2023 Pirate's Cove Sailfish Classic

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? I just wanted to thank you for joining us tonight in Stewart, Florida, for the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic. We are honored and privileged to host this tournament every year and eagerly look forward to yet another incredible sailfish tournament. We wish all of our anglers, captains, mates, and owners a safe tournament and look forward to seeing everyone here this weekend for the awards celebration. Good luck, everyone. So we want to talk about tournament fishing, huh? It's not for the weak-hearted, that's for sure. The weather usually never likes to cooperate much during tournaments, especially the Pirates Cove tournament. You know, I always like a big competition. That's the whole reason why we do these tournaments, you know, because we like to compete. We want to win. But this is where I got the itch, the craving to just want to go bill fishing. The team I've got together with this boat is kind of a group of friends that I've been fishing with for a long time. At the end of the day, that's all I want to do is have fun doing this. Stewart, Florida, is the sailfish capital of the world. I think that when the fisherman gets that fish on the hook and they see that sail jump out of the water, there is nothing stopping it on that first initial run. And I think that's what makes people want to fish the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic. Yeah, there's a pretty good amount of ground to cover for this tournament. Day of, you know, it's a couple mates rigging their last minute ballyhoos and mullets, and the rest of the guys are going through and making sure the rods and the rest of the boat's ready to go. I like to think that pretty much every captain that's coming out got the same question in their mind. Are we going north or south today? Weather definitely is going to play a big role in that. The only way that you're really going to take a daily in one of these tournaments, or at least this one, you just got to catch your one at a time. It's singles throughout the day. The wolf pack of fish that comes in is going to be the deciding factor for who's going home with the trophy and who's not. Day two for us, we finally got that single. And within 30 minutes, we ran over a wolf pack. I had four fish behind the boat. We were lucky enough to capitalize on two of those. Yeah, you're hooked up. Two fish on. Time to go get them. Fish jumping one way, comes down, comes back up the other way. So yeah, we mean you coming in hot, trying to get to that fish as fast as you can so that we can get the spread back in the water and continue to try to catch some more. It's definitely a huge team sport. Without everybody doing their part, you know, you're never going to be able to capitalize on a group of fish that come in like that. Next thing I know, we're sitting in second place for the day. Fifth place overall. Next thing I know, you're the target for the rest of the fleet. Everyone's coming your way. So everyone's friends at the end of the day, but as soon as you untie the boat and leave the dock, all that kind of stays at the dock for the most part. When the boats start coming through the inlet, you know that those fishermen and anglers have fished their hearts out and they left all the competition out at sea. Because we have such a history of meat fish being brought back here to the dock, we decided let's bring a meat division into Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic. Now that we have meat categories and there's a little bit more competition to it, I'm hoping to get more participation from boats. This tournament ended up being Dave on the fish camp. They were very consistent throughout the tournament, constantly picking off fish here and there, which what they needed to do and they took the victory home this time. It's awesome to hear the bantering and the so-called fish stories after dinner's done and all the camaraderie comes out. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the awards part of the Sailfish Classic. In first place with seven sails was the fish camp. They won $20,481. Something that this committee is super proud of is the accommodations here at Pirates Cove. The menu that we pick for the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic is second to none. We try to get the best of the best. Stewart, Florida is the sailfish capital of the world. This is where dead bait, circle hook, trolling made its name. If you got a sportfish boat and you're into the whole sailfish scene and you want to go out and get a little competition, it's a great tournament just to go have some fun. This tournament's just more about the camaraderie and seeing your friends. It doesn't really matter the boat I'm in or how good the fishing is. This tournament is my home tournament and I want to continue fishing it for years to come.