The 20th Annual UF Fisheries/FWC Fishing Tournament at Cedar Key is in the books! We had a great event this year.
Early week predictions of rainy weather missed the mark, and clear skies and relatively calm winds greeted anglers as the day began Saturday morning. The winds picked up a bit in the afternoon but conditions remained favorable all day. We had a total of 19 boats and 42 anglers this year, and the group did not disappoint on fish catches. The full range of species was caught this year, for a total of 5 prize categories (each prize was $145). And the winners were…………
Largest Spanish Mackerel – 21.5 inches, Captain George Tanner and his brother. This boat had 16 Spanish, three spotted seatrout, and one redfish. It was one of only two boats with three qualifying species in this tournament. George usually catches fish, and he did well again this year capturing this category.
Largest Cobia – 37 inches, Captain Steve Larsen and coworkers Ryan LaMar and Cristian Villata. An excellent catch on this boat (see below).
Largest Redfish – 26.9 inches, Captain Eric Nagid and partner Janell Brush. Eric often catches a redfish that’s in contention for the winner, and this year they boated the perfect specimen that was just 1/16 of an inch below the 27-inch upper slot size. This fish was gonna be hard to beat!
Largest Spotted Seatrout – 21.5 inches, Captain Eric Nagid and Janell Brush. Janell caught this fish first thing the morning, and it turned out to be the winner from our most commonly caught gamefish species. Congrats Janell! Eric and Janell had a limit of 10 legal spotted seatrout to go with the winning redfish. Excellent catch!
Most Impressive Cooler -- This prize is awarded to the boat with the most impressive total catch of qualifying game fish in this event (trout, Spanish mackerel, redfish, and cobia). This year the winner was Captain Steve Larsen and his coworkers. This boat had two legal seatrout, three Spanish Mackerel and two big cobia (36.75 and 37 inches). The combination of three species, punctuated with two large cobia took our most coveted prize this year. Congrats Steve, who is a former FAS graduate student and longtime participant in this event. They will have cobia to eat for quite some time.
Congrats also to Travis Thomas and his father Mike, friend Joe McNeil, and Savanna Barry as they brought in the first ever king mackerel in this event. Not a prize winner, but a really impressive 40-inch fish!
We also had a strong contingent of friends that came to Cedar Key for the fish fry, which was terrific. Graduate students Grant Scholten, Yasmin Quintana, Justin Procopio, and Chao Xiong worked hard to prepare the facility for the event, and Mendy Allen helped with literally everything! We had a great group of that stepped up to fillet fish.
Special thanks to Leslie Sturmer and her husband Chris for cooking clams at the fish fry, they were fantastic. We had a great set of side dishes and plenty of fish. Cedar Key Mayor Heath Davis even fried a few striped mullet as an Hors d’oeuvre.
What makes this event special is the families and friends who all come to Cedar Key for fishing, food and fun. Thank you for participating, and if you didn’t make it, we hope to see you next year!
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