[spinfreak]

For those not familiar with my post over on the FS forums a few weeks ago, I'm starting a new inshore saltwater rournament series. It's a no BS type of tourney series...no sponsors, no captains meetings, no anything....just fun fishing, comraderie, and maybe a few bucks. For more information, check out the previous post on FS, or check out the website: www.swtseries.com

This will be the first tourney for the SWT Series...hopefully the first of many. The tournament will be held at Flamingo on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009. For details, check out the website, and click on the "Flamingo" link on the left hand side. Below that you will see other tournament locations and dates for the future (not all details finalized as of yet, but those will be the dates and locations).

www.swtseries.com

If you are interested in participating, please post here and indicate your team name as well as angler names, or send me an IM on here, or an e-mail: [email protected]

We will also keep a non-boater list available for those that do not have boats and are looking to catch a ride with a boat owner. So please post if you would like to fish and are looking for a ride.

Please feel free to post any comments, questions, hate mail, secret admirer letters, etc....LOL  
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I will keep a running list of confirmed teams, and will indicate next to the team when they have paid their entry fee. (Note: This tournament series is open to 3 different forums (Florida Sportsman, Microskiff.com, and the M/H/P forum, so if you see some names that don't look familiar, that could be the reason )
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A running list of non-boaters looking for rides will also be posted below.


Confirmed teams:

1) Team Knot-A-Yacht- spinfreak & woody (my bro)- paid



Non-Boaters:

 

[spinfreak]

Only 2 weeks left. If anybody might be interested, please get in touch [smiley=toast.gif]

 

[spinfreak]

I can't seem to be able to figure out how to edit the first post (maybe you can't edit posts over a certain time frame on here?), so here's an updated list for those interested.

1) Team Knot-A-Yacht- spinfreak & woody (my bro)(fs forum)- paid

2) RedDragon & Rebait (fs forum)- paid

3) BackcountrySlayer & Sailfishanglr123 (fs forum)paid

4) Tater & HighandDry (fs forum) paid

5) Team Hot Stanleys - Tgunn & Dennis (fs forum)- paid

6) Team ReelSik - Jason Stephens and Geoff Ellison (M/H/P Forums)- paid

7) Team Pucker Chaser - Pucker Factor and Tailchaser16 (fs forum)- paid

8) Team Snook Flu - smokeonthewater and Roly (fs forum)- paid

9) Team Tar-poontang - Capt. Backyard and KillerBees (fs forum)- paid

10) Team Backcountry Bandits - Toe Less Angler and SaltFlyTyer (fs forum)- paid

11) Team Flat-u-pence - amcblock (Salvatore) and John Stabile (M/H/P forums)- paid

12) Team Mami Papi - fshboy007 and getingitdone (fs forum)- paid

13) Team WWB - Flattitude and Gunsliger (fs forum)- paid

 

[spinfreak]

Looks like 13 teams will be the final roster for the tourney.

If anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know.

Here's a quick run down of a few things (all of which are also posted on the SWT website).....

I'm going to shoot for being at the OUTSIDE RAMP by 5AM on Saturday. Once I launch, I will have a bag hanging by the back of my truck, which is a grey dodge Ram quad cab with a matching grey cap. There will be ziploc bags in there which will have score sheets, pens, and the secret item.

Lines-in time is 6:30AM. There is no official lines-out time, but everyone MUST be at the meeting location by 5PM. We will be meeting at the North East corner of the Walmart parking lot on US 1 in Florida City (1 block North of the US 1 and Turnpike intersection).

There is no minimum size of fish to enter in the tournament. The only size restriction is on Tarpon, which is a 36" Max. You can enter a larger Tarpon, but it will only count as 36". Catch & release is encouraged, but if a fish is in season and of legal size and you desire to keep it for a meal, by all means do so.

You must take a picture of all entered fish, and the secret item must be in the picture. Pinch the tail on all measured fish, but try to keep hands/fingers out of the way of being able to clearly read the size on your measuring device. Tarpon that are clearly over the 36" minimum can be left in the water, with the measuring device held next to it, and the secret item visible in the picture.

Be sure to enter all fish on your score sheet, along with the time of the catch. Times will be used in the case of a tie between two teams. The team with the earlier catch will be deemed the winner.

At the end of day, mark your biggest catch of each species in the space provided at the bottom of the score sheet.

The winner will be the team that accumulates the highest number of points, based on the largest fish of each of 4 species...Snook, Tarpon, Trout, and Redfish. 1 inch = 1 point. Only the largest fish of each species will be counted towards your total. Payouts are awarded from 1st through 3rd place.

The Calcutta for this tournament is for Snook. This is a winner-take-all category. The largest Snook caught will be awarded the prize. In the event of a tie, the team with the earliest caught fish will be the winner.

Upon meeting at Walmart, please hand in your score sheets along with the memory cards from your camera. I will download the pics and hand your card back to you.

The payouts are broken down as follows.....$80 entry fee. $20 of each entry fee will go towards the big-fish Calcutta. The remaining $60 will be split: 1st place- 50%, 2nd place- 30%, and 3rd place- 20%.


Since I'm not making any money of this (actually, there are out of pocket expenses (website, pens, paper, etc), but I don't mind spending a few bucks to get something like this off the ground), so if you have your ziploc bag and pens available, please hand them back in for re-use at future tourneys.

 

[spinfreak]

Unless anyone backs out by Friday, there are 13 final teams.

Payouts will be as follows:

1st place team: $390

2nd place team: $234

3rd place team: $156

Calcutta (Largest Snook): $260

Not too shabby for our first tourney. Thanks to everyone for making this a success [smiley=toast.gif]

 

[spinfreak]

Before I post the results I'd first like to say 2 things.....

1st- Myself and Woody (my bro) needed help today (a chain of events happened, and we needed a tow back to Flamingo), and someone stepped up and helped us. They wish to remain anonymous for personal reasons (those that were there know whom it is), and I'd like to publicly thank him for going out of his way. If it wasn't for him, either us or the boat, would have been spending the night in Flamingo. Thank you so much. [smiley=toast.gif]

2nd- I'd like to apologize to the tournament participants for the delay. Everybody that spoke to me said they had a good time and enjoyed it, but I know how much it inhales to have to wait on someone, so even if it wasn't said, I know there's a certain level of aggravation that ya'll had to go through. Thanks for being understanding. [smiley=toast.gif]

Now, onto the results. It seems like it was a hit or miss day out there. Only 7 teams turned in their score sheets (8 including myself, but I didn't even bother filling one out for one measly trout). I know a few teams went home after realizing they weren't going to place in the money, while waiting for us. Anyway, out of 13 teams, there were 5 that waited at the meeting location, and 2 teams left their scoresheets with those teams to turn in for them.

The only team to land all 4 species, which solidly put them in first place, was Team WWB, which consisted of Flattitude and Gunsliger. They were able to manage a 36"+ Tarpon, a 30" Snook, a 22.5" Red, and a 16.5" Trout, totaling up at 105 points.

Second place was a respectable 83.5 points, which went to smokeonthewater and Roly of Team Snook Flu. They were able to manage everything, except for a Trout. They did manage to land the biggest Snook, which was also good enough to take the Calcutta. Their catch consisted of the Calcutta winning 31.5" Snook, along with a 36"+ Tarpon, and a 16" Redfish.

And last but not least, Third place went to the tag team duo of BackcountrySlayer & Sailfishanglr123 of Team Knot-Tight, with a total of 73 points. They managed to land everything except for the elusive Tarpon, which would have probably bumped them up to first place. They managed to catch a 25" Snook, a twin 25" Redfish, and a nice 23" Trout.

The final standings (from the 7 provided score sheets) are as follows.....

1st- Team WWB- 105 points
2nd- Team Snook Flu- 83.5 points
3rd- Team Knot-Tight- 73 points
4th- Tater & HighandDry- 69.5 points
5th- Team Mami Papi- 68 points
6th- Team Tar-poontang- 40 points
7th- RedDragon & Rebait- 39.5 points

I'd like to thank everyone for coming out, and making the first S.W.T. Series tournament a sucess. Alot of guys thanked me for my effort in putting this thing together, but without you all, it wouldn't have happened at all. Thanks for understanding with the delay/trouble on my part at the end of the day. I hope everyone can make it to future tournament(s). It seems like a good group of guys so far (a few gals wouldn't hurt though ). I'll be putting up the post this coming week to start preparing for the next S.W.T. Series tournament, which will be on July 18th at Vero Beach (Round Island). Thanks [smiley=toast.gif]

P.S. A few guys let me know that when they went to pickup their secret items and scoresheets by my truck in the morning, that they didn't see the bag. Apparently I was informed that someone (I have no clue who it was) took the entire bag, and then put it back sometime later on. I don't know how long it was missing for, but when I finally got back to the ramp, the bag was still there. I'm going to try to think of some way to distribute the secret items in the future that won't allow a snafu like that. [smiley=toast.gif]