Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Crescendo reels in Operation Sailfish
Charlie Greenberg and Capt. Skip Dana combined forces in the militarily themed Operation Sailfish tournament last week and scored a thrilling victory in the first leg of the Quest for the Crest Sailfish Series.
After catching two sailfish the first day fishing out of Lake Worth Inlet on Crescendo, Greenberg’s 35-foot Revenge, the team released eight sailfish Saturday to charge from behind and finish atop the 47-boat fleet and win a total of $239,280.
Crescendo had a total of 10 sailfish. Contender One was second with nine releases to win $67,470. Also with nine were third-place Sandman ($61,850) and Weez in the Keys ($8,000). A total of 218 sailfish were released.
“I’ve been doing this since 1989,” Greenberg said. “This is my best win ever.”
Both Greenberg and Dana had good finishes in the Mercury/SeaVee Pompano Beach Saltwater Shootout in May.
Dana’s boat Pop A Top won the tournament and $19,345. Crescendo won the value-added KDW Jackpot and a total of $40,160 for catching three kingfish, a 14.6-pound dolphin and a 21.9 wahoo.
Greenberg said his team of Dana, Steve Fishman, Kurtis Schuttler, Randy Strauss, Mark Repetski, Steven Siegel, Glen Turner, Jim Blake and William Mallon got some good karma going by donating $5,000 to Operation Homefront, which helps troops and their families, at Wednesday’s kickoff party.
On Thursday, which was “Take a Hero Fishing Day” where teams took out military veterans and active duty soldiers, Crescendo caught six sailfish, including one for military angler Mark McManus, to win the top team trophy.
Dana said Crescendo caught two sailfish right away fishing off Lost Tree north of Lake Worth Inlet, then went 4-for-5 on sails off Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
“I love that area,” Dana said, “so we ran down there Friday and caught one right away and a lot of meat fish. There were not a lot of sailfish, but we stuck it out there and caught another sailfish.”
On a cold, windy, overcast Saturday with seas of up to 8 feet, it was back to Lost Tree and Crescendo, which was one of the smallest boats in the fleet, never left. The day began by catching twothirds of a sailfish tripleheader, then three more sails, then two from another tripleheader.
That put Crescendo in first place with nine fish, but three boats also got to nine and if any of them caught a 10th fish, that boat would take the lead.
“We were holding our breath that nobody else would catch another one,” Greenberg said, and five minutes before lines out, at 3:55 p.m., Turner hooked a sailfish and released it at 4:03 to secure the triumph.
“We ended up not needing it, but that was the icing on the cake,” Dana said. “We had a great day and we fished clean. In three days we caught 16 of 19 sailfish.”
Fish of the week
Capt. Mario Cote’ of No Vacansea reported catching skipjack and blackfin tunas in 200-600 feet south and north of Port Everglades Inlet as well as kingfish up to 30 pounds in 180-250 feet using live goggle-eyes and dolphin anywhere from 90-600 feet.
Capt. Alan Zaremba of Hollywood said the warm weather after the cool front had big peacock bass biting Clouser minnow flies and jigs and smaller fish biting hard jerkbaits and topwater plugs in urban canals.
Don and Janet Toller of Billings, Mont., caught 22 peacocks up to 5.5 pounds fly fishing in the C-4 Canal by Miami International Airport. Howard Kalka of Long Island, N.Y., caught 28 peacocks up to 7.5 pounds, including five other fish 5 pounds and bigger, in the C-100 in Kendall. And Lance
Benson of Miami and his father, Jerry, of Hollywood, caught 12 peacocks up to 6.5 pounds in a half-day trip in the C-4.
Fishing near his house in Coral Springs, 11-year-old
Jake Heimovics caught a peacock bass estimated at 24 inches long.