Silver Sailfish Derby
January 3-5, 2008
The New Year in the sailfish tournament season is usually kicked off by the
Silver Sailfish Derby and this year was no exception. January 2nd marked the kickoff
party and captain's meeting and hopes were high for the 51 boats entered into
the event. Conditions were similar to the tournament two years earlier which produced
958 sailfish releases. After the first day, Mike Riseley aboard his new 36' Contender,
"X Generation," with Doug Konz, Kyle Smith and Joe Ferdulle, were leading
with 6 fish. It was one of the coldest days I have ever spent in the tower. The
winds were averaging in the mid 30 knot range out of the northwest and the temperature
was 35 degrees at the dock with a wind chill of 27 in the morning. I lasted about
5 hours in the tower until I had a brain freeze rivaling any ICEE drinking race
I ever won as a kid. I saw a couple of fish from the tower but none of them bit
and we ended the day with only 2 fish. The weather kept several boats at the dock
and the count at the end of the day was 73 fish.
The second day drew a crowd to the south of Lake Worth Inlet where the X Generation
was fishing the day before. Unfortunately, conditions were not good and the bite
was best off of Juno. After the day was done, Ryan Higgins and his gang aboard
the "Viking 60" were on top with 13 sailfish, the "Sandman"
was in 2nd place on time with 13 and the Miss Britt was in 3rd with 12. The total
catch was 83 for Day 2.
Day 3 was calmer and slower fishing overall. The "Sandman" was the
top boat with 5 for the day and a total of 18 for the tournament. Congratulations
to Todd and Sandra Kirkpatrick, Kitt Toomey, Capt. Neal Orange, mates Mike Dinnen
and Chip Sheehan for a job well done. The third day resulted in 54 releases for
a grand total of 210 releases for the event.
Top angler Honors and the coveted Rea Trophy went to Dave Dickerson aboard
the "Miss Britt II (43')" who was sharing angling duties with Danny
Farkas. The crew consisted of my homey's (I think that's the new term), Capt.
Brett Wilson, mates Jim Mulcahy and Jeff Liederman. They ended up with 15 releases
for the tournament.
Third place was taken by the Viking cartel aboard the "Viking 60."
Their anglers were Don Gimmel, Lonni Rutt, David Wilson and Dwight Mooney. The
crew consisted of Capt. Ryan Higgins, Scott Adams and Rhett Bailey with 14 releases.
Congratulations to these teams on a job well done and thanks to Tom Twyford
and the West Palm Beach Fishing Club for another fun, well organized event.
For more information on this event look at:
www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org
Next year's dates are Jan. 8-10, 2009.
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