2014 Fish for a Cure

This past weekend Shane, my Dad and I participated in the Fish for a Cure Tournament to benefit the Anne Arundel Medical Center Cancer Center.

The Captian's Challenge within the tournament pits all teams against one another to raise the most money for the cancer center. Our team "Kayaks for a Cure" was the first team of kayakers to ever participate in the event. We were able to raise $3,640!!! While we were able to raise a solid amount of money, the winning team "Club 411/Full Moon" raised over $33,000!!! Overall the event and party raised upwards of $250,000+.

While the Captains Challenge is the most important aspect of the event, there is also the fishing tournament. Knowing we would be on kayaks and up against 72 other teams all on boats that would mostly troll with planer boards, we knew our chances of catching the largest Striped Bass was unlikely. So we set our sights on the 5 Heaviest Perch and Heaviest 3 Fish Slam Categories.

We set out Saturday at the Bay Bridge from Sandy Point State Park. Immediately I found birds working just north of the bridge and got on some fish. They were all unders so I continued on. I was trolling a custom made umbrella rig with two 4" storm shads and a Rapala Xrap. While I was at the birds I was jigging with a Hard Head Custom Baits Metal jig.

We didn't find much happening at the bridge except for the Toad Fish Shane was able to get on some bloodworms while searching for perch.

We went ahead and loaded everything back up in the trucks and went over to Jonas Green Park to try for the rest of the slam.  We knew we could find a pickerel very easily and then we planned on the full team focusing on getting a keeper striper.

I was able to get a pickerel around 22" and in the meantime Shane searched for some perch and my Dad trolled for stripers. After some more pickerel I got a call from my dad that he had caught a 24" striper!!! We had gotten our SLAM!! While we knew it would be close we were at least happy we could weigh in a full slam.

Our Slam ended up totaling 5lbs 15oz just edging out the second place team by a little over a pound.

Dad, Shane, and Myself accepting our Slam Prize courtesy of All Tackle.com

The other winners include:

Heaviest Rockfish:
1st - MSSA - Captain Dave Smith - 31 lbs 6 oz
2nd - Team Alltackle - Captain Keith Frasier - 14 lbs. 4 oz
3rd - Team TPI-LANDERS - Captain Mike Fallowski - 14 lbs. 1 oz

Heaviest String of Perch:
First Light - Captain John Page Williams - combined weight 5lbs 8oz