For the second year in a row, Plantation’s Frank Delucas dominated the Islamorada All Tackle World Championship Bonefishing Tournament. This event, established in 1970, has been economy-shortened from five days to three days to help maintain maximum enrollment. Delucas’ score on Day One would have been enough to ice the victory. Even more amazing (and certainly a reminder of how prescious large bonefish are becoming locally) is the fact that his solitary weigh fish was worth enough points on its own to win the tournament outright, with no additional fish!

The 16 team field managed 60 releases and only 4 weight fish. Weight fish are bonefish of 8 pounds and over, brought back to the weighmaster’s (Charlotte Ambrogio) official scale alive. Bigger fish bring better points; 8 to 8 pounds 15 ounces are worth 2 points per ounce, 9 to 9-15’s are worth 2.5 points per ounce, tens are worth 3 points per ounce and so on. Releases on bait are 100 points, on artificial 150 and on fly 200. You cannot win the All Tackle (or any of the other 3 bonefish majors) with releases alone, although you can win Most Releases Trophy with no weights.

Release points are unlocked from the bank only up to the amount of weight points caught. Example: a 10 pound even fish is worth 480 points (plus a 100 point bonus for his successful live release) so his total value is 580 points. If you had 10 previous releases on bait, your release point total is 1,000. But, you can only cash in 580 of those points, so your total score is 1,160 points with 420 banked released points awaiting the capture of another weight. You are allowed 5 weight slots for the tournament, and by law may not weigh in more than 2 in a day.

Delucas banged out 5 releases early on Day One and then the search was on for a “pig”, as wide bodied bones are frequently called. After only a handful of shots, an aggressive squadron of 1/2 dozen mudders were spotted right in the heart of downtown Islamorada. A substantial trail of smoke smoldered behind as they mowed the lawn rooting for food. Frank’s shrimp fell at the front of the dark mass and one fish nosed down. As the confused missile sizzled in tight circles, Frank fumbled with his reel, trying to untangled a bird’s nest that was large enough for an osprey to drop eggs in. As the angry bone decided to sprint to the channel Frank’s macrame creation miraculously came unwound and we chased the fish down after a rare clean fight. Back at the dock, the needle stopped dead at 12 pounds! A good start at 1,560 points.

Frank added 8 more releases on Day Two, including 5 fish over 7 pounds but none over 8, and then 6 more on the final day. We finished with 2,120 points, leaving 840 unmatched release points in the bank. Runner-Up Angler (in 2008 also) was renown author and 3 time champion of this tournament, Carl Hiaasen with local bonefishing legend Capt. Tim Klein. This seasoned team captured 6 releases and an 8 pound 14 ounce weight, all on fly for 1,053 points. Third with a 9 pound weight and 3 releases, 2 on bait and 1 on fly was Islamorada’s own Tony Nobregas, owner of the La Jolla Motel and his guide Capt. Bob Branham. In addition to Grand Champion honors, Frank Delucas also won Largest Bonefish with the 12 pounder, Most Releases with 19, and High Point Angler Day One. For info on next year’s event contact Charlotte Ambrogio at CSASUN@aol.com or 305-942-0428.

Starting back in July, Maverick Mirages have won an astonishing 7 consecutive flats tournaments. Capt. Justin Rea poled Greg Vincent to a win in the Del Brown (Maverick 17 HPX). Tim Mahaffey and Capt. Duane Baker took the Islamorada Fall Bonefish Fly Invitational (Maverick 17 HPX). Capt. Justin Rea fishing with Cal Collier Jr., were again victorious in the Slam Superfly in Key West (Maverick 17 HPX). Next came Mo Smith’s record-setting performance at Slam (Maverick 18 HPX). Then Smith’s back to back wins at Baybone Superfly and Baybone in Key Largo (Maverick 18 HPX) and Frank Delucas’ latest win in the Islamorada Fall All Tackle Bonefish World Championship (Maverick 18 HPX). Editors Note: The last 4 Keys shallow water tournament champions were guided by Krowka.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Mark's Journal Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.