Casey's First Sailfish Tournament

Wow, The last 2 days have been rough, Six to eight foot seas. There were times when I almost turned around and said it isn't fun and almost dangerous. But young Casey Blakey is a sailor and a very patient angler.

At the end of the 3 day tournament Casey had released 7 Sailfish which garnered him 2nd place in the junior division. The highpoint for us was on day 3 when Casey managed a double header of Sailfish totally unassisted. We were drifting in 20 to 25 knot winds gusting to 30. Downwind of the boat we flew a kite with 2 blue runners suspended off it for bait. On the upwind side we drifted live ballyhoo.

Bill and Casey with the
Permit Trek rods and Diablo 550 spinning reels

For kite rods we used the EOS 30 reels and the rod was the Tarpon Spincast. A wonderful combo that I use for many different fishing situations. The reel held over 500 meters of 12lb test monofilament. Thank goodness.

Casey used the EOS 30 conventional reel
paired with the Tarpon Spincast as his kite rod

We watched a Sail eat the short kite bait and as Casey reeled down the slack and hooked him another sail ate one of the ballyhoo on the spinning rod. Casey flipped the bail shut as we went ahead and was hooked up to his first ever double header. It got pretty exciting. Casey had to put the kite rod in the rod holder and do battle on the Permit Trek/Diablo 550 as it had less line capacity. Casey also loosened the drag on the EOS so the line would'nt break as the fish took over 350 meters of line. We managed to release both Sails and Casey did a heck of a job as a couple waves washed over the bow and thru the boat.

Casey won second place junior angler with 7 releases

So all in all we had a good tournament and young Casey can't wait for the next one.

Congratulations to Casey and all the winners.

Captain Skip Nielsen