Killbox won the Keys Gold Cup.
May 19, 2025
By Matt Badolato
Captain Cody Darbie is just about as “Keys” as they make ‘em.
The 38-year old Marathon native and third-generation fisherman led his team to victory in the Florida Keys Gold Cup Sailfish Championship. Their 21 sailfish releases spanning the three-tournament series in December and January made them the circuit’s most consistent crew.
A quad hookup on sails for Darbie’s crew aboard the Killbox sealed the deal in the final hours of the last event, the Cheeca Lodge Presidential.
“We were neck-and-neck with teams on Skipjac and Contagious , all three of us had 18 releases,” Darbie said. “It was a slow bite, but I told my guys just keep working hard. We made a couple moves and wound up in 100 feet. I was on the phone with my buddy when I watched a fish hit the right rigger, then the left, then two more bites.”
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Darbie’s crew aboard Killbox , a 37-foot Freeman owned by Tyler Kelley, released three of the four sails, securing the lead.
“We’ve got such a great crew, these guys work so hard,” said Darbie. “We had some setbacks—lots of lost fish—earlier in the series, but the fish really gave it back to us.”
Killbox angler Clint “Digger” Rodamer of Marathon took the series’ Top Angler championship ring with a total of 8 releases over the course of the series.
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When he’s not tournament fishing, Darbie commercially harvests ballyhoo, a job he began at age eight working with his dad. He scans for the baitfish around the Keys’ grass beds and reefs, then encircles the schools and hauls in a 600-yard lampara net. Back at the dock, they’re sold to a distributor who gets them to anglers in prime condition.
“Last year was the worst ballyhoo catch I’ve ever seen, but this year was the best,” said Darbie. “It’s been a lot colder this year, which definitely helps stretch our season out. But things are changing all over. A friend of mine in Maine has been seeing ballyhoo schools in the ocean up there, something he’s never seen before.”
Darbie attributes a lot of his success to persistence and local knowledge.
“You’ve really got to believe in yourself,” he said. “Most great fishermen base their decisions on their intuition. I depend a lot on my intuition, that gut feeling. Fishing is about constantly making mistakes and learning from them. You have to be out there, making those big or small mistakes, being in those scenarios. It takes time, but with experience you’ll recognize you’re in a scenario you’ve been in before, and your mind just knows what to do. You’ll know when to stick it out or move somewhere else. It all comes down to loving it.”
FWC’s Catch a Florida Memory Fishing for slams—targeting three or more species in a single day—brings a level of focus and intention to an angler’s strategy that challenges their skills to the max. As the first person to successfully achieve all eight Grand Slams available through FWC’s Catch a Florida Memory program, Gregg Lewis of Destin knows a thing or two about strategic fishing.
“You’ve really got to enjoy the struggle,” laughed Lewis, a retired business owner. “It takes a lot of planning and it seems like I can always catch two out of three species. That third one is always tough.”
It took Lewis four years to nail down all eight slams, fishing mostly in his home waters of Destin, but traveling throughout Florida and working with some of the state’s best guides.
A notable memory was his hunt for the “Nearshore Grand Slam” consisting of a king mackerel, cobia and tripletail.
“I worked with a captain in Jacksonville and another in Apalachicola,” Lewis said. “We fished off Jacksonville and caught the king and cobia in the morning. Then I drove back to the Gulf and caught a tripletail that afternoon. You’ve got to be ready to burn some gas.”
The program allows anglers 24 hours to make it happen. Anglers log catches on FWC’s website for credit.
Destin, known as the “World’s Luckiest Fishing Village” for its wide variety of species found close by. He’s honed his skills to knock out a couple slams in his backyard, but traveled to South Florida in search of warm water species like bonefish, tarpon and permit.
The shoreline slam—a pompano, sheepshead, and whiting—was difficult. Finding all three species in the same place at the same time of year took him four years. Finally, with a perfectly timed plan, three different fishing locations and a bit of luck, Capt. Brandon Connor helped make it happen for Lewis in 2024.
Lewis says it’s important to do your own research, but also work with local guides for help with unfamiliar tactics.
“Research ahead of time is as important as actually fishing. You’ve got to know where the best chance of catching the fish is, what time of year, moon phase and water conditions,” he added.
For more information on FWC’s Catch a Florida Memory Program visit catchafloridamemory.com .
Nearshore Grand Slam: cobia, king mackerel, tripletail. Blue Water Grand Slam: dolphinfish, sailfish, wahoo. Reefs and Rubble Grand Slam: black sea bass, gag, triggerfish. Shoreline Grand Slam: sheepshead, Florida pompano, whiting. Bay and Estuary Grand Slam: gray snapper, Spanish mackerel, snook. Florida Grand Slam: bonefish, permit, tarpon. Inshore Grand Slam: red drum, spotted seatrout, flounder. Gregg Lewis earned every FWC Grand Slam. Lake Monroe Bass & Crappie Tournament With up to 16 rods deployed at one time, Kevin Anderson’s crappie setup takes multitasking to a new level. But the DeLand angler and his partner, Wayne Foul, of the Sofishticated fishing team managed this spiderweb of rods to win the Get Hook’d on Lake Monroe Bass & Crappie Tournament.
Employing a technique they call “pushing,” Anderson and Foul deploy up to eight rods in both bow and stern. They then use a trolling motor to “push” the spread of minnow-tipped jigs at speeds as low as 0.3 miles per hour. It’s like very slow trolling, in a forward motion, with lines positioned directly under the boat.
“Jigging works great once you find a school of fish, but you’ve gotta find that sweet spot, and that can take all day,” said Anderson. “This way we’re covering ground. Ninety-percent of the fish are caught off the front of the boat.”
Kevin Anderson was the top crappie catcher. The anglers fished the main channel of the St. Johns River around Lake Monroe. The most productive areas were in 16 to 18 feet of water with baits set one to two feet off the bottom. They used jigs with soft plastic tails tipped with a live minnow. A weight is used above the jighead to keep the rig as vertical as possible.
“The fish move around a lot depending on water temperature and moon phase,” he said. “They may or may not be where we find them while pre-fishing.”
Their bag of crappie weighed 9.42 pounds. The largest crappie of the tournament, a 2.87-pounder, was caught by the Myers Boys, Robbie and Terry Myers.
In the bass division, Bishops Marine, Steve Bishop and Matt Gee, pulled in a 5-fish bag of 14.35 pounds. Team Temper Tantrum with Zachary and Austin Timperley took second with 13.74 pounds. The largest bass was caught by David Martindill and weighed 8.34 pounds.
This article was featured in the April 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe