CROCKETT IS YEAR'S TOP JUNIOR ANGLER!! INTREPID POWERBOATS & SKA NATIONALS

For the second time in four years, Crockett claimed the title of SKA YAMAHA Professional Kingfish Tour TOP JUNIOR ANGLER!! To our knowledge, Crockett is the only junior angler to achieve this award twice! He also captured this honor in 2008; the same year our Liquid Fire Fishing Team captured the Angler of the Year title.

The strength of capturing four of the five Top Junior Angler titles in the 2011 professional season catapulted Crockett into the yearly top spot. The pro events in which he claimed first place were in:

Sarasota, FL - Jensen Beach, FL - Fourchon, LA - Little River, SC (postponed and fished in Biloxi, MS)

One of the major highlights of our trip was having the pleasure to meet Ken Clinton, President of Intrepid Powerboats and John Molfetto, Customer Care Representative. Our team is fortunate and thankful to have the opportunity to partner with Intrepid Powerboats for the 2012 season. Our new boat is scheduled for completion by the second week of April. There is a lot more to share about this great opportunity in the very near future!! I can’t tell you how excited we are to be able to partner with such a respected company. MORE TO COME SOON…

Now to the YAMAHA Professional Kingfish Tour and SKA National Championship in Biloxi, MS. –

Our Liquid Fire Fishing Team jaunted 1/3 of the way across the country on Wednesday, November 2 to complete the 2011 SKA YAMAHA Professional Kingfish Tour. After the fourth leg of the series was postponed in Little River, SC, the make-up date was slated for Nov. 8, with the Tour Championship being held the following day.

On arrival, the fierce winds of Biloxi greeted us in full force. It was our third time traveling to the popular destination in the Northern Gulf to hopefully experience the infamous “Biloxi Bite!” A little discouraged, we tried to make our way out of Horn Pass and Dog Key Pass several days. Unfortunately, each journey was ended quickly once exiting the passes and being faced with 5-7-foot seas!

With the assistance of our new found weather app, Marine Weather by Bluefin, on our new Droid Bionics (that’s another story in itself); we stayed up-to-date with the offshore forecast. Knowing the winds would be blowing out of the south at no less than 15 knots; we stayed “on the hill” and focused on catching mullet for bait.

The poor weather conditions lead to a format change. Tuesday fishing was cancelled, and that left the Yamaha pro tour teams to catch and weigh two fish during one day of fishing on Wednesday.

Heading offshore after the Wednesday 6:30 a.m. check-out, we knew we had a long, 82-mile adventure in 3’-5’ swells. After the three-hour journey, we deployed our mullet at an offshore oil rig known to produce large king mackerel. FINALLY… we began to experience what we had heard about for years. The kings were there, hungry and big!

After boating about 15 kings between 32-40 pounds in our four hours of fishing, we began the long run back through Dog Key Pass. Weighing two respectable kings, 39.80 and 39.12 pounds, placed us 13^th in the tournament, and captured Crockett the 1^st place Junior Angler trophy.

The southerly winds continued and a strong cold front passed through the Gulf states on Thursday and early Friday, leaving Jack Holmes, managing partner of the SKA, the tough decision to make the last tournaments of the year (Yamaha pro and SKA Nationals) another one-day shoot-out… and a shoot-out it was!!!

The infamous Horseshoe / Salt Domes was the location for most of the larger fish caught during the Wednesday pro tournament. With two full days for the 147-boat Nationals’ field to gather this information, everyone believed they had a chance to catch two quality fish in hopes of being crowned Angler of the Year and National Champion.

At the Saturday morning check-out, the teams were faced with a “balmy” 40-degree air temperature. Once again, the Liquid Fire Fishing Team strapped on our Columbia foul weather gear only to protect us from the un-seasonably cool temperatures, as the sea conditions of 1-2 feet was by far the best we had ever seen in the upper Gulf!! This as going to be fun!!!

After the 82-mile, wide open throttle run, Joshua pulled back the throttles at about 9:00 a.m. We immediately deployed three large mullet, and within minutes, three 30-plus pound king mackerel “skied” on all three baits!! The “bite” was real, and it was “ON!”

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! We caught and released more king mackerel than we could count. They bit anything and everything.

After three years of skepticism, we finally got to experience the most amazing king mackerel fishery in our country. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of spending time on the water in this area, I can only say... it was worth the wait!

The SKA staff did an awesome job, as always. Thank you Jack, Deonna, Bob, Chris, Loreen, Terry and all other staff and volunteers for another GREAT event!! We’re ready to go again!

BE SURE TO VISIT US AT - www.liquidfirefishing.com