Fishing Tournaments

Kingfish Tournament Billed as Largest in U.S.
The AT&T Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, an SKA sanctioned event, is on slate each July. Billed as the largest fishing tournament in the U.S., it normally draws 900 to 1000 entries for the two day event.

Ancient City Kingfish Challenge
The Ancient City Kingfish Challenge (ACKF) originally scheduled the first part of July and postponed because of weather was held this past weekend in St Augustine, Florida. One of the SKA events for District five, the event drew a field of 259 boats, and was held in perfect weather conditions.

Tournament Courtesy - NOT
We don’t run big boats – 20 to 25 feet is about it. We don’t pretend to run with the big boys – the professional anglers who “work” the SKA, GJKT, and other kingfish circuits. But we do fish in some of these events, and we have the same rights and obligations as every other boat. Those obligations include observing the tournament rules and boating laws.

Tournament Finals
Out week ended without the big smoker we needed to win. However, the 2005 Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament with over 800 boats fishing ended on a sweet note for all involved. Our north running boat found some small fish, and our south running boat only managed two sharks. But everyone was all smiles when they saw the winning boat.

Tournament Update – Thursday
James Croft fishing in the Bear Caught holds the first day lead with a 46.1 lb kingfish. Charles Shiroky in the Lucky 7 boat with a 44.4-pound fish holds second place and Johnny Wood in the King Slayer with a 41.8-pound fish currently holds third place.

Tournament Update – Wednesday
Thursday at 6:30am we will be moving by the check out boat on the first day of the two day Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament. Upwards of 1000 boats will be heading out from three inlets – St Mary’s River in Fernandina, Mayport on the St Johns River and St Augustine Inlet. It should prove to be a madhouse in all three locations.

Tournament Update
Along with a number of other boats in the 2005 Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, we fished the beaches north of St Augustine. This area had been hot for the past month and we had not fished it since the heavy seas from Hurricane Dennis came through. Apparently, most of the fish moved to other locations.

King of Fish – and Money!
Kingfish – king mackerel – kings – whatever the name, they rule the water up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts this time of year. The Southern Kingfish Association (SKA), arguably the foremost kingfish tournament trail, is in full swing with tournaments every weekend. Add to that local and regional money tournaments and you have several tournaments going on concurrently on the same body of water.

Tournament Time is Here
The kingfish tournament trail, sanctioned by Southern Kingfish Association, is in full swing. The SKA Trail is run in sixteen divisions from Texas to North Carolina, and culminates in National Championship.

Commenting on Tournaments
The article was about an upcoming king mackerel tournament. Actually, the article talked about a number of tournaments coming this summer. Most area boat ramps will have at least one tournament launching there on most of the upcoming summer weekends.

Redfish Tournaments Causing Conflict
Friends in South Florida who regularly practice catch and release sight fishing for redfish in Everglades National Park are somewhat perturbed over the numerous redfish tournaments that are held up and down the Florida Keys. Headquartered from Key Largo to Key West and cities in between, the tournaments find almost all of the anglers fishing inside the park.

New FLW Tournament Series
FLW Outdoors has announced the start of a new kingfish tournament series, beginning in April pf 2005. This is their first venture into the kingfish area, after being immensely successful over the past years with the Wal-Mart FLW freshwater bass tour.

Redfish Tournament Looks Like a Winner
As adverse as I am to redfish tournaments, I found one that actually looks like a winner. The 2nd Annual Smyrna Redfish Classic will take place September 10 through September 12, 2004. Fishing takes place on September 11, with a number of activities going on throughout the weekend.

King of Kings!
The 2004 BellSouth Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament is in the books. A record year for a couple of reasons, more kingfish were caught closer to home than originally forecast by tournament organizers.

Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament
So much for my Scarce Kingfish theory. It appears the fish arrived right along with the tournament start time today!

Scarce Kingfish
The BellSouth Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament is underway this week. Today brought out the junior anglers, to be followed tomorrow by the VIP’s and finally finishing Thursday and Friday with the real deal.

BellSouth Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament
The Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, held each year in July, is the largest kingfish tournament in the country. In addition to the two-day general tournament, this spectacular week-long event also includes an invitation-only VIP tournament, Publix Junior Angler Tournament and KidZone play area, food festival, live entertainment, and much, much more.