Fort Pierce, Florida – The Offshore Warrior, with Tony Vercillo and Tim Kellagher from Port St. Lucie, Florida, topped the Open Class while the Bandit, with Capt. Jeremy Bonnell and family, from St. Petersburg, Florida, claimed the win in the 23 Foot and Under Class at the SKA National Championships held November 16 to 19.” This is a dream come true,” said Kellagher, who was also a part of the Offshore team in 2001, when they previously claimed the coveted title of SKA National Champions.
Kellagher and Vercillo weighed a 31.05 pound king on day one and added a 46.09 pounder on the second day to accrue a 77.14 pound aggregate in route to the championship win. They received a 23-foot Fountain Center Console boat, with twin Mercury outboards and a Loadmaster trailer.
The Bonnells fished near the beach and landed a 39.47 pound king on Friday, but weren’t leading the class. After spending the night in 4th place, they added a 30.93 pound king on Saturday and passed the folks who had led them after the first day to claim the win and a new Dodge 2500 Crew-Cab truck.
In the Open Class, Carolina anglers came in at 8th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 27th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd, and 36th of the 40 places that received prizes.
Emerald Marine, captained by Chesson O’Briant of Cape Carteret, with Phil O’Briant and Rob Koraly, was the top Carolina Boat in the Open Class. After beginning the tournament slowly and weighing a 17.76 pound king on day one, they rebounded and found one of the largest kings on the second day. Their 46.52 pound king from day two gave them an aggregate of 64.28 pounds. The O’Briants operate Emerald Marine in Cape Carteret.
In the 23 Feet and Under Class, Carolina fishermen scored 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 10th, 12th and 20th of the 20 place payout.
The Reel Screamer, with Chip and Chad Saunders of Stokes has been on most N.C. tournament’s leaderboard for many years and usually does well at the championship tournament. This year they added Chip’s son Hunter to their crew and improved several top ten finishes in the past championship tournaments to a second place in the 23 Feet and Under Class.
They fish a 230 Sea King sponsored by Greenville Marine and missed the win by less than 4 pounds. The Saunders brought a 36.88 king to the scales on Friday and followed it up with a 29.62 pounder on Saturday, for a total of 66.50 pounds for the weekend. They were worried on Saturday, but their fish finally hit at about 2:30 and relieved some of the building tension.
Third place was claimed by the Reel Music team of Gaston and Tolly Hughes from Wilmington. On the first day they fished along the beach near Sebastian Inlet and landed a 29.79 pound king on a croaker.
On Saturday they returned to the same area, but weren’t finding even small fish. After making a run offshore to catch a small fish and be assured of having something to weigh, they returned to the beach to look for a larger fish. With about 45 minutes of time remaining their number was called. The fish ran hard, but they still managed to land it quickly and made it back to weigh in with only a couple of minutes to spare.
Reel Music’s Saturday fish weighed 32.30 pounds and propelled them to a 62.09 pound aggregate weight and third place.
The largest fish of the tournament came in on the second day. It didn’t quite make 50 pounds, but the 49.69 pound king caught by George Roberts and the Smooth Ride crew pushed their 11.62 pounder from Friday into 12th place. Roberts and crew are from Panama City, Florida.
The 23 Feet and Under Class accounted for the two largest kings from the first day of fishing and represented themselves very well overall. The largest king in the smaller boat class was the 47.95 pounder landed by Capt. Rob Lupola and the Strike Two Team from Navarre, Florida. Captain Sonny Elliott and the Get Wet crew out of Jacksonville, Florida also caught a 45.27 pound king on Friday. These boats led all comers on Friday, but were unable to add a second fish on Saturday and dropped to 14th and 17th places respectively.
As the seasoned SKA fishermen have come to expect with fall tournaments in Fort Pierce, a fast moving cold front brought lots of wind, a little rain and cooling temperatures to the area for the tournament. The seas were up a little and built as you ventured farther offshore, but didn’t deter any competitors. Congratulations are in order for all the fishermen who caught fish during the tournament.
The SKA announced their 2007 championship tournament will return to Biloxi, Mississippi.
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