2nd ANNUAL GATE JACKSONVILLE FISHING RODEO

By Jack Holmes

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Jacksonville, Florida - The second year promoting the Gate Jacksonville Fishing Rodeo saw a huge jump in attendance. Four hundred last year, five hundred eighty-nine this year to be exact. Chalk that up to better dates, great weather, and more promotion. Anglers lined up to fish the event and for the inshore and freshwater anglers they found great fishing, reflecting a strong leaderboard. Offshore was a different story with the kingfish bite predominately being non-existent.

Weights from most of the seventeen Rodeo categories were up, but that was to be anticipated with the larger turnout. $37,400 was paid out in seventeen different categories—$1,000 for first, $500 for second place, and $200 for third, plus there was a $250 big fish daily prize for Friday and Saturday in each species.

The biggest prize, however, was the random drawing for the Mercury powered 21' Contender center console boat sitting on a custom aluminum Loadmaster Trailer. Everyone who purchased a tournament entry and weighed a legal Rodeo species had a ticket placed in the drum for the random drawing at 5:30 on Sunday afternoon.

As soon as Rodeo monies were dispersed to the winners, we moved immediately to the Contender/Mercury drawing which everyone was anticipating with crossed fingers. "I would love to win that boat," seemed to resonate all over Metro Park as I spun the stuffed drum holding the tickets.

Jerre Brumbelow, who won the boat last year and weighed a legal fish to get his name in for the drawing again, asked me earlier if I had ever seen anyone win a boat twice. I had not, but he was there to do just that.

You had to be present, with proper identification, to win the grand prize.

I brought the drum to a complete stop with the door facing up. David Dill, an executive of Gate Petroleum was on hand to do the honors. I guess I was as excited as he was because it was truly a big deal for some lucky fisherman. David handed the ticket to me and I shouted out, "Chris Kellum!" Immediately he let out a holler and was high-fiving everyone around him. He made his way to the stage and proclaimed, "This is one of the greatest days of my life!"

The Kingfish Jackpot had twenty-nine teams competing. It was Kenny Crawford's 41.42 that took the top slot and the $4,050 cash prize. Kenny was fishing offshore all day Saturday with nothing to show for his Crawfish team's effort. He elected to come in to the Cap's House mid afternoon although he had heard nothing was going on there either. They pitched a bait in the water and almost immediately hooked up to the winning fish.

Fishing with Kenny was his wife Cindy, son Matthew Farlow, and Al Morris on Kenny's Yamaha powered Contender named Crawfish.

Ron Roberson, Robbie Harris, and Harold Evans won $2,430 for earning second place in the tournament. They fished the 23' Mercury powered Fountain named Oceanview.

Darren Carter, Jason English, Amy Carter, Gage Carter, and Dalton English all earned third and its $1,620 prize with a 25.89. Darren fishes the Mercury powered Contender named Gotcha.

The top team in the Small Boat Division, Smoked Out, won $2,025. Ryan Richey and Morgan Campbell scaled a 22.79 to win the $2,025. Smoked Out is a 20.6-foot Mercury powered Sea Boss.

So, how bad was it really? Alden Thornton called me on Saturday morning to inform me that he was at the southern boundary and fished there all day Friday and all Friday night with just a ten- pound king for his efforts. Last year he won two events fishing that area which is considered to be an area that always holds good fish. People picking up donated fish for the Gate Foundation talked to commercial fishermen from South Florida to Georgia with the response all the same—no bite.

Preston Clark, a very successful bass pro did not show up this year, giving Travis Carter's seven-pound bass the top award and the $1,000 top prize. Not that the bass pro would have won, but that's the assumption with a lot of fresh water anglers.

Jake Crabtree actually bettered Clark's 2010 catfish category win, a 17.77 to Clark's 10.40. It should be noted that Norman Boyett had a great 16.16 for second place.

Gary Stickney's 1.23 pound bream won that category; it was also bigger than last year's winner. A new category was added to freshwater, speckled perch, which was won by Kyle Craven with a 1.45.

Inshore was loaded with good fishermen. Chris Kellum weighed a beautiful 6.69 pound speckled trout for the win. Flounder, too, was up in size. Ron Keiser saw to that scaling a 6.88. That's what they call a gator trout!

There were a lot of sheepshead weighed, obviously a very popular category, but it was Scott Spivey's 7.50 that led the field. It should be noted that Todd Weatherly's second place 6.94 and Phil Curry's 6.54 all trumped last year's winning catch by Leroy Holloway. Leroy, and many others, fished the Rodeo again this year.

William Eicholz won the whiting species with a 1.77, while Brittany Stack's 7.30 legal redfish captured that species' top slot.

Sam Sica led the barracuda class with a super 32.33. On Alden Thornton's The A-Team, Carl Carder earned the top slot for dolphin, a nice 24.33. Then Alden himself took the grand in the mangrove snapper division with a 10.27.

The only blackfin tuna award went to Bryan Breslend who came to the scales on Sunday morning.

Also weighing on Sunday morning was Terry Smith who scaled a 46.45-pound grouper to win that category and Tony Gitzen picked up second with a nice 32.23.

The big category that everyone tried to win this year was, of course, menhaden. For two and a half days we weighed a lot of menhaden, but it was Lewis Rogers who took home the $1,000 for a seven-ounce pogy. Alison Thornton was second with 6.8 oz., and Matt Miller was third with a 6.2 oz. All menhaden were weighed on an electronic postage scale in ounces for better accuracy.

The Redfish Jackpot had Terry Sturgeon and Wade Hastings win with a combined four fish aggregate. They weighed a 6.31 and a 6.45 on day one, then backed it up on Saturday with a 6.01 and a 5.79 for a four fish aggregate of 37.32 pounds. Matt Davis and his partner earned second place with a four fish aggregate of 34.98.

Gate Petroleum management was quick to congratulate the winners and said they'll be back next year, so that means I need to get going on reserving Metropolitan Park, selecting the dates, and talking to our sponsors who I'm sure will want to return.

Two things I did learn at this year's event: First, we have a real shot at next year's projected attendance of 1,000 anglers. Second, if every participant this year gets one more person to sign up we'll be able to raise the purse level substantially. We already know we'll have a boat to give away next year again!

We hope you enjoyed this year's event. We look forward to seeing everyone next year.