Hasty hooks and a squirmy snook

PALMETTO - One angler at the DeSoto Fishing Tournament sprung to the water for a snook, another steered away from an oncoming cruiser, and others cranked in sailfish, swordfish and wahoo.

But in the end, during Sunday's weigh-ins, spectators at the Bradenton Yacht Club marveled at a 149-pound Warsaw grouper caught by the winning offshore team captained by Tommy Butler.

The rest of the team was comprised of Mike Watts - who reeled in the Warsaw grouper - Christian Hawk, Tom Treworgy and Tom "Fitz" Fitzwater. They won $5,000.

The tournament, hosted by the Hernando de Soto Historical Society, lured over 300 people and 88 boats (48 inshore, 10 junior, 15 nearshore and 15 offshore).

And just what did it take for Butler's team to reel the beast some 500 feet from the bottom of the Gulf?

"It's a prehistoric mammoth," Butler said. "It takes an array of different techniques to catch the fish."

One is patience. Butler's team left at midnight Saturday and reached its first fishing spot by 8 a.m. Although the bite was slow, Butler remained in the general region of 120 miles offshore and between 480-560 feet of water.

"It was so slow, we almost gave up (on the area)," Butler said.

With flat, calm seas Saturday afternoon, Watts dropped a five-pound speckled hind to the bottom and hooked the Warsaw grouper, only to havethe grouper spit the bait out halfway to the boat.

About two minutes later, Watts dropped a frozen chub mackerel.

"(The fish) was still so (mad), we had him hooked right away," Butler said.

Gripping a 1180HX Shakespeare rod with 100-pound Momoi Eye Catch line and 200-pound fluorocarbon leader, Watts eventually brought the

Warsaw grouper to the boat.

The tournament's midday glow from the grouper eventually gave way to controversy and passionate arguments. "Signs Zoo" won the junior division but could be named the inshore division winner.

"Signs Zoo" scored 273 points - seven more than the inshore division winner. After the tournament, "Signs Zoo" and the tournament committee had different interpretations of part of a junior division rule.

Based on the results of a committee review of the rule, "Signs Zoo" will be either the inshore or junior division champion.

But before the controversy, there was 16-year-old Billy Alstrom diving into the water of a canal to spook a snook away from a piling.

Ryan Shannon, 17, said he hooked the snook on a live greenback near the mouth of the Manatee River. Once it darted under a boat and wrapped the 65-pound PowerPro around a piling, Alstrom leaped in.

It was so murky, he could not see.

"The snook hit me in my stomach," Alstrom said. "As soon as I grabbed it by the tail, he freed himself from the piling. It went back to the boat, and I swam after it."

How's that for gung-ho?

The snook went under the motor, but Alstrom grabbed its lip and stomach and Ric Ross had the net waiting.

It was a 42-inch linesider.

A 39-inch linesider that hit a live threadfin led "Island Rats," with members Capt. Jason Armstrong, Rusty Price, Colby Gregory, Will Bouziane and Brad Jones, to a tentative inshore title ($5,000).

"Anger Management" won the nearshore division with a highlight seven-foot sailfish that bit on a pinfish under a balloon and was worth 125 points. Members Capt. Carson Westfall, Bryan Zoller, Jerry Zoller and Trevor Christian, all from Bradenton, pocketed $5,000.