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Fishing: Everything close after first day of Gene Doyle tournament
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As Mario Santiago struggled to pull in his latest redfish Saturday, he knew it was going to be a big one from all the effort it took corral the fish.
This is the one, the sixth-grader thought, that could put him in the lead on the first day of the Gene Doyle Backcountry Release Fishing Tournament. With the help of Capt. Jeff Rucker, Santiago was set to snag a redfish that would shoot him up the standings in the youth guided division.
Then something unexpected happened.
“I was reeling it in, and (Rucker) told me to reel it in hard,” Santiago said. “We were going to pull it in, then I saw the big shark.”
The shark, which Rucker estimates was about five feet long, got away with Santiago's catch and his potential points. It was that kind of day in the 11th annual Gene Doyle tournament, when a fish here or there made all the difference in the standings.
In the two adult divisions, mere inches separate the top anglers. Four inches of fish are the difference between first and second place in the adult open division, while the top three teams in the adult guided division are just six inches apart.
“I'm surprised it's this tight,” said Chris Turner, who sits in second place in the adult open division heading into today's final day. “We all had a good day. It looks like everybody caught some fish, but nobody was catching tons of fish like they did last year.”
When the Day 1 results were revealed at the scoring party at Sunshine ACE Hardware on Rattlesnake Hammock Road, Turner saw himself just 40 points behind leader Mark Williams (1860-1820). Turner has finished third the past two years, his only other times in the tournament.
In the adult guided team division, Chris Emerine and Jerry Wynn scored 2,470 points, but needed a late push to take the lead into the final day.
“It was real slow at first, then we found some good spots and started hitting some good fish,” Emerine said. “Literally three minutes before we had to head to the dock we got two nice snook. It was right down to the wire.”
The last-minute snook gave Emerine and Wynn bonus points for catching four of the species. Anglers received 10 points per inch of fish plus bonuses for catching four of redfish, snook or trout. The scoring goes up to 15 points per inch today, making it anyone's tournament to win.
Andrew Foley leads the youth open division with 710 points. The 27-inch snook he snared Saturday, the largest in the division, helped out a lot. Reagan Thalheimer caught 1,130 points worth of fish to take the lead in the youth guided division.
The biggest fish of the day was a 33-inch snook reeled in by Rich Connolly. Williams, the adult open leader, caught a 32-inch redfish, as did Evan Noponen in the youth open division and Weston Bedell in the youth guided division.
Troy Pruitt scored 1400 points in the adult open division, but threw back a couple snook in anticipation of bigger fish later in the day that didn't come. But the tight standings give Pruitt hope that he can come back and take home a trophy today.
“Nobody's really blowing anyone out, which is nice going into the second day,” Pruitt said. “I only need two 20-inch fish, so it's not too bad.”
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