Tampa Bay family wins $97K in annual Gulf fishing tournament

The 32nd annual Fall King of the Beach kingfish tournament provided Gulf Coast anglers fortunate weather to fish a few days ahead of the first strong cold front of the year.

With a large field of 390 teams, organizers allowed boats to venture across a wide area. On Nov. 8, Tampa Bay filled with boats and anglers looking for the biggest kingfish they could find.

Team Reel Down, led by captain Jory Romano, was among them. The team’s preparation started earlier in the week, and they arrived prepared to fish.

“We met at 4 a.m. and got the bait we caught earlier in the week transferred over,” said Romano, who’s had success in kingfish tournaments but had never won. “We left about 5 a.m., and that put us down in the bay around 6 a.m. When the sun was coming up, we were ready to fish.”

Romano, who fishes with his wife Liz, son Quinn and father Joe, said the weeds in the bay were causing quite a problem.

“It was almost unfishable. We were fighting weeds all morning long. We slid over to another spot away from the pack and hooked a good fish and fought it for about 15 minutes or so. My dad fought it, I was ready with the gaff, my son cleared the rods and wife drove the boat.”

The fish, which ate a slow trolled blue runner, was big and had the team on edge. When it got close, Romano stuck it with the gaff and swung it into the boat. He knew it was big, and his first thought was success.

“I knew right when he was in the boat. I looked at my family and said ‘We just won king of the beach!’ It was big, and I didn’t think anyone could beat it unless they found one offshore.”

It was 10:06 a.m. and the family spent the next few hours searching for a ladies division fish and a juniors division fish, trying to cover all their bases. But none would surpass what they had currently on ice, so they would cease fishing at 1:30.

They headed to the scales early to minimize risk and Romano’s confidence grew as each passing fish was weighed. When theirs came up, it was just a hair shy of 40 pounds, stretching the scales to 39.71.

Another big fish, caught by previous tournament champion Captain Steve Papen, was close, but would fall short at 37.09 pounds.

When all the boats were done, Romano was the new king, and he came out with a big payday.

“We entered all the divisions. I learned that lesson a few years ago when we missed out on $10,000. This year we walked away with $97,916 and a memory to last a lifetime!” Romano said.

Winning the ladies division was angler Cheyenne Gunnit with a 29.61-pound kingfish. The largest youth kingfish went to Martin Lane at 17.8 pounds, and the biggest spanish mackerel went to John Baldauf at 6.77 pounds.