A tournament-proven crew and anglers on the Miss Britt took top honors at the Islamorada Swordfish Tournament that ended Sunday in the Keys.
Captains Alex Castellanos and Ray Rosher, both of Miami, and anglers Bill Danko of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Robbie Ramirez of Miami released five swordfish and brought a 146-pound fish to the scales.
Danko was named top individual angler with four releases and the 146-pounder to his credit.
"The secret was we never lost a fish," said Rosher, who shared duties at the helm with friend Castellanos. "It's exciting when it all comes together and you get the good breaks."
Rosher, who has captained winning tournament teams throughout the Keys and South Florida, said he was impressed by the resurgent swordfish fishery off the Keys.
"I'd venture a guess that this tournament had one of the highest average fish per unit effort of any of the [swordfish] tournaments I've fished," he said.
The "average fish per unit effort" is a measure of the number of fish caught on individual boats in a tournament after taking into account the number of hours fished.
Rosher added, "I usually think of swordfishing like blue marlin fishing -- if you catch one, you've had a good day. But there were many, many boats that had more than three fish."
Second place in the tournament went to BiPolar with captain and angler Nelson Fronseca of Miami at the helm. Fronseca, along with anglers Lazaro Mendez, Luis Naya and Richard H. Peeples IV, all of Miami, released five swordfish but had no weight fish.
Sandman, with Captain Neil Orange of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the helm, took third place, losing to BiPolar on time. Todd Kirkpatrick, Sandra Kirkpatrick and Sean Brighton, all of Fort Lauderdale, and Nico Pelleta of Miami released five swordfish.
Sandra Kirkpatrick was named top lady angler.
The largest single fish, a 208-pound swordfish, was caught by Chip Sheehan.
Second and third largest fish were a 204-pounder caught by Robert Borges and a 189-pounder caught by Rich Malafy.
Twenty-five boats with 75 anglers competed in the tournament. Fifty-seven swordfish were released, while another seven were brought to the weigh station.
The Islamorada Swordfish Tournament is the first leg of the Florida Swordfish Series, which concludes with the Miami Swordfish Tournament, set for Sept. 27-30.
