SKA Professional Kingfish Tour Competition Angling Team

July 20th, 2008

Team FishDancer is looking for thier next BIG king mackerel.... have you seen her?

HAVE YOU SEEN HER?

The Chi-Lites Sing (with the usual editorial license from Captain Jeff)

“5 years ago today, I was happy as a lark

But now I go for walks, to movies, maybe to the park

I have a seat on the same old bench to watch the children play

You know tomorrow is their future; but for me - just another day

They all gather round me; they seem to know my name

We laugh, tell a few jokes, but it still doesn’t ease my pain

I know I can’t hide from a memory though day after day I’ve tried

I keep saying she’ll be back but today again I’ve lied..

Have you seen her?”

Biology instructs us the largest and the majority of tournament winning king mackerel are females. In nature the female Scomberomous Cavalla grow to be the largest fish, live the longest and represent almost ALL fish over 50 pounds weighed in along the SKA tournament trail. Chronology informs us that it has been nearly five years since Team FishDancer weighed in the largest kingfish of our angling career….a sweet female mackerel   which tipped the scales at 61.1 pounds.  Reality informs us that Team FishDancer has honed our skills and worked too hard over the intervening events NOT to have more first place finishes.

"Have you seen her?"

The 61.1 combined with a 43.49 for an aggregate of 104.59 and this score earned Nancy and I the SKA Pro tournament and divisional event titles and created the SKA Pro Tour aggregate record of 104+ for the Port Fourchon event.  This record stood for nearly 5 years and ultimately fell to Surreel in June of 2008 by a bit more than than a pound. Our 61.1 remains the tournament record for the Port Fourchon SKA Pro or divisional event. Team FishDancer will always remember fondly our accomplishment from this event the number 61.1 will always have a special place in the FishDancer angling career. Little did we know then how special this fish really was....we have been looking for a bigger fish ever since.

"5 years ago today, I was happy as a lark"

In the intervening years ‘THE’ FishDancer and I have enjoyed many in the money and top ten finishes along the SKA Pro tour and divisional tournament trail.  We have worked hard and bolstered our reputation as a skilled angling team with our fellow competitors and our sponsors.  We have been on TV, in magazines, newspapers and held angling seminars at boat shows. There are even some who refer to us “…one of the best husband and wife fishing teams in the country…” and while I don’t know IF that is actually true, the sentiment it expresses clearly articulates our team’s ambitions.  Our team goal has been and remains to earn Nancy the SKA Pro Lady Angler title and put Team FishDancer in the top 10 while competing honorably along the SKA Pro Tour.  In the end while the media exposure,  building our reputation and top finishes are all enjoyable, and help to keep our heads in the game, they are small solace for our competitive spirit.  This sport is ultimately about winning events not finishing in the money. We have weighed multiple fish in the 40 and 50 pound range but we are still seeking next 60 or 70 or 80 pound fish to put us over the top!!!! 

In our experience tournament angling can result in the highest of highs or the lowest of lows -- we have had to learn to cope with both. One of the most important factors to keep a team together and performing well is to focus primarily upon the methods of fishing and not solely on the results. My philosophy, developed over these past 12 years, is when you hone you skills, fish well at every event, deal effectively with the conditions you cannot control, you increase the odds for the confluence of skill, luck, conditions and team performance to come together and land your team in the winner circle. It takes a fair measure of all of these variables -- and then some -- to beat the best of the best. There have been many debates at the Tiki Bar about the skill vs. luck factor in this game….all I know is that the ‘luckiest’ teams seem to work the hardest, have great angling instincts, improve their skills and are always on the water making good decisions.  Perhaps this is not a random factor of coorelation?

"I know I can’t hide from a memory though day after day I’ve tried …. I keep saying she’ll be back but today again I’ve lied....."

In an effort to revitalize the team’s spirits, improve our mojo with the voodoo queen, appease the fish gods and improve Team FishDancer’s overall performance Nancy and I have decided to return to our roots and rekindle our angling competitive juices.  After fishing well in the Nassau County Tournament of Champions several weeks back Team FishDancer is doing the angling equivalent of visiting our coach.  We are preparing to fish our home waters during the Jacksonville Junior Angler and General Tournament with our mentor, kingfish sage and our overall fishing guru -  Terry LaCoss.  Terry is the Director of Angling Activities at the Amelia Island Plantation and the Director of the Amelia Island Charter boat Association but these titles do not do him justice.  Terry’s is one of the SKA pioneers and has helped to develop some of best NE Florida anglers competing on the water today. Few have matched Terry's angling accomplishments including winning events on the Bass, Redfish and Kingfish circuits. His gentle and patient ways of instruction and admonition have sculpted the methods that Nancy and I deploy today when we fish and we are really excited to have Terry aboard for the Jax event.  Like a golfer who needs some positive swing thoughts, Nancy and I  are sure after fishing with the “Maharishi of Amelia Island King Fishing” for three days, we will have replenished our angling reserves and be better prepared for the next SKA Professional Kingfish Tour stop the following week at the Golden Isles Marina in Brunswick, Georgia. Whatever the fish gods have in store for us in the coming weeks, we will be prepared, focused, patient and ready in case opportunity knocks and another big girl swims by one of our offerings.

“As another day comes to an end…I’m looking for a sign or something, anything that the fish gods would send.

With all the fish I’ve caught, I am still a hungry man.

You know its funny I thought I had this sport in the palm of my hand

Have you seen her?”

We are calling all of the fish gods of the greater S. GA and NE FL area…as the Chi-Lites sang long ago -- have you seen her?  Stay tuned………..

Over the past several weeks, Team FishDancer has had a blast competing in SKA events from Fourchon, LA to our home port of Fernandina Beach, FL.  'THE' FishDancer and I have enjoyed the spectacle of the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico and off of the Northeast coast of Florida.  Our Louisiana adventure ended in disappointing fashion, as we had some fish located but could not get them to bite during the tournament.  We ended up weighing in twin fish - day one 34.30 and day two a 33.38 pounder.  While these fish would be good enough during most any other event - in the fertile waters of the West Delta, these are 'average' fish.  So we exited the SKA Pro Tournament without gaining any ground in 35th place overall. 

Upon arriving back in Fernandina Beach, Nancy and I got to talking about the fun times when we fished divisions IV and V -- and especially when we had the chance to fish our home event - The Nassau County Sportfish Association's Tournament of Champions.  Since it would be held the weekend following the SKA Pro event in Fourchon, we were scheduled to be in town and decided at the last minute to fish this one for fun.  In fact we also decided to use this as a training run for 'THE' FishDancer to let her further hone her angling skills.  So Nancy would be putting the lines out, tending to the spread and managing the pit as Captain Jeff merely ran the boat.  What a change for me...it was like a vacation.

We fished hard both days but mainly with fun in mind.  We ran up to St. Simons to find bait and then headed the final 19 miles out to Grey's reef.  We caught about 10 kingfish, a few spanish and many sharks but the largest fish we could muster was 20.68.  We weighed in at Fernandina Beach and prepared for day two.  We decided to fish our local haunts and on day two headed out to some numbers we have about 20 miles S/SE  of the St. Mary's inlet.  We brought a fish boat side estimated at 25 but released her to grow larger as we knew 45 was leading the tournament.  We ran a bit inshore and fished the Nassau LB catching about 5 kings there but all small.  All in all we had fun, saw some old friends and honed the Kingfish Mambo a bit.   We are now focused upon the upcoming SKA Pro event at Golden Isles at the beginning of August....wish us luck.....

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For Nancy and me, the 2008 SKA Professional Kingfish Tour season has not started according to our plan.  Our team's overall performance is well below where we projected with the team in 35th place overall and 'THE' FishDancer in 7th place in the Lady Angler competition.  YIKES!!!!  Each season along the SKA Pro circuit is a universe in itself with different anglers, teams, weather patterns, local conditions and other natural variables influencing the results of each event.  When reviewed in historical context the 2008 season is no exception.  Versus YAG there were 67 teams competing in the first two 2008 SKA Pro Tournament events versus the 72 from last season, or 93.06% of the totals.  So statistically you would expect the 2008 performances and 2008 totals to be in the same percentage range as YAG.  The table below details the actual performance of the the first 2 events of 2008 vs. 2007 as well as highlights the variances in several key categories:

When viewed in relative context not only the FishDancer performance is off vs. YAG but so is that of the entire SKA Pro Tour.  Although the competition in the number of teams is off about 7%  vs. YAG, the total pounds brought to the sales are down more than 36% and the total fish weighed are down nearly 27%.  As such the average fish size last season at this time was 30.33 and in 2008 it is 26.36 a decline of 14%.  Of more significance are the absolute numbers regarding the size of the fish scaled in 2008 vs. 2007.  While there is one more 50+ pound fish vs. last season the number of fish weighed in the 30-40 pound class is significantly lower in 08 than 07 with 123 fish in the 30s and 40s weighed in 07 vs. only 47 in 08 for a decline of more than 60%.  Before my environmental friends begin to paint the collapse of the fishery, the weather variables and natural conditions year on year have more than explained these differences.

The purpose of this analysis was to review the Team FishDancer performance and determine what we needed to do to move up in the standings.  The analysis indicates that this season the competition will remain wide open through the final event with virtually no team running away from the pack. For example of the 67 teams only 13 (19%) have four fish.  Each of the top 20 teams ALL have fish in the 20 pound range and nearly half have teenagers -- fish that can be topped at any of the remaining events resulting in a significant shake up of the standings. Based upon this data, Team FishDancer expects that entrance into 2008's top 10 will require much less weight than 2007's 242 -- perhaps as much as 20-30 pounds less.  AOY numbers could still be stout as we have 4 teams with significant averages Mad Mouse with a 3 fish 41.35 average and That's My Dog, Hot Grits and Liquid Fire with 36-37 pound averages.  If maintained this would result in an AOY requirement in the range of 260-280 points.  So although we are off to a poor start we have been able to design a methodology for how we can finish the season and accomplish our objectives.  The next tournament in Port Fourchon, Louisiana will be important and our objective will be to score 80-90 points.  However, we expect the field to remain crowded coming out of Fourchon as the 'average' fish last year was 37 pounds and while this event can end your season if 2 'average' fish are not caught, the data shows that the AOY and LAOY will be decided in the final two events in GA and SC.  Teams catching quality fish in the 30-40 pound ranges in any of these two events will significantly move up in the standings. So our strategy is clear -- 80-90 points in LA and then focus our efforts on quality fish in Golden Isles and Little River which will result in us moving into the top 10 and Nancy competing for the LAOY title.  Stay tuned......the voodoo queen is warming up....