Collins prevails with patience
He takes Sailfish Smack Down with early, late catches
Losing a sailfish close to the boat is one of the worst things that can happen to a tournament angler, but Austin Collins didn’t lose hope.
It took 24 hours for Collins, who remained patient and positive, to get another chance and he made the most of it, catching a sailfish Sunday afternoon to win the Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament Sailfish Smack Down out of Pompano Beach.
“Itwas exciting and terrifying,” said Collins of having the winning sailfish on the line, “especially after what happened to me on Day1.”
Collins, of Delray Beach, was the first of the 87 kayak anglers from throughout the United States, Canada and South Africa to catch and release a sailfish Saturday.
That put him in the driver’s seat because, unlike traditional sailfish tournaments where the tie goes to the boat that caught its last fish first, the tie in the Down went to the person who caught his or her first fish the earliest.
Collins released that sailfish at 9:07 a.m. He had launched his Hobie Mirage Pro Angler kayak south of Pompano Pier. Slow-trolling north with live goggle eyes behind his kayak on the surface, one on a short line and one on a longer line, he hooked the fish in 140 feet just north of Hillsboro Inlet.
“The second I turned around hewas already airborne,” said Collins of the fish, which ate both of his baits. “Itwas a little hectic. I had to risk cutting one line so I could fight it on one rod.”
Collins went with the stronger of his two hooksets and the fish towed him and his kayak out to sea.
“He took me pretty deep. I don’t think I landed him until 280 feet,” Collins said. “The fight was probably about15 minutes. Itwas a medium-size sail, so it didn’t whup me too bad.”
Anglers had to report all sailfish hook-ups and releases on a VHF radio, so Collins knew he had the first sailfish of the tournament. The second sailfish was released 28 minutes later.
Rob Rodriguez of South Florida Kayak Guide, which runs fishing and diving kayak trips, released the next sail at 11:01, followed by Brian Nelli at 11:14. Two other anglers released sails at 12:40 and1:25 p.m.
As the 3 p.m. lines out approached, Collins hooked a second sailfish at 2:45 in 80 feet off Hillsboro Inlet. He got the fish to his kayak and reached for the leader to make the catch official, but he missed and the sail got away.
“It came off the hook right next to the kayak,” Collins said. “The leader was a foot frommy fingertips for that fish to count. “Itwas a heartbreaker.” Fishing was slow Sunday, then things got crazy, with seven sailfish releases in the final two hours of the tournament.
Pam Wirth got two of them, at 1:09 and1:45, to take the lead. Then Nelli took the lead with his second sailfish of the tournament at 2:13.
Suddenly in third place, Collins didn’t panic and he didn’t go north to get in on the bite. Instead, the former Florida Atlantic University golfer, who works with Rodriguez when he’s not working in the bag roomat Seagate Country Club in Delray Beach, figured the sailfish would swim south toward him.
Hewas right, getting a bite at 2:40 p.m. on a goggle-eye on the short line in 154 feet.
“I had to trust that the fish were moving south. It reassured everything that I was hoping for,” Collins said.
The fish took Collins out to 390 feet and he released it at 3:04 – “The first chance I had at the leader I was able to do it”— then hurriedly paddled his kayak back to the beach to make the 4:30 p.m. check-in deadline.
For the victory, Collins won $3,000 and a Global sailfish mount, which he said will go on awall inside his new house. Nelliwon $1,000 for second. Wirth won $500 for third and the women’s division, which earned her free entry into EKFT’s Summer Slam series. Brandon Meltzer won the Railblaza Kingfish Calcutta and $4,600 for an 11.8-pound king.