FireCharityFishing.com.
