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15^th Annual LTHU- Rancho Leonero Spring Tournament

By Bob Blum

      Once again we were blessed with perfect weather. Fishing was a little slow, but everyone caught something and had fish to take home. Interestingly, none of the five people on the teams that finished 1^st and 2^nd had ever caught a billfish, but between them they caught ten sailfish and marlin.

      We had a new sponsor this year, the Sportfishing Association of California  (SAC). Their rep, Michelle Gandola who is in charge of marketing and public relations, came and brought beautiful 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place trophies.  In addition, SAC and Frank LoPreste donated a 5 day trip on the Royal Polaris.

      The tournament is a three day affair where a teams best two days scores count towards the total score.  After the first day team Whiskey Tango composed of Pam Bensimon and her daughter, Sarah, built a small lead. They fished inshore from a super panga and caught a variety of fish—pargo, cabrilla, and pompano plus two quality roosterfish. In addition, Pam caught and released a Pacific jack cravalle that looked like it weighed over 30 lbs.  The woman’s world record on 30 lb. test for Pacific jack cravalle is 26 lbs. 6 oz.  Oh, well!  Lisa Bryant won the first day’s daily jackpot with a 35 lb. dorado that she caught on her pink rod and pink reel.   Yeah, girl power!

     After the second day no team emerged as a clear cut leader although Carlos and Drew of Team No Bananas managed to find a floating engine hatch cover that was sheltering a huge school of dorado and managed to take six dorado out of it. Tom Gruber and Lou Duchene tied for the daily jp with matching 20 lb. dorado

     So, as it always does, it came down to the last day. It looked close until Team Hoff’s Hogs composed of Tony Hoffman and his two sons Zack and Chris came in with flags flying. They caught and released three marlin and kept two dorado weighing 20 and 25 lbs. This total combined with their first day two marlin releases gave them 295 points and first place.  Team Pak Kwik of Mike and Christy Gagliano took second place with 191 points. Perennial winners Team No Bananas of Drew Varos and Carlos Gaudier took third with 178 points. Carlos also won the daily jp with a 41 lb. tuna. 

At the awards banquet Michelle, Pete and John Ireland passed out the trophies and gift certificates. Then, Michelle gave each tournament participant a raffle ticket. The 5 day trip on the RP was won by Mark Waznys of Centerport, NY. Several guys offered to buy Mark’s winning ticket, but he said he is coming to San Diego to take the trip.

     Next year the tournament will be June 9-13. Call Rancho Leonero at 800-646-2252 to make reservations