GATE JACKSONVILLE FISHING RODEO
PRODUCES BIG FISH!
Jerre Brumbelow from St. Marys, Georgia Wins the Contender Boat and Yamaha Outboard with a Loadmaster Trailer!
By Jack Holmes
Jacksonville, Florida—With cash prizes in sixteen different species and two jackpots, more than four hundred weekend anglers showed up to claim their share of the booty.
Also at stake was a 21’ Yamaha powered Contender boat with a Loadmaster Trailer. Every entrant who weighed a legal fish had a portion of their rodeo ticket torn off at the time they weighed their catch and placed in a drum.
Jerre Brumbelow could not make the awards because he was a part of a Fourth of July block party for his neighborhood. His ticket was the one that was drawn out of the drum by Gene Fox who helps produce the Alabama Deep Sea Rodeo and was in town to help us out.
When I called Jerre I left a message, but just after we left the Rodeo site at Metropolitan Park he called me back and got the great news. We made arrangements to have him pick up the boat on Tuesday.
Jerre didn’t win in a category but did weigh a .98 pound Whiting on Saturday afternoon at 1:33. That’s one great Whiting and who would ever have thought that a $45,000 boat, motor, trailer package could be won like that? But that’s the format of the Rodeo!
Getting ready to fish the Rodeo, Jerre went to the launch ramp and found out his boat would not run. He enlisted the help of friend, Fred Britt, who joined him in fishing the event. Fred quickly got his boat ready, made the deal to split any prizes they won, and off they went.
I had also asked Jerre where he heard about the Rodeo and he said, “Several places.” He went over to the St. Marys tournament the week before because he knew Terry Adkins and he was to help the Rotary Club cook and serve food for the fishermen in attendance. It was there he heard me talk about the Rodeo on stage and made his and Fred’s final decision to be there.
After the scales closed at 3:30 Saturday afternoon, $52,450 worth of checks were written for the six o’clock awards. Some fisher people won or placed in more that just one category.
For instance, Preston Clark from Palatka weighed the biggest Largemouth Bass (9.86 pounds) of the event on Friday to win the category plus picked up the $250 Daily Prize. Then he came back on Saturday and weighed the biggest Catfish of the event, a 10.40 plus another daily winner prize of $250. That equates to $2,500.00.
That’s how you fish a rodeo.
Another big winner was Tim Price who won the Kingfish Division for $1,000 plus the $250 daily prize for biggest king. He and his dad Bob, daughter Victoria, and junior Garrett Tidwell left out of St. Augustine expecting bad seas. Tim fishes a Mercury powered 22-foot Boston Whaler.
“We ran out twenty-eight miles till we found eighty-degree water,” Tim explained. “The seas never got over one foot. At a little after one o’clock, we hooked up to the winning 46.38. I grabbed the rod but shortly into the fifteen-minute fight, I slipped on the deck but managed to hand the rod to dad. He finished it up. When she hit the deck, we knew this was the biggest of our career.”
Tim went on to tell me that this was a very special day for him. When he was young and fishing with his dad off the jetties or anywhere else they could, he had told him that someday he would have a boat and they would fish offshore waters. That dream has come true, not only with his dad but his daughter Victoria, and young Garrett. Now Victoria is so hooked she wanted to stay home from summer camp and fish the St. Augustine tournament with them. Garrett was third place in the Menhaden category with a .54.
Tim’s team won $7,040.00.
In the other Jackpot for Redfish, it was the team of Jeff Pope from Jacksonville and Mark Sepe from DeLand, Florida. Together they weighed a two fish stringer of 12.08 pounds on Friday, and then backed it up on Saturday with 13.00 pounds.
The Yamaha powered Hell’s Bay team won $4,500.
Maybe the smartest fishing team in the event was Kenny Crawford’s team. They king mackerel fished on day one and had some steering problems but still made the weigh-in on Friday with a nice 32.90 King Mackerel, which just left them just out of the money. So on Saturday morning, he and his wife Cindy went out to catch up some Menhaden, which was a category. Together they took first and second place plus the second day Daily for the species. That’s $1,750.00.
Another smart call came from Christine Rodenbaugh. She does the graphic work for Angler Magazine. She went to the Vilano pier on Friday morning for lines in at 6 AM. She bagged a 1.14 Whiting, which won her $200 for third place. That equated to $100 per hour for time spent fishing. She was done at 8 AM.
In other categories, Roland Sage bagged and weighed a nice six pound Speckled Trout while Chandler Altman won the Flounder category with a 4.64. We were equally impressed with the Sheepshead category where Leroy Holloway bagged a 5.72. Then Denise Williams scaled a 5.64 and Scott Spivey earned a third for a 5.44. That’s some big Sheepshead!
I truly expected to see bigger Barracuda after a lot of fisher people told me that they saw huge barracuda in the St. Marys tournament the week before. They were still good fish, but we also had rough weather. Chris Anthony won the category with a 25.55 and William Goodling’s 23.94 was good for second. Then Jenifer Paulisko won third place plus the Daily big fish on Friday. She weighed a 23.23.
Tony Simone won the Dolphin category with an 8.55 and John Ivey took Vermillion Snapper with a 1.14.
Moving back to King Mackerel it was Lon Bryan on the Southbound with Paul Dozier who earned second place with their 38.04. They collected $3,346. Third place went to David Pickett on the Mercury powered Donzi, That’s What I Do. David fished with Jerry Smith, Hunter Markham, Asher Louridsen, and Chris Ramsey.
Barry Fox and Brad Whitehead fished their way into fourth scaling a nice 33.31. They fished Carmelo’s Crime.
When you look at the weather, it was really nasty, but still fishable. The time these and the other king mackerel fishermen put in surely paid off. Over $15,000 was paid out to the top four and one in Class of 23. That was a one hundred percent payback plus.
Robert Bishop, John Peiffer, Kristen Bishop, and Brian Ferrell, fished on the Fishbuster and won the Class of 23 on their Mercury powered Bluewater.
They scaled a 29.45.
We could not have brought a Rodeo to the east coast of the U.S. without the help and vision of the people at Gate Petroleum. We used the model from the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, on a smaller scale of course, which Gate determined was ideal for their customers.
What’s even better is that Gate approved the event for next year, which we committed to making it a three-day event and not being produced on a holiday weekend.
Thanks to everyone who fished the event. We really appreciated your support of this inaugural event. See you next year!
By Jack Holmes
Jacksonville, Florida—With cash prizes in sixteen different species and two jackpots, more than four hundred weekend anglers showed up to claim their share of the booty.
Also at stake was a 21’ Yamaha powered Contender boat with a Loadmaster Trailer. Every entrant who weighed a legal fish had a portion of their rodeo ticket torn off at the time they weighed their catch and placed in a drum.
Jerre Brumbelow could not make the awards because he was a part of a Fourth of July block party for his neighborhood. His ticket was the one that was drawn out of the drum by Gene Fox who helps produce the Alabama Deep Sea Rodeo and was in town to help us out.
When I called Jerre I left a message, but just after we left the Rodeo site at Metropolitan Park he called me back and got the great news. We made arrangements to have him pick up the boat on Tuesday.
Jerre didn’t win in a category but did weigh a .98 pound Whiting on Saturday afternoon at 1:33. That’s one great Whiting and who would ever have thought that a $45,000 boat, motor, trailer package could be won like that? But that’s the format of the Rodeo!
Getting ready to fish the Rodeo, Jerre went to the launch ramp and found out his boat would not run. He enlisted the help of friend, Fred Britt, who joined him in fishing the event. Fred quickly got his boat ready, made the deal to split any prizes they won, and off they went.
I had also asked Jerre where he heard about the Rodeo and he said, “Several places.” He went over to the St. Marys tournament the week before because he knew Terry Adkins and he was to help the Rotary Club cook and serve food for the fishermen in attendance. It was there he heard me talk about the Rodeo on stage and made his and Fred’s final decision to be there.
After the scales closed at 3:30 Saturday afternoon, $52,450 worth of checks were written for the six o’clock awards. Some fisher people won or placed in more that just one category.
For instance, Preston Clark from Palatka weighed the biggest Largemouth Bass (9.86 pounds) of the event on Friday to win the category plus picked up the $250 Daily Prize. Then he came back on Saturday and weighed the biggest Catfish of the event, a 10.40 plus another daily winner prize of $250. That equates to $2,500.00.
That’s how you fish a rodeo.
Another big winner was Tim Price who won the Kingfish Division for $1,000 plus the $250 daily prize for biggest king. He and his dad Bob, daughter Victoria, and junior Garrett Tidwell left out of St. Augustine expecting bad seas. Tim fishes a Mercury powered 22-foot Boston Whaler.
“We ran out twenty-eight miles till we found eighty-degree water,” Tim explained. “The seas never got over one foot. At a little after one o’clock, we hooked up to the winning 46.38. I grabbed the rod but shortly into the fifteen-minute fight, I slipped on the deck but managed to hand the rod to dad. He finished it up. When she hit the deck, we knew this was the biggest of our career.”
Tim went on to tell me that this was a very special day for him. When he was young and fishing with his dad off the jetties or anywhere else they could, he had told him that someday he would have a boat and they would fish offshore waters. That dream has come true, not only with his dad but his daughter Victoria, and young Garrett. Now Victoria is so hooked she wanted to stay home from summer camp and fish the St. Augustine tournament with them. Garrett was third place in the Menhaden category with a .54.
Tim’s team won $7,040.00.
In the other Jackpot for Redfish, it was the team of Jeff Pope from Jacksonville and Mark Sepe from DeLand, Florida. Together they weighed a two fish stringer of 12.08 pounds on Friday, and then backed it up on Saturday with 13.00 pounds.
The Yamaha powered Hell’s Bay team won $4,500.
Maybe the smartest fishing team in the event was Kenny Crawford’s team. They king mackerel fished on day one and had some steering problems but still made the weigh-in on Friday with a nice 32.90 King Mackerel, which just left them just out of the money. So on Saturday morning, he and his wife Cindy went out to catch up some Menhaden, which was a category. Together they took first and second place plus the second day Daily for the species. That’s $1,750.00.
Another smart call came from Christine Rodenbaugh. She does the graphic work for Angler Magazine. She went to the Vilano pier on Friday morning for lines in at 6 AM. She bagged a 1.14 Whiting, which won her $200 for third place. That equated to $100 per hour for time spent fishing. She was done at 8 AM.
In other categories, Roland Sage bagged and weighed a nice six pound Speckled Trout while Chandler Altman won the Flounder category with a 4.64. We were equally impressed with the Sheepshead category where Leroy Holloway bagged a 5.72. Then Denise Williams scaled a 5.64 and Scott Spivey earned a third for a 5.44. That’s some big Sheepshead!
I truly expected to see bigger Barracuda after a lot of fisher people told me that they saw huge barracuda in the St. Marys tournament the week before. They were still good fish, but we also had rough weather. Chris Anthony won the category with a 25.55 and William Goodling’s 23.94 was good for second. Then Jenifer Paulisko won third place plus the Daily big fish on Friday. She weighed a 23.23.
Tony Simone won the Dolphin category with an 8.55 and John Ivey took Vermillion Snapper with a 1.14.
Moving back to King Mackerel it was Lon Bryan on the Southbound with Paul Dozier who earned second place with their 38.04. They collected $3,346. Third place went to David Pickett on the Mercury powered Donzi, That’s What I Do. David fished with Jerry Smith, Hunter Markham, Asher Louridsen, and Chris Ramsey.
Barry Fox and Brad Whitehead fished their way into fourth scaling a nice 33.31. They fished Carmelo’s Crime.
When you look at the weather, it was really nasty, but still fishable. The time these and the other king mackerel fishermen put in surely paid off. Over $15,000 was paid out to the top four and one in Class of 23. That was a one hundred percent payback plus.
Robert Bishop, John Peiffer, Kristen Bishop, and Brian Ferrell, fished on the Fishbuster and won the Class of 23 on their Mercury powered Bluewater.
They scaled a 29.45.
We could not have brought a Rodeo to the east coast of the U.S. without the help and vision of the people at Gate Petroleum. We used the model from the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, on a smaller scale of course, which Gate determined was ideal for their customers.
What’s even better is that Gate approved the event for next year, which we committed to making it a three-day event and not being produced on a holiday weekend.
Thanks to everyone who fished the event. We really appreciated your support of this inaugural event. See you next year!
