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Team Coral C Wins Gold Cup Invitational

Results for the Sailfish Club of Florida's 40th Annual Gold Cup Invitational Team Tournament
gold cup results

gold cup results

Palm Beach, FL – The Sailfish Club of Florida hosted its 40th Annual Gold Cup Invitational Team Fishing Tournament January 10-14, 2012. The tournament takes place over four days but with the required lay day, anglers fish 3 out of 4 days. This year’s tournament was headed by Committee Chairman, Winston Wren and Vice Chairman, Christopher Lazzara and consisted of 19 teams of 62 anglers.

Because of the calm seas and warm weather, the fish were not biting and that made a challenging tournament. Most teams claimed Wednesday, Jan. 11th as their lay day in anticipation for the cooler weather on Saturday. The four-day tournament ended with a total of 74 fish. At the 2011 Gold Cup tournament, anglers caught and released an impressive 303 fish.

Taking home this year’s Gold Cup trophy was the Coral C representing the Ocean Reef Club from Key Largo who released a total of 10 fish throughout the tournament. Aboard the Coral C was Boat Captain Bobby Brown, Team Captain, Chris Berian and anglers Skip Smith, Rob Ruwitch and C.J. McLaughlin. Skip Smith received the prestigious John Rybovich Memorial Award for the most sailfish releases on dead bait and also the Donald “Boy” Leas, Chairman’s Cup, which is presented to the top angler with the highest percentage hook-up ratio.

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Capturing second place was a team representing the Sailfish Club led by Boat Captain Mark Pagano aboard the Big Dog. Team Captain Enrique Tomeu and anglers Harold Hutchins, Chuck Jordan and Mark Willis released a total of 8 sailfish during the tournament.

Third place went to Wren’s Ranch Anglers aboard the boat Wrenegade led by Team Captain Winston Wren of Palm Beach, Florida. Wren was joined by anglers Erik Waldin, Tony Cummings and Hunter Beall along with Boat Captain, Jimmy Garner. The team had seven releases and beat out the Arcstrike team due to the time the fish was caught.

Fourth place also with a total of 7 releases went to the boat Arcstrike. The team was led by Team Captain Frank Novak with Boat Captain Mark McCarthy and fellow angler Eddie Becker.

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The Gold Cup was founded in 1972 by John Rybovich to test the skills of anglers catching and releasing sailfish off the east coast of Florida. The Gold Cup is a perpetual trophy maintained by the Sailfish Club and is one of the most coveted prizes in competitive sport fishing.

The 41st Gold Cup Tournament will be held January 8 – 12, 2013.

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