How a Bradenton man took home first-place prize in local spearfishing tournament

The St. Pete Open brings spear fisherman from around the world to the west coast of Florida where underwater hunters take aim for the biggest and best fish the Gulf has to offer.

Usually, high-valued species have closed seasons during the Open, but with the timing of last weekend’s 60th Annual tournament, contestants were allowed to target almost all desired fish due to a new tournament date. This had many excited, and while anglers from around the world came to compete, it was mostly local participants who came away with the top prizes.

Chad Tripp is one of those local participants who always look forward to the tournament. Recently, Tripp made national news when he helped retrieve a lost bracelet valued at $25,000 that was lost 60 miles offshore.

For the Open, Tripp joined Jason Bihari, Logan Padgett and Caleb Padgett, where they braved rough weather to get to their spots early Saturday morning.

“It was rough in the morning,” said the Bradenton resident Tripp, who traveled nearly 100 miles offshore for the tournament. “We were diving between 190 and 210 feet of water, targeting gag grouper, black grouper and cubera snapper.”

“On a spot in 200 feet of water, I shot both a gag and a black grouper,” he added. “The gag grouper was 38 pounds, and the black grouper was a little smaller than what we normally like. We are seeing a lot more gags this year than previous years.”

Normally held in August, this year’s September date meant gag grouper were able to be kept along with red snapper and amberjack. Tripp’s 37.65-pound gag grouper would be the largest weighed in, but his teammates weren’t done there.

Bihari would take home first-place snapper, shooting a cubera snapper at 22.4 pounds. Logan Padgett would take third-place snapper at 18.10 pounds with a red snapper. Caleb Padgett would bring in the second-biggest amberjack at 67.25 pounds, meaning hardware was claimed by all the teammates.

Another familiar face around Bradenton while working at Scuba Quest on Manatee Avenue, Moses Marquez would take home bragging rights, which he has won before. In 2022, Marquez brought a 106.5-pound black grouper to the scales. This year, he would bring home the largest black grouper with one at 90.30 pounds, beating Tristan Nutten’s 84.2-pound black.

Marquez would also weigh the largest amberjack at 81.65 pounds.

The largest hogfish would go to Amy Hoekstra with a 15.20-pound hog, beating out Jason Healy’s 14.30 and Melody Engle’s 14.10 in one of the closest divisions.

Hoekstra also claimed the women’s title over Engle for her total weighed in.

Greg Fenton would bring home the largest cobia at 43.50 pounds, while Jerry Lancaster showed off his 6.85-pound spiny lobster for first-place lobster.

The Zacker family kept their reign as sheepshead champions with Brynn taking first with a 7.3-pound sheepshead and Ritchie taking third at 5.9 pounds.

The junior division was won by Cole Stickland, while Matthew Warner would win the free diver division.

This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 5:50 AM.