The fourth annual Miami Raft Invitational Tournament was held on Thursday, May 22nd in the waters off Miami Beach, Fla. This was extreme offshore angling at its best. Top area anglers were set adrift on the Gulf Stream in non-motorized rafts made from customized truck inner tubes. They worked at a frenzied pace to suspend fishing kites, freeline live bait and battle sailfish and sharks that could sink their rafts.
Competitors were allowed to reposition via support boats periodically throughout the day. Support boats assisted with live chumming and reviving fish if need be, but anglers were otherwise unaided.
Capt. Alex Denis-Lay of Team RumBum.com took third place with one sailfish landed. Second place honors went to Capt. Doug Covin of Team NuPress with two sailfish landed. Perennial powerhouse Peter Miller of Team Buff on the Get Lit took first place. Miller managed to land three sailfish. "This is one of the ultimate accolades of my fishing resume," said Miller. The raft tournament, though not cash-intensive, holds quite a bit of cache among big-name anglers in South Florida.
Overall there were 19 sailfish hookups and eight fish landed, all on circle hooks. All fish were released in good health. Highlights of the day at sea included what appeared to be a juvenile great white shark investigating both the Nupress and the Scatterbrain rafts. "It was my first great white sighting and I happened to be in an innertube," said Capt. Doug Covin of Nupress. Capt. Sef Stupakoff, angler for team Scatterbrain said the fish was far too thick to be a mako. Stupakoff stuck with the shark motif and wrestled an estimated 150-pound hammerhead shark into his raft at the end of the tournament.
Signed Tony Ludovico giclee prints were awarded to winners at Finnegan's River on the Miami River in beautiful downtown Miami. Crews, friends and family joined together to enjoy an open bar and food sponsored by Bacardi and Heineken.
