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4-15-2005 Miriam-Webster defines competition as;

1 : the act or process of competing : RIVALRY: as a : the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms b : active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some environmental resource in short supply
2 : a contest between rivals;

When I was young, life was easy. Without nearly as many responsibilities as I shoulder today, I would look forward to each day, especially those spent fishing, with great anticipation.  Work some, save a few dollars and go fishing or better yet free load my way along if at all possible.  The days and nights at the beach or spent upon the water provided me a brief interlude from the day-to-day reality of growing up, working and navigating a course, sometimes through troubled waters,  with my own life.  It could be a day of surf fishing for blues and stripers off of Manasquan beach with my oldest brother Mark. Stopping for a slice of pizza on the boardwalk and then hitting the beach surfcasting for hours.  My older brother Brian and I, after a quick stop at A&W for a root beer,  might float bobbers for snapper blues or drag the Raritan bay with our seine net, never knowing what we would catch. Perhaps a magic hour trip for weakfish aboard one of the ‘party boats’ from the Atlantic Highlands or Belmar where the crew would ask anglers “How about a hot-dog?” and dispense free dogs to hungry fisher people.  Or it might have been a trip aboard a friend’s boat the ThunderBox with fraternity buddies Ralph and Gino, complete with the world’s greatest veal cutlet sandwiches from Mama Carmella.  We all competed; brothers, friends, family and fellow anglers and it was fun.  It would be a rare angling day if there was not some diminutive wager for something, not big money, more for bragging rights than anything else. Who could cast the farthest, reel it in the fastest, get the most hits in a row (Nancy holds this record 17 trout in a row) and/or catch largest or most or weirdest fish?  The activity itself was the focus and winning the pool for largest fish aboard the Miss Belmar, while it would more than pay for the trip, was always secondary to just going fishing.

Career choices have moved us around the country and it has been difficult to spend much time with my family and lifelong friends back home. Yet wherever I traveled I have fished.  It seems now that most communication is via Email and the limited time we get together is spent comparing physical ailments, or at ‘official’ family ceremonies or some other less fun activity than fishing.  Pizza is off all of our menus now due to our family genes – and although our diet is from South Beach, hot dogs and unfortunately Carmella’s world famous veal cutlet sandwiches are highly frowned upon by Dr. Agatston. Thank the Lord for diet root beer!!!!! Somewhere along the line, things got complicated and when we weren’t looking life got more demanding.  Fishing competition is not immune from this. 

Looking back upon these times there is little doubt that my family position as the youngest of three boys, coupled with my natural competitive desire, enjoyment of sports that require cool equipment, love of the water and strong spirit of adventure, would lead me to competitive angling.  I exhibited the signs in my early days, spray painting bluefish hooks and leaders black for higher hookup ratios, tying and naming special fluke spinner rigs to assure a good catch, fishing 15 consecutive weekends on a party boat - including one Saturday night after a hurricane - as well as taking my dates, including ‘THE’ FishDancer fishing on our 2^nd or 3^rd dates.  In our youth we have no clue about the threads which make up the fabric of our lives.  One of the main threads of my life is fishing

“THE” FishDancer and I continue to prepare ourselves for the 2005 Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) Professional Kingfish Tour, which opens in a few weeks in Fort Pierce, Florida.  There will be competition within the SKA for the title of angler of the year and there will be competition to win each event, but it will be fun.   New king fishing competition has been added, in 2005, with the advent of a new king fishing trail. Prior to the new circuit’s first event there was plenty of name calling, personal attacks and posturing.  This behavior became so audacious that the FishDancer team recently has received an email of intimidation from a member of the new tour who, spurred on by their own agenda, has threatened to do physical harm to me.  YIKES!!!!!!!  Is this competitive fishing or is it the WWF?

As many readers of our site realize we are a husband and wife team, and we have worked hard for many seasons to establish ourselves within the ranks of king fishing, making friends and creating positive relationships along the way.  We strive to be a fun loving and dedicated team - strong performers, willing to learn and to share with others as many have shared with us in the past. The email we received proposing a meeting for some type of twenty first century internet duel is both irresponsible and detrimental to our sport, creating a hostile environment. First and foremost we are ALL anglers, competing yes but fishing for fun and camaraderie - any money, prizes, points or trophies won is merely icing on the cake.  We are also a nation founded on the concept of individual freedoms and abidance of the law -  and there are laws in effect that cover this type of terrorist hate message.  I would imagine court and possible jail time can really put a crimp in your competitive fishing season.?  While considering this circumstance my cell phone rang and it was a fishing buddy who was all excited about beginning the season with his 2 sons and traveling to Ft. Pierce for the SKA event there.  We spoke for about 45 minutes, shared information and talked fishing – what a balance between these two messages.  The phone call has helped reset my list of priorities – competitive fishing, as always was designed to be fun – it’s the other "stuff" that makes it a chore.  Team FishDancer chooses to remain positive about our sport now and in the future – this is the only path to growth.  Any other choice in our view, “… wouldn’t be prudent…” as President Bush the 1^st used to say.   One thing is for sure, we will bet you a root beer (diet or not) at the end of this SKA season we will rank among the top of the tour in having fun fishing.  After all it just fishing........we are calling the fish gods of the South Florida area...................

The FishDancer team was reflecting upon our angling activities over the last 15 seasons searching for reasons anew to commit ourselves to yet another season of the 'traveling circus' that is tournament king fishing.  Reviewing our files we found the genesis story of our tournament life and decided to re-publish it. This story articulates best the absolute reasons we fish .....enjoy

Dancing the Kingfish Mambo

A "FishDancer Classic"

On a recent trip offshore – as we were navigating to our fishing hole – we began wondering ‘How in the world did we ever get involved in tournament angling?’  Both “THE” FishDancer and I have always enjoyed angling – and feel lucky to have had great opportunities to fish all over the world.  Why then were we in a 23’ foot center console boat heading some 12 miles E of the St. Mary’s inlet in 3-5’ seas to catch a King mackerel?  As we sloshed through the seas, 'THE' FishDancer and I tried to think back to when the tournament bug bit us - my mind wandered back to the time BEFORE there ever was a FishDancer – let alone a FishDancer angling team .  

Stretching yourself and learning new skills is how we grow as human beings as well as anglers.  About 13 years ago we began fishing NE Florida with an excellent Charter Captain who has in time become a good friend of ours - Terry LaCoss.  Terry is the director of fishing activities at the Amelia Island Plantation, the President of the Amelia Island Charter Boat Association, a feature writer for the Fernandina Beach News Leader, and accomplished angler as well as the winner of many SKA sanctioned events.  Terry would always teach us something new when we fished with him, which we did quite often.  Today Terry refers to Nancy - aka ‘THE” FishDancer - as “…my favorite lady angler…” and it is evident that he is proud to see what we have been able to accomplish under his tutelage.  About 8 years ago when visiting Fernandina Beach we tried to set up a charter with Terry, but unfortunately he was busy, as he was planning to fish in the Fernandina Beach King Mackerel Classic.  After a few minutes of conversation with Terry, he invited Nancy and me to compete with him in this SKA event.  Needless to say we accepted and could barely contain our excitement                                                                          

The next morning we rose in the pre dawn darkness, around 4:30am and met Terry and his son TD at the dock.  Terry then had a 27’ Hydra Sport Center Console – Amelia Angler - with twin 250 Mercury’s on the stern.  We went through the early morning checklist with him and TD; there were so many preparations and details to attend to.  Lines, rigs, chum, fuel, bait, rods, reels, and navigation - it seemed a daunting task to us then to assure ALL of these details were managed.  After assuring nothing was left to chance we motored out slowly through the Fernandina Beach no wake zone to the check in holding area.  This area was filled with glistening angling machines, more than 100 of them, all tensed and prepared for the day ahead.  This is a sight that hooks many an angler into the tournament circuit. The sight of these sleek machines, all tricked out and ready to fight hand-to-hand combat with a smoker King mackerel has been known to create a fishing fever in the most ardent anglers.

  We ran some 45 miles N/NE of the St. Mary’s inlet - at over 50 MPH - over the flat early morning ocean.  We stopped inshore of our desired angling location to cast net some live pogies for our day of fishing.  The spectacle of schooling pogies and the maneuvering of the boat and casting of the net to successfully catch these little King Mackerel snacks has never ceased to amaze me. Even today this task remains one of my favorites but on this day – with the adrenaline flowing from our first tournament experience – Nancy and I were amazed at the skill of our friends.  A few quick throws of the net and we loaded up with what we termed back then ‘studly’ pogies. Once the 50-gallon live well was full, and we had some extra for chumming, we turned east and sped to our designated angling spot - Cabretta.

  Cabretta – the name itself implied mystery, danger and opportunity to Nancy and I.  We worked in unison with TD and Terry to ready the baits, gear and put out the lines.  There were other boats already fishing this area and the radio chatter seemed to indicate a King bite of significant proportions was on. We watched as boats on either side of us hooked up and the excited anglers headed to the bow to dance the Kingfish mambo with Mother Nature. The excitement level of the Amelia Angler fishing team was increasing by the minute.  Terry provided a last minute reminder of the tasks we ALL had to complete to effectively catch one of these wily predators.  We all watched the baits and they became increasingly nervous.

  Nancy was the designated angler for this day and we all anticipated the strike we knew was coming.  The rod tip was twitching.  The pogy was jumping for his very life when all of a sudden a huge hole in the ocean opened, white water appeared all around the spot where our pogy was recently swimming, the bait disappeared and this unique high-pitched screaming sound began.  It was a second or two before, the then neophytes; Nancy and I, realized the sound was coming from the Penn reels.  Terry and TD were already at work, bringing in the lines and yelling for me to turn the boat into the fish’s sizzling first run.  Nancy grabbed the rod and off we went in pursuit of our first Tournament King Mackerel.

  It seemed as if we would never gain on the fish.  This sleek 50 MPH boat was being outrun by a King mackerel!!!  WOW! After a fight of about 15-20 minutes with gentle coaching from Terry and TD, Nancy brought beside the boat a solid tournament King Mackerel.  Terry neatly gaffed the fish and with in no time had the fish on ice in the insulated fish bag he had prepared in advance.  Nancy and I had no idea we even HAD a fish bag let alone one stocked with ice and ready to accept a fish.  We caught several more fish that day but none I will remember as well as Nancy’s first SKA weigh in fish.  Accounting for the long run time required of us to travel 45 miles back to the weigh in site and trying to miss the building afternoon thunderstorms, Terry took control of the Amelia Angler and rocketed us back to Fernandina Beach.  We made the weigh in cut off time with not more than a few minutes to spare and Nancy proudly took her fish and carried him to the scales.  The crowd was pleased to see this fish, cheering as Nancy walked up the Fernandina Beach Municipal marina’s dock.  The look on Nancy’s face was priceless when they announced her fish weighed 25.78 pounds – not enough for a check – but large enough to add a few points to Terry’s aggregate total in the SKA divisional competition.

 Little did Nancy and I know but that fateful day at Cabretta – the spot of mystery, danger and opportunity, while dancing the Kingfish mambo with Mother Nature – the Kingfish tournament bug bit us.  Since then many days have passed – but few without some work done towards our goal of qualifying for the SKA national championships. There have been many early mornings and late evenings during the season as well as much fun, excitement and joy from our accomplishments. 

The FishDancer was continuing into a head sea while “THE” FishDancer held on tight.  I then remembered why we were in a 23’ foot center console boat heading some 12 miles E of the St. Mary’s inlet in 3-5’ seas to catch a King mackerel…there is nothing else like it in God’s blue ocean. 

4.04.2005  I was recently reading the sports pages of the local newspaper and it struck me that now is an interesting time for sports in America.  Late winter/Early spring is a time when most sports have or will enjoy the attention of the mass of USA sports fans.  The NFL recently finished its season with the Superbowl, NASCAR kicked off its season in Daytona, the NBA is heading towards the playoffs, MLB is back with spring training, the NCAA is in ‘March Madness’, the PGA tour is off and running and pointed toward Augusta while the NHL remains on strike.  When viewed in context of other American competitive pastimes, competitive angling in general and king mackerel tournament fishing in particular offers some of the most daunting challenges to be found on the competitive landscape.   Lets look at some of the numbers;  no major professional team sports would consider its season as a good one unless it broke the .500 winning percentage, in MLB a  batting average of .300 makes a player one of the league’s top hitters and even the lowly Atlanta Hawks, with professional sport’s worst performance,  a .157 winning percentage, enjoys 11 wins out of 70 games.  Among the sports measured individually, like NASCAR and golf, multiple win seasons are the norm for the sports elite participants.  So what does this have to do with Tournament Angling?  To be highly ranked along the SKA Professional Tour any team needs to post a .700 or better fishing percentage, in actuality boating tournament quality fish on 7 of 10 fishing days.  We can tell you from our experience this is not easy and the competition is fierce (but friendly)……  read on……

The chart above details the winners along the SKA Professional Trail over the past 5 seasons or 20 events. Apologies to the winners of the 2003 Beaufort event as this writer could not find any information regarding this event. The data indicates that the SKA Professional Kingfish Tour is a demanding trail where success comes at a premium.  Using some simple math the winning percentage of any team over the past 5 seasons makes the 2005 Hawks look like a dynasty.  With 90 teams, 5 events, 2 days of fishing in each event and 5 seasons, the teams above (assuming they fished both days of every event) have a winning percentage of 0.050. Another way to review these mind boggling statistics is to say that of the more than 2,000 teams and 4,000 competition days in the SKA Pro Tour over the past 5 seasons, less than ½ of 1% of the teams have been victorious. Any team winning along this circuit has clearly distinguished themselves as among the elite of sport and “THE” FishDancer and I are humbled that we are included in this select group of anglers.   Earning one’s way onto this special list of teams is one of the best measures of achievement in tournament angling.

The difference between the field and the event winners along the SKA Professional Kingfish Tour is and will continue to be a topic of much conversation. After all, a team only needs to stay together throughout the long season, have its equipment well prepared, safely travel thousands of miles, fish in distant waters and consistently catch bait and fish.  While there is a formula for success along the trail there have been several opinions about what factors are the most important. Is it local knowledge, experience, angling ability, luck, affiliation, sponsorship or some mix of these and other unnamed variables that makes the difference between winning and just competing.  With the advent of the FLW kingfish tour this season the field of competitors has shifted a bit and the winter has seen much debate about which tour will be the ‘elite’ tour for competitive teams.  Team FishDancer holds that the top of kingfish competition will be the circuit that offers the greatest challenge to the field and for us it is clear that scaling 7 tournament quality fish in 10 days is a much more severe test of team and machinery than scaling 4 fish in 8 days.  We also believe that the SKA will continue to flourish because of this competitive motivation and that the FLW will find it’s niche as a manufacturer’s tour attracting anglers to its events. This winter the SKA and FLW discussions and debates have been loud and in some cases acrimonious, with many individuals mis-stating facts and IMHO trying to rationalize their decisions to fish one tour or the other.  Nancy tells me they are “….gaffing themselves in the foot with untruths…..”.  Team FishDancer wishes all of those anglers fishing the nascent FLW luck in this inaugural season. Our reasons for fishing the SKA Pro Tour are varied but mostly focus upon the desire to compete at the highest level of kingfish competition.  To better meet our objectives we have chosen to continue our alliance with the SKA Professional Tour, in our minds the toughest test for kingfish teams in the country.   Next up is the Fort Lauderdale KMT April 13-15 and then the SKA Pro kickoff in Fort Pierce, Florida the following week.  We are calling the fish gods of the southern Florida area…………

What a show the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) puts on for the marine community each year during the Miami International Boat Show.  'THE' FishDancer and I just spent 4 days in sunny South Beach; we enjoyed the show, ran into a virtual who's who of the Kingfishing world and even squeezed in a half day of sailfishing from West Palm Beach's wonderful Sailfish marina. The show itself is hosted by NMMA and Miami Beach and is housed in 4 locations from the Miami Beach Convention center to the Biscayne Bay Marriott marina.  The show boasts the largest number of boats on display during any single event anywhere in the world -- period.  That just about says it all. In combination with the large number of boats to see - we visited boats from 16 to 70 feet in length including a 45 foot quad outboard powered yacht - there are companies selling everything a boater might want in the way of clothing, electronics, machinery, fishing tackle, marina support, angling competitions, accessories and much more.  Then there are the premiere tournament angling circuits like the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) and the World Billfish Series, it was good to see our old friend Sam White.  As if that isn't enough there are electronics (like Tom Hilton's Realtime, Navigator, C-Map PC Planner and Raymarine's myriad of products and services).  Finally there is Miami Beach itself with wonderful restaurants (Vita was our favorite, the buffalo mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto and sautéed in a balsamic  reduction is highly recommended), clubs and miles of beautiful beaches.

,    

      Jeff and Sam White editor of Billfish                 Scottie all dressed up and too many places to go   

                 Marina Life's Julie                 Jeff, Chris and Jack          The Hilton's Offshore guys

   Jan Chase and Nancy 'THE' FishDancer at the DONZI pavillion

There were several new large CCs at the show this year which Nancy and I crawled all over - we saw the new Triton 35, the Fountain 32, and Yellowfin's 34 and 36.  We also got an opportunity to sea trial the new DONZI 38.  WOW!!! This is one fast, rugged, well designed and large fishing machine.   We had perfect sea trial weather, 3-5' seas with a N/NE wind about 15 and the DONZI 38ZF was undaunted, with the extra centerline and weight providing us a dry and smooth ride.  No speed is sacrificed as the triple Mercury Verados literally jumped the hull on plane and while we did not hit top end we ran in the 60s heading out and well into the 50s in the open ocean. The DONZI 38 is sure to be a leader along the SKA trail, with angling room, storage room, speed and comfort (drop down bolster racing seats, 360 degree coaming bolsters, a stand up head and shower) all add up to a great new addition to the DONZI line-up.

The newly designed ZF open is has a 38' 6" length and a 9' 5" beam. It drafts a mere 36 inches with motors down and the hull has 22 degrees of deadrise.  The DONZI 38 ZF's fuel capacity is 325 gallons and its dry wight is 9,800 pounds.  Powered during the sea trial with triple Verado 275 4 strokes from Mercury, we screamed out of the Government Cut at well over 60 and rode the 3'-5' chop in comfort in the mid 50s.   The acceleration of this hull is extraordinary as its roominess as our test was done with 8 aboard and no one was in anyone else's way.

The show also featured a Navy Seal inflatable from Zodiak and this machine is ready to run with hydraulic saddle type seats and full instrumentation....our SEALS have the best equipment.  Who knows maybe one day the SKA boats can translate this technology?

The show was also an opportunity to catch up with the SKA Pro and Divisional teams attending, at last count Nancy and I met up with some 28 different teams as well as the entire SKA staff at the show.  We were even able to sneak out with Howard Poe and Donna Gowen-Poe and their team for a half day of sailfishing. All in all we had a blast at the show and now turn toward the Fort Pierce event in April.

     Jeff and Howard seek out the elusive sailfish             Donna and crew await the first strike

                 2 past SKA Anglers of the year Dave & Chris       2 SKA giants Marty and Dan

Stay tuned this will be an exciting season for the FishDancer team.......we are calling the fish gods of the greater Ft. Pierce area

The FishDancer team will be presenting two seminars at the Savannah International Boat Show;  Saturday (1pm) and Sunday (11am) March 6th and 7th.  We will have some great give aways from Spro, Gamakatsu and Cape Lookout.  We hope to see some friendly faces at the show and seminar, Click on the following link to get to the show's website.  http://www.savannahinternationalboatshow.com

1. XFT-62.9
2.Odysea-56.7
3. Salt Shaker 55.4
4. Economy Tackle-54.7
5. Loose Lucy-51.9
6. Rabbits Foot-50.5
7. Reel Conch-49.0
8. Reel Easy.com-48.9
9. La Perla-48.3
10. Side Job-48.1
11. Special One-47.4
12. Bandit-46.3
13. Gotcha Some-45.4
14. Hannons Cannon-45.2
15. Black Label-44.9

Class of 23
1.Outta Line-44.7
2. Junion-38.3
3. Sweet Maria-37.0

History;  Louisiana became a part of the United States in 1803 when in one of the greatest real estate deals in  history was consummated.  Robert Livingston and James Monroe negotiated with Napoleon Bonaparte and returned to the US with ownership rights to land stretching west of the Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains, North to the Canadian border and South to the Gulf of Mexico.  The land was purchased for $0.23 per acre.  In subsequent years, 13 states and the parts of 2 other states were carved from this land.  This acquisition allowed President Jefferson to command the mighty Mississippi and all of the commerce borne upon her waters from the headwaters to the all important Port of New Orleans. All anglers should be thankful for Livingston and Monroe as if their quest was unsuccessful, the fertile waters of this area could today still be under the control of the French.  Louisiana has a fertile immigration history with strong influences from Spain, Africa, Native America, as well as European influences.  From this melting pot two strong cultural groups emerged; Creoles and Cajuns.  Creoles were those 'born in the colony' and being Creole was a moniker designed as a way of differentiating oneself from the many Americans and immigrants who settled the land after the Louisiana Purchase. In rural Southwestern Louisiana, a blending of French, Spanish, African and Caribbean cultures was considered Creole. Cajun culture sprang from the traditions of the Acadians, this French colonial culture melded established French tradition with emergent cultural practices from the Spanish, Native American, English and German influences present in Southern Louisiana.  Both Creoles and Cajuns are proud of their heritage and nothing is more pleasing than to discuss the history and cultural differences between the two with knowing locals.  

Travel Tips/Accomodations;  In the past the team has only visited Venice, Louisiana via water, having stayed in Port Fourchon while fishing the West Delta oil rigs.  In 2004 they will have their first chance to stay in Venice proper.  The team will stay at the Cypress Cove lodge and  boat will be docked at Cypress Cove marina -- the marina and lodge can be visited online at  http://www.rodnreel.com/cypresscove.  Alternative land and dock accommodations can be found at the Venice Marina - http://www.venicemarina.com or the Venice Inn Motel (985) 534-7424.

    The run to the West Delta is 110 miles to the rig the team had decided to fish and this meant that some extra fuel was needed to assure a margin of safety to make this long run.  During the two wind days, the team experimented with several option and ended up carrying 36 gallons of 'spare' fuel in 6 containers.  The plan to stop and refuel after 50 miles worked like a charm as the calm waters and beautiful sunrise of Chandeleur Sound made for perfect conditions in which to make the fuel transfer.  Once the 36 gallons were safely in the FishDancer's fuel tank, the team safely stowed the containers and powered up for the remaining 60 mile run to the WD rigs.  The run was uneventful as the Chandeleur Sound gave way to Batiste Colette which soon gave way to Tiger Pass and the promise of the WD excited the entire FishDancer team.  We first stopped at the spot which we landed the 44 and 61 a few weeks back and made a few circles around the rig....nothing to be had.  We were joined by several boats and as we watched them we noticed no one hooking up and decided to ease on over to another rig where there were about 25 teams with many hooked up and fighting fish on the bow.   This would turn out to be a good decision. We hooked up most of the day releasing fish after fish and finally we gaffed and put into the fish bag a good fish.  Pointing the bow North we began the 110 mile return trip and hit the scales with a 49.10 pound king that would land us in 23rd place after the first day.  We then refueled the boat and containers, cleaned up and prepared for day two.  After the day we had there was no telling what might happen tomorrow?  Little did we know what awaited us.

SKA tourney set Nov. 21-22
400 teams to compete
By AL JONES
As published 10/16/03 in THE SUN HERALD