By John Zalud
Fort Pierce, Florida – After a registration and captain’s meeting plagued by heavy rains on Friday evening, the storms moved offshore and by Saturday morning the weather couldn’t have been better for everyone fishing the first Fort Pierce Summer Slam held at the Sunrise City’s marina.All but a couple of the teams fishing on Saturday headed south after the 6am checkout. Some ran to Jupiter and others stopped at the “Loran Ledges” thirty miles south of the Fort Pierce Inlet where several nice kings had been caught during the prior week. Ron Mitchell’s Bandit was one of the boats that stopped in seventy feet of water offshore of the old Loran Tower that the area was named for. Fishing with Ron on board his Suzuki powered Invincible were Jamie Fortwangler, Dave Hudson, Mike McCabe, Bobby Wummer, Anderson Costa, and junior angler Chase Large.They proceeded to put out a spread of large blue runners and some Palm Beach goggle-eyes and it wasn’t long before a nice king ate one of the runners. Dave picked up the rod and started fighting the fish. Seconds later another king skyrocketed on a gog fished in their propwash. When it took off, the fish crossed over the other line and by the time Ron picked up the rod everything was tangled up. Luckily, after a few tense minutes, they managed to straighten out the mess and after a fifteen minute fight Mitchell along with some super boat maneuvering from Jamie, was able to work the fish close enough for Mike to set the gaff. After all that excitement, Chase was able to catch a couple smaller kings but by 9:00 the bite was over and the Bandit didn’t see another fish for the rest of the day. Back at the Fort Pierce Marina scales, their fish would weigh 35.89 and put another first place feather into the Bandit’s cap and earn young Chase both the Summer Slam and the SKA Top Junior awards.After catching a super 56.24 pound king in Jensen Beach, a 26.03 pounder at the Saltwater Classic and their Summer Slam fish, the Bandit would end the year with a 118.16 pound three fish total to take home the Division 8 Open Class title.  Chase already has a Junior Angler win in Division 10 fishing on the Spiced Rum III and he now wears the crown as the Top Junior in Division 8.The Knot Scared, Mike Faurot’s Yamaha powered Americat catamaran, along with crew members Mikie Carter, Chris Nelson, Doug Ward, and Rob and Bob Ivey finished in second place with a 29.81 pound fish. They also fished in the crowd at the Loran Tower. Bob caught their kingfish after it ate a blue runner fished in seventy feet of water on a long line at 9:00 in the morning.The Mellow Yellow was one of a couple boats that decided to run north in search of a big kingfish. Captain Steve Lucie who is waiting for his new Intrepid, fished the event on Conrad Lau’s shiny new Mercury powered Intrepid, the Koolau, sponsored by Intrepid, Mercury Outboards, Raymarine, Navionics, American Fishing Wire, and Strike Zone Tackle. They had decided to fish around Sebastian Inlet where friends had caught some nice fish the week before.

Steve and Conrad brought Past National Champion and Top Angler of the Year Ed Mecchella aboard to fish along with the rest of their crew, Jimmy McIntire, Andy Pettit, Mark Lamb, and Alex Burgess. They spent the day looking everywhere for any sign of a kingfish but didn’t see anything until around 3:30 in the afternoon when the only fish they saw all day ate a blue runner way back in their spread in eighty feet of water just north of Sebastian Inlet. Mark caught their 29.52 pounder after a short fight to take home the tournament’s third place prize. Read the rest of this entry →