Gulf Redfish, Canaveral Yellowfins and Giant Kings—Tournament Insider

Finding smaller fish isn’t the goal in most tournament situations. But after finding only oversized reds while pre-fishing, Kade Rogers and Chayson Herring of Team Wing It were on the hunt for slots during the Panacea event of the Florida Redfish Series in April. “We missed a fish early, then it was slow until around 1:30,” said Herring, who lives in Trenton. “At the last minute, we doubled up on our winning fish. We definitely got lucky.”

The two anglers fished around rocky and oyster areas, but noticed some bronze flashes and scattering baitfish around a muddy creek mouth. Rogers pitched his lure at the fish and hooked up, followed by Herring who instantly hooked into a second fish on his go-to lure, a Johnson weedless gold spoon.

“I live or die by that lure,” Herring said. “Whenever I feel stuck I go back to that spoon, I’ve always had confidence in it.” Herring said the labyrinth of creeks, grassflats, and sandbars around Panacea—a small Gulf fishing town south of Tallahassee—is their favorite stop on the Florida Redfish Series tournament trail.

“There’s always a lot of fish there, and it’s nice to fish these tournaments and get away from the hustle and bustle.”

For more information about the Florida Redfish Series, visit www.flredfishseries.com.

During the Ed Dwyer’s Otherside Invitational (Port Canaveral, April 24-27), For most of the day, it seemed like everything was going wrong for the crew of the Mo Money.

Their day started with a rough Gulf Stream crossing. Then a faulty temp gauge—important for detecting temperature breaks that tuna frequent. Seas remained rough, making it nearly impossible to locate birds using radar through the interference of tall wave tops.

With spirits low, Murphy’s Law struck again—one of their engines spun a hub nearly a hundred miles from shore. As the seas calmed down, they were able to put a crew member in the water to carefully change the prop without losing parts or people. But around four o’clock in the afternoon, things started going wonderfully right.

“I marked a huge bird pack on the radar,” said owner and captain Dustin Jones of Grant, FL. “I thought for sure it had to be a freighter, but we pulled up to a flock of at least 75 birds with a frigate and fish busting all over the place.”

Trolling a mix of ballyhoo and plugs around the bird pack, the crew of central Florida anglers caught yellowfin tuna, blackfins and mahi for the next three hours.

“It was non-stop from 4:30-7:30. There were 90- to 100-pound tuna jumping right next to the boat, it was so exciting,” said Jones. “The fish were pushing smaller tunas to the surface and eating them. I watched one jump and eat another. One of our big yellowfins had three small tuna and skipjack in its stomach. We were constantly reeling in fish and re-rigging baits.”

Also on board the Mo Money were Jason Kelly, Brian Warren, Joe Prohaska, Richard Strickland and Jed Born. Their 271-pound aggregate weight of three tuna earned them the tournament’s Top Boat prize.

“It’s a dream to win this tournament,” said Jones, who grew up fishing with his dad around Sebastian Inlet. “It’s a prestigious one. It was awesome to go from all our issues in the morning to success.”

Taking first place tuna with an 84-pounder was the crew of the Orion captained by Dr. Roger Montz of Melbourne Beach. The crew of the Dime Piece pulled in the winning dolphin at 46 pounds. Good Vibes brought in the largest blackfin tuna at 15 pounds and the largest skipjack, a 23-pounder. The smallest wahoo, a 6-pounder, was caught by the Olivia Rose. The largest wahoo was a 23-pounder boated by the Even Flow crew.

The two-day Fort Pierce Kingfish Invitational (April 25-26) drew teams from five states, paid out record winnings, and took place during an incredible run of oversized kings.

“It was the best king bites anyone has seen in a long time,” said tournament director Mike Minia. “We weighed in three fish over 60 pounds, 12 fish over 50 pounds, and lots of 40-pounders."

The tournament dates were not selected haphazardly. It’s well-known among the kingfish community that the new moon phase each April draws big fish to south Florida waters. “It’s always good on that moon, there’s always big kings,” said Maccabee Herman, owner of the 33-foot Conch, Macdaddy. Their team took first place with a 106-pound, two-fish aggregate weight.

“We caught lot of fish in the 40- to 45-pound range on day one,” said Herman, who attends law school at Nova Southeastern and co-founded Fillet for Friends, a non-profit that donates fish to local food banks. “We heard there were fish being caught deeper, but our gut told us to stick to the same area on day two.”

Trusting their instincts paid off. “In the first hour of fishing we’d boated two fish in the 50-pound class,” said Herman. “We saw a school of 40-pound fish fighting over the long kite bait, then watched a giant roll on the bait.”

“It’s him,” said crew member Corey Womack.

The Macdaddy crew pulled in all their lines to stay on top of their hooked fish. They noticed it wasn’t making typical headshakes, but rather the rhythmic pulses of a tail-hooked fish.

“It came up and we could see it was huge and also hooked right at the end of the tail,” said Herman. “We loosened the drag and he made some big runs. When we finally gaffed it, the hooks fell right out as it hit the deck. We were all so excited.”

Their king weighed 60.29 pounds. The largest king of the tournament, a 62.3 pounder, was caught by Ted Wollridge and his crew aboard the Out4Ya/Gill Media. The Macdaddy crew used a mix of goggle eyes and blue runners. Their rigs consist of 30-pound mainline, a 15-foot topshot of 50-pound fluorocarbon, and a wire stinger rig. Also on board were Capt. Mike Khashman, Chris Wolfgram, Mark Motta, Joey McCabe and Justin Scarpa. Missing from their crew was Eytan Genoune, their good friend who was killed in a boating accident last year.

“We really felt Eytan’s presence out there,” said Herman. “Whenever we fish, we fish hard for him.”

Herman’s advice for catching big kings? “Big fish eat big bait,” he said.

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• This story was featured in the July 2025 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. Click to subscribe.

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