Florida Keys and Key West Fishing Charters and Guide Service specializing in Tarpon, Permit, Bonefish, Redfish, Snook and Sharks on the Backcountry Flats and Inshore waters of Islamorada and Key West


Little Palm Island Grand Slam
2000-10-02 - The first event in the Redbone Series - August 23-24, 2000
Fall means tournaments and the highlight of the tournament season is the fantastic Redbone Series. Not only have these tournaments become extremely high profile and competitive, but the Redbone series is also highly successful in accomplishing the real goal of the series. We all fish this series to help fight for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis and Gary, Susan and Nicole Ellis have raised more than 1.5 million dollars for the cause simply from Redbone events. It makes me proud to be associated with such a fine group of organizers. Hopefully, one day soon, the Redbone series will be an event where we all gather to celebrate the discovery of a cure for this disease.

The first event in the series is the Little Palm Island Tournament held at Little Palm Island in the Lower Florida Keys. The tournament follows a “Grand Slam” format in which anglers attempt to catch a permit, tarpon and bonefish during the weekend. (See Tournament Rules for the complete rules) Anglers are encouraged to attempt the Slam rather than simply trying to catch all the fish they can. Briefly, I will explain the rules. Anyone with all 3 species beats any number of two species and two species beats any number of one specie. For example, if I catch 10 bonefish on fly and you catch 1 bonefish and 1 tarpon on bait, you win because you have two species even though my point total is markedly higher. Anyone who catches a permit, bonefish and tarpon (all 3 species of the slam) beats you regardless of points. If two anglers catch all 3 species, points then determine the winner.

On the first day of competition, our team looked very good early. My anglers were Bill Partridge and Andy Yaffa of Miami. I planned a long run to the permit grounds but was forced to change my plan due to the weather. We caught a permit at 8:30 am with a much shorter run than I had first anticipated. I then turned to pursue another specie. By 9:30 am we had a tarpon on fly and only needed a bonefish to complete the Slam. With difficult weather conditions, we were unable to hook any of the bonefish that we saw that day and returned to the dock with 2 species. I thought that we would be among the leaders of the tournament on the first day. My forecast was accurate but what I had not counted on was the unbelievable performance of the team of Adolphus and Anne Busch with Guide Tim Hoover. Returning to the dock with 1 permit, 7 tarpon and 3 bonefish they led the tournament with what seemed an insurmountable amount of points. Captain Rusty Albury also returned with 1 slam.

The next day, I knew that we had our work cut out for us but my plan was to try to finish out the first slam and get another one that day. I had high hopes because I had the permit and tarpon nailed down to pinpoint accuracy. The bonefishing had been very good for me prior to the tournament and I was finding adequate numbers to get what we needed. Today, we only needed 2 bonefish, 1 permit and 1 tarpon. If we were able to come in with 2 Slams I thought that we might stand a chance of winning the tournament. Regardless, the amount of fish that we needed was staggering and intimidating.
I ran to my first spot and we began poling. I spotted a fish and Andy made a great cast to it and caught it. Shortly thereafter, Andy came through for us again with another clutch move and caught another bonefish. At this point, I knew we were still in this tournament.

As I poled the rest of the spot I told Andy and Bill that we should go permit fishing as soon as we reached the channel. We all agreed and left the bonefish for a 45-minute run to better permit water. The flat that we chose was a good permit spot and it proved itself with a tailing permit within 30 minutes of poling. Once again, Andy scored a huge fish for us and we now only needed 1 tarpon to complete 2 slams for Andy.

I was extremely confident in my tarpon fishing and I knew that we could find enough fish to finish this double slam. We ran a long way back into the tarpon area but still had plenty of time to spend tarpon fishing. As luck would have it, the weather from the Hurricane Debby caught up to us and spoiled a few tarpon spots but I still managed to find some fish that were interested in feeding. Andy hooked up quickly and had a fish on for a few minutes. Standing with the net ready, I made the mistake of thinking how easy this was and how great it feels when a plan comes together. Almost at the same instant that I thought we had the double slam in the bag, the tarpon simply came off. We were all devastated as we watched the line go limp. I retied the leader and we set up again. I would have never have guessed in my wildest dreams that when the 3:00 alarm rang signaling the end of fishing we would have watched 4 more tarpon fall off with 2 coming extremely close to the net. Our team was great and there was not one single thing that we could have done differently. The fish just came off and that is the nature of tarpon fishing. Discouraged we returned to the dock to see how the others made out.

As it happened, most everyone had had a tough day. Had we of caught only one of the tarpon we would have taken first place, but I am sure that there were some other boats saying the same thing. As I become more experienced with tournament fishing, I realize that bad luck does happen even to great anglers and teams. Fish are lost and bad things happen. In a tournament where the competition is as tough as it is in the Redbone series, winning means that there are not only no mistakes but also that there is no bad luck. Winning is a team effort and even if your team is the best at the tournament, things still have to go your way.

We ended up in second place overall and won the spin/plug division. Capt Tim Hoover and Adolphus Busch won the tournament by turning in a very impressive score card. Capt. Doug Kilpatrick and Dan Root won the Fly division while Capt. Rusty Albury's team won the Team division with another highly impressive performance.

Congratulations to all competitors and thank you for supporting such a great cause. The rest of the series proves to be the best ever. See you there!

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