The West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s 78th annual Silver Sailfish Derby based out of the Sailfish Marina on Singer Island, Florida ended last Friday. A total of 34 boats were registered in the tournament and fished the final day. Sea conditions improved significantly Friday compared to Thursday’s rough conditions. However, the sailfish bite tapered off with the decreasing winds. A total of 72 sailfish were released Friday and 128 sails were released Thursday, for a total of 200 releases for the two day tournament. Team Wrenegade _captained by Jim Garner took top boat honors with 13 releases overall on time. _Wrenegade _held off a late run by team _Miss Annie who also finished with 13 releases and finished second overall on time. Team ProPayroll captained by Jamie Ralph finished third overall with 12 releases and Absolut Joy captained by Matt Rabenstine finished fourth overall on time with 10 releases. _
The top individual angler was Alex Delatur of Berkeley, California fishing aboard the _Permitted captained by Greg Bogdan. Delatur released 10 sailfish to earn the coveted Mrs. Henry Rea Trophy, one of the crown jewels in the world of competitive billfishing.
Of note, angler Scott Robins of Miami Beach aboard the Team Weez In The Keys captained by Chris Zielinski landed a large yellowfin tuna on Friday. Robin’s yellowfin tuna weighed in at 138.8-pounds shattering the existing Silver Sailfish Derby record (previously a 59.3-pound wahoo caught by Mike Weber aboard Petunia in 2012).
All other tournament winners are listed on the attached final results sheet.
Here’s the** link** to the Silver Sailfish Derby Live scoring page where you can view a complete list of the final fleet standings.
