Team FishDancer

SKA Professional Kingfish Tour Competition Angling Team

March 7th, 2008

Team FishDancer weighs a 33.27 and finishes 24th overall and 5th Lady Angler in SKA Pro Stop in Key West, FLorida

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It was one heck of a way to sea test the new FishDancer - the kickoff event of the 2008 SKA Professional Kingfish Tour 2008 season in Key West, Florida.  Weather forecasts called for winds NE 20-25mph on both days of the tournament with seas 5-7' on Friday and 4-6' on Saturday.  This was the worst forecast and would prove to be the most difficult weather conditions we have faced since we fished Hatteras in high winds and big seas 4 seasons ago.  With that forecast our original plan was to fish the Western Dry Rocks at some numbers where we had scaled fish in previous years.  Coming out of the channel that led us from King's Pointe Marina into the open ocean, we had to traverse about 5 miles to the checkout site at the Truman Annex.  The winds were up but seas inside the reef were much calmer than expected and this on the water experience assisted us in changing our fishing plans for day one.  Once we had checked out we ran close to the islands on the way west -- hoping to make it to tail end for our first day of fishing.  The first 20 miles went well but once we cleared the Marquesas the seas got big in a hurry...the only good news was that they were following seas but these sea conditions kept me thinking about the afternoon ride back to Key West.  It would not be pretty.  We got set up on our numbers where we had scaled a 52.3 a few years back and began to fish hard.  The winds picked up even more and trolling into the seas and winds produced waves breaking over the bow.  After a few small fish we caught and released, somewhere around 10am we got the bite we were looking for -- a strong run, sustained for a minute or so.  As Nancy and I immediately got to work -- Nancy in the bow of the new boat and me clearing lines as fast as possible -- our first 2008 kingfish mambo began.  The winds made it difficult to stay with the fish but Nancy's deft touch and my clumsy maneuvering of the boat finally had the fish within gaffing range and into the fish bag the fish went -- a good start for our 2008 season, a fish we estimated in the mid 30s range.

As the seas built further, "THE" FishDancer and I decided to pick up and run back towards the WDR to see how the bite was there.  We arrived after a long and slow run back into a big head sea and strong N/NE winds winds.  We fished alongside several of our old teammates -- Mining my Business and Hot Grits -- for several hours without a bite and decided to head to the scales to weigh our first day fish. After putting the fish bag on the crane and scrambling up the dock ladder 'THE' FishDancer was interviewed by Jack and from the water I heard him call out our fish weight; 33.27 pounds.  Not a bad start and this fish put us on the leader board in 14th place after day one.  We docked the FishDancer an began preparations for the second day of the tournament. Day two arrived and we decided to head back to our spot in hopes of finding a good fish to back up our 33.27.  We fished all day long along the reef line, on the flats and in waters from 40 to 180 feet with several strikes -- all from snakes. The best we could muster from this areas was a small 11.05 pound fish for a two day aggregate of 44.32 good for 24th place overall and 5th place in the Lady Angler category.  Thanks to the SKA for letting us borrow a few pictures until I get our digital camera library downloaded onto my laptop.

The weather and sea conditions, coupled with the warm winter in the keys created some tough fishing conditions for all of the competitors but all-in-all the kickoff of the 2008 SKA Pro tour was a good one.  We especially enjoyed seeing some of our fishing buddies (Reel Won and Four Sons) return to the SKA Pro Tour. The results of this event will shape the SKA AOY and LAOY title chases and we are pleased that Team FishDancer came away from this event 16 places ahead of where we began the 2007 season and we are looking forward to the second stop of the tour -- Jensen Beach.  Stay tuned.......

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2008 FishDancer Tournament Schedule

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FishDancer 2008 Standings

2 Fish 44.32 Points -- 24th place overall and 5th place Lady Angler

 Fish One -- 33.27                             Fish two -- 11.05                             Fish Three -- tbd

Fish Four -- tbd          Fish Five -- tbd         Fish Six -- tbd        Fish Seven -- tbd

The Chum Slick -- Editorial Comment by Captain Jeff

The chase for the 2008 SKA Angler of the Year and Lady Angler of the Year has begun.  The recent event in Key West has already shaped up these races as the bite was off as were the point totals.  I was speaking with one of the crew from fellow Contender team Pennywise at the marina before the tournament and I thought that, due to the weather, seas and warm winter, 60 points would be in the money during this event.  Little did I know how right I might be in my prognostication.  In 2008 only 29 teams weighed in two fish during the Key West stop of the SKA Pro Tour vs. 55 teams is 2007 and the average fish size was down more than 12% versus YAG. While it is very early in the 2008 season and clearly too soon to tell the affect of this less than expected bite on the chase for the titles, we can anticipate that perhaps the 4 year trend of ever increasing 7 fish aggregate weights might have come to an end in Key West 2008.   In 2005 team Final Strike was AOY with 245 points, Bandit was crowned AOY in 2006 with a new record of 283 and in 2007 the new record was set by Mining My Business with 284 points.  I spend some time after each event looking at the data from the tournament and calculating different what if scenarios for Team FishDancer and the rest of the field.  So after the Key West event, I began wondering what would the affect of the lighter and fewer fish from Key West be on the AOY and LAOY chases.   Mining My Business finished 28th at the 2007 Key West event (with an aggregate of 63.95 points) and was able to earn the AOY title with approximately 22% of their total points coming from Key West.  In 2008 the 28th place team was Strike Zone with a 2 fish aggregate of 40.94.  What does all of this mean?  I will predict now that the AOY title will be earned by a team with between 255 and 270 points.  Watch the teams who scaled BIG fish in Key West as they are off to a great start - Native, Footloose and Koolau have already earned a significantly higher percentage of my hypothetical AOY 270 points with 33, 28 and 26% respectively at Key West.  One thing is certain, standings like the weather will change over time.  Congratulations to all who competed and the chase is on.... 

This high energy husband and wife team joined the SKA Professional Kingfish Tour after qualifying by finishing 8th in SKA Division IV in 2002.  In 2002 they won the Kingfish Division of the Offshore Blitz, won 1st place Lady Angler in the Two Way KMT, 2nd place Lady Angler and 9th overall at the Halfmoon KMT. Team FishDancer won the final leg of the SKA Pro Tour in Louisiana in 2003 by landing a 61.1 pound fish, the 2nd largest of the season and the largest weighed by a Lady Angler.  Team FishDancer has had 17 top ten day one performances on the SKA Pro Tour and six top ten finishes; including  2 top Lady Angler wins; Golden Isles leg of the SKA Pro tour in 2007  and the Jacksonville leg of the SKA Pro Tour in 2005.   In 2007 the team has finished 4th overall at the Brunswick, Georgia SKA Pro Tour and earned 5th place in the 2007 ASWSC  20th Anniversary Sailfish Tournament, in Palm Beach, Florida. The team performed well in 2006 with 4 in the money finishes, including the 2 National Championships, 17th in the Rumble in the Jungle,  a 7th place finish in the 2006 Little River stop on the SKA Pro Tour and finished 6th overall in the 2005 SKA Pro tour event in Jacksonville. Nancy and Jeff, one of the top performing husband and wife competitive angling teams in the nation, finished 14th overall for the SKA Pro season with Nancy earning 3rd place Lady Angler. Nancy and Jeff  earned The team has completed the SKA Professional kingfish grand slam weighing in fish in the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 pound classes, holds the SKA big fish (61.1) and aggregate records  (104.59) for Port Fourchon, LA ans has finished in the money 24 times in its SKA career.  Nancy is considered one of the top Lady Anglers in the nation and Jeff has received the prestigious SKA Director's award for his 'unselfish contributions to our sport"'

Nancy@FishDancer.net or Jeff@FishDancer.net

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