Sundance Team wins 2nd place at Hogs Breath Toury-64 lb king

[Fishingchick200]

What a great time! Team Sundance ended up second place with a 64.74 lb kingfish. We caught the fish at 9:30 Saturday morning 20 miles west of Key West in 120 feet of water. I was driving the boat and relinquished the helm for a minute to Kevin Kates, our delivery captain in Jensen Beach, to use the transom head (LOL). I heard the prop wash bait get hit a little bit, so I looked out behind the boat to where the bait was to see this monstrous fish sky rocket 10 feet into the air. Our junior angler Wesley Thomas, Kevin's son, jumped on the fish and worked it up to the bow where the line got caught around a crab buoy. I motored the boat over to the buoy where crew member Tom Hill from Pompano Beach gaffed the buoy line and cut it free in a very smooth operation. Kevin took over the rod at that point (this is legal in SKA tournaments) and brought the fish up to the boat where Tom stuck it. He couldn't quite bring it all the way over the gunnel so Kevin grabbed the tail and helped hoist it over, the fish hitthe deck with a big THUD! Signs of a true stud! We were all the talk at the docks with interviews and the like for our possible torunament record fish. They had to shorten the hanging line when the yweighed the fish to get it all the way off the ground. We took a lay day on the second day of fishing since tehre was no way we would be able to catch a bigger fish than we already had. Staying home yielded us less expenses anyways which equals more money at the end of the day for us! At about 2:30 Sunday afternoon we got the call that a boat had a 60+ coming in from the Tortugas. When they pulled up we thought no way since our fish wouldn't fit in the fish bag and theirs did. They strung it up and I figured high 50s, WRONG! This was a short fat fish that went 66.77 lbs caught be the "Lured Away" from Houston, Texas. At any rate, it was a great showing for Team Sundance and the new Wellcraft 352 Tournament and an adventure I won't soon fogret! Congratulations to the Texas team as well if they read this! Just to be even more humble about it to try and hold onto first, we gave all of our bait away (7 dozen fresh runners and gogs straight from Ft. Lauderdale caught by myself) to the boats at Murray's and gave away our spot for catching the fish. Hopefully it will come back some day, it just wasn't last Sunday! I would like to thank my wonderful girlfriend :heart: Priscila (fishingchick200) for helping me to organize and arrange for the hotel and slip, who couldn't fish because she was ill =(. Without her help we would have spent much more in expenses and probably not gotten reservations in time. Thank you for all your support, you're the best baby (personal palm pilot ) I want to say thanks to my team mates who without all of our combined hard work, none of this would've been possible! I also want to thank Sundance Marine for allowing us the opportunity to fish and be in our current position!