- SkipsTournaments.com

MARCH 30-APRIL 2, 2016
Presented by Crook & Crook and Capt. Skip Smith
Letter from Tournament
Director Skip Smith
Dear Sailfish Shootout Participants and Sponsors:
Who would’ve thought I’d be running a Miami
Sailfish tournament? Not me! But when KC and
Bryan from Crook & Crook approached me at the
Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and asked about having a Sailfish tournament in the Grove,
how could I resist? It all made sense once I got to know them, and their support was more
than I ever expected. It wasn’t long before the phone started to ring and the sponsors
started showing their support as well.
From there, I began to reach out to those of you who fished the Grove sailfish tournaments in the
past, and you too were excited to get a tournament back in the Grove. The motivation was there
once the owners, anglers and captains got behind us…and here we are!
I honestly believe in getting new people into fishing, and feel our amateur and kids divisions
will do just that. I’d like everyone to remember this: should you ever have any suggestions or
comments, please do not hesitate to let me know your thoughts. I rely on your input to help me
produce a tournament that is exciting and fun for everyone, every year.
Catch-em-up,
Skip
Captain Skip Smith
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2016 Schedule of Events
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30TH
5:00pm to 8:00pm - Registration
Monty's - Coconut Grove
6:00pm - Kickoff - Cocktails & Appetizers
Monty's - Coconut Grove
7:00pm - Captain's Meeting
Monty's - Coconut Grove
One team member must be in attendance, as rules are subject to change
THURSDAY, MARCH 31ST
3:00pm - 7:00pm - Late Registration at Crook & Crook
FRIDAY, APRIL 1ST
8:00am - 4:00pm - Day 1 Fishing
4:00pm to 7:00pm - SD Cards delivered
Gamefish weigh-in
Monty's - Coconut Grove
SATURDAY, APRIL 2ND
8:00am - 4:00pm - Day 2 Fishing
4:00pm to 7:00pm - SD Cards delivered
Gamefish weigh-in
Monty's - Coconut Grove
7:30pm to 9:30pm - Awards Dinner
Monty's - Coconut Grove
SkipsTournaments.com | 7
AUGUST 1979
My First Meeting
With The Hooker
Captain Eddie Herbert
called to invite me out
to be his mate during
one of the big-money
tournaments in Texas in
1979. I flew into Houston and drove to Bridge
Harbor Marina in Freeport
to get on the boat, and
then I fished with Eddie
and my brother Kent.
After the tournament, we
were invited over to have
drinks on a fifty-three-foot
Hatteras, The Hooker, with
owners Jerry Dunaway and Chuck Sims. Jerry and
Chuck owned a business called Remco,
and they had been very successful with
their rental company.
There was a pretty good party going on—lots of
whiskey, country music, women, and fish stories.
After the introductions, I got a chance to talk to
Jerry. His love of fishing was very present as he
shared his passion about all kinds of fishing by telling me stories and asking questions about catching
blue marlin all around the world. Much later that
evening, when we were done talking, he offered
me the mate’s job and said they wanted to fish
Cozumel, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas; the best
months to fish these areas did not match up with
the schedule they had told me. So I said no, and
my brother Kent took the job. I made the decision
to go back to longlining because the money was
real good and the fishing was very exciting. Before
they left Texas, Jerry and Chuck hired and brought
in one of the best marlin fishermen they could find,
Captain Jeff Fay from Kona, Hawaii. Then they went
from Texas to Fort Lauderdale for a new tuna tower
and then off to Belize. The remaining itinerary was
Cozumel for the spring and back to the Bahamas
for some more marlin fishing for the summer. Once
they had Kent and Captain Jeff on the boat, they
figured out the schedule and were on track for a
good season, while I was on track for an injury that
would change my life.
NOVEMBER 1979
The captain, or whoever
is operating the boat,
aims the vessel at the
line of buoys to pick
up the miles of line
and also operates
the lever that makes
the spool retrieve
the main line. The
second man is on
the leader cart,
storing the leaders
and wiring up the
fish. The third
man retrieves the
buoys and cleans
the fish.
I was the leader man this morning, and—I felt—
I was the best person for this job. You grab each
leader and feel for a fish. If the fish is on the leader,
you get to “wire” (handline) and fight the fish the
last one hundred feet to the boat—mano a mano.
Wiring the fish was the fun part. This consisted of
fighting the fish with your hands wrapped around a
four-hundred-pound leader, pulling in a few yards
and then losing enough that it would pull the snap
swivel back under as it was still attached to the
main line and even a buoy or two.
Then you would take a break,
let the fish pull on the buoy,
and start the leadering of the
fish all over again. If you pulled
too hard, you could pull the
hook, which happens way too
often, or you could even break
the leader. A swordfish does
not have solid bone structure
in its mouth, and most hooks
are either lodged in the throat,
in the roof of the mouth, or
in the corner of the jaw. A
popular hook at that time was
a 10/0 7731 Mustad J-hook,
which was offset in two places
and would stay embedded in
the swordfish better than any other
hook we had tried. Quite a few of the
fish were dead when we wired them up, but even
wiring a dead fish and being the first to see it was
always special. Not knowing what kind of fish and
how big they were (or weren’t) was why we did it.
Wiring a live fish was the challenge we lived for.
I took a lot of pride in myself, knowing that I was
one of the best at this position and having a feel for
each fish; I would not pull the hook or lose the fish
under the boat or one of the other million ways that
the fish could get away.
It was just after sunrise, and we had already
recovered about five miles of our longline. The beginnings of a real nice catch of swordfish were laid
out on the deck waiting to be gutted and iced. We
still had fifteen more miles of longline to retrieve and
close to two hundred more leaders left of the more
than three hundred leaders we had put out. The seas
were relatively calm, and I was at the leader cart, one If there wasn’t a fish, you simply snapped the snap
of the better jobs on the pelagic longline vessel.
swivel to the last hook and fed it onto the leader
cart. One hard crank on the handle would spin the
8 | Shootout In The Grove 2016
cart and roll up about a third of the leader, due to
the weight of the squid still on the hook. It took
three different good cranks of the cart to get about
one hundred feet of leader in. The hook would
catch on a ring on the side of the boat, or you could
just let it go straight on the cart, being careful to
slow the cart when the hook came close.
To take the leader off the main line, you watched
the mainline, which was running from a sheave up
the side of the boat and down into the water. As
the leader and the snap swivel came up, you would
reach out and grab it, and on a thirty-foot boat affected by even small seas, one mistake could cost
you a serious injury. You would watch the spool for
new leaders and the hook coming up behind you.
So when I attached the swivel to the hook and gave
the cart a spin and looked for the next leader, I
wasn’t expecting a short leader. The hook flew out
of the water, and as I was guiding the line evenly
onto the spool, the hook embedded in my hand
and took my hand and arm into the hook end of
the leader cart. The weight of the spool kept rolling,
causing my body to follow up and over the cart.
When the cart stopped and I got in a position to
start removing the hooks from my arm, I counted
five that were just penetrating and two that were
embedded in beyond the barb.
The first five came out without
a hitch; the first hook that was
embedded was in my forearm.
The barb was just under the
skin, and it came out with a
quick jerk.
The next one was more
serious. It had gone through
the glove and into the palm of
my hand as it took much of
the momentum from the spool.
From my palm, the hook went
up into my ring finger.
I started to try and remove the
hook. I realized that I could
not take the glove off, and I
didn’t want anyone to cut it away with a knife. We
were twenty-five miles offshore, and leaving the
remaining fifteen miles of longline in the water and
returning home was not an option. I backed the
hook out and had some trouble with a tendon that
had gotten stuck on the barb. I asked Craig to help
with that part, and when the hook was out, Craig
handed me a bottle of Clorox. I was pretty much in
control—or perhaps in shock—until I poured the
Clorox on the wounds. That’s when I dropped to my
knees and the tears flowed from my eyes.
This is an excerpt from Tales of a Hooker
and Her Madam by Capt. Skip Smith.
To purchase go to www.amazon.com
Tournament Rules
TROPHIES/PRIZES/AWARDS
Top Team
Top Angler
Second Place Team
Third Place Team
Top Lady Angler
Top Junior Angler(s)
age at registration
Ages 12-15
Ages 7-11
Age 6 and under
(Gamefish will count toward this category, if necessary)
Gamefish Division(s)
For a list of tournament rules, go to www.SkipsTournaments.com
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