Everglades City
by Jill Whitcomb
The 7th Annual Hook’em in the Glades fishing fundraiser tournament presented by the Everglades Lions Club was a huge success!
This year’s Captain’s meeting was held at Gator Hole and check-in was at Everglades Fishing Company, here in Everglades City on November 8-9th with approximately 195 anglers fishing while many more attended the Captain’s meeting and Angler Check-in! Friday’s Captains meeting was packed full of excitement with Country Singer Raiford Starke and our Annual Mullet Toss! This year’s Mullet Toss in the Glades champion for the second year in a row was Damian Stokes with 49 points! Fourth grade student Nathan Fernandez came in second missing the victory by only one point with 48!
We had over 200 people attending to support Hook’em in the Glades and the students of Everglades City School! The winds were tough, but the tides were right in the morning to catch some great fish! We had 49 adult Team Boat Captains, 4 Jr. Angler Team Boat Captains with 6 additional crew members, 5 Kayakers, 15 Pee Wee (toddler-2nd grade) On-Shore anglers and 25 On-Shore junior anglers (3rd – 12th grade)!
The Junior Angler Team Boat Division was a real shootout! Last year’s champion, Landon Lenz lost his motor a couple weeks before the tournament but was able to get a new one right before launch time hoping to defend his title. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for him and his sister Ava Lenz. Coming out strong and winning the trophy were Miranda O’Connell, Jayde Freeman, and Zoe Wells with a total of 37 inches by landing a 24” snook and a 13” trout!
Our Junior Angler Pee Wee On-Shore champ goes to Zander Medina with 142 total points! Zander landed a 21” snook and several snapper! Junior On-Shore (3rd -12th grade) champ went to last year’s second place winner, Maddy Thoner with a total of 173 total points! Maddy worked hard all day landing a 14” snook, several snappers and jacks!
The junior anglers fishing on adult team boats were also in a heated competition for the longest snook, redfish, and seatrout as individuals! The Mayberry family dominated the tournament with Rylee Mayberry winning longest Redfish at 29”! Jalen Mayberry won the longest snook with a 25” snook! And the longest seatrout was won by PreK student Marshall Daniels with an 18” Seatrout! Marshall also came in second for longest snook with a 30” snook!
For the first time in tournament history we have a junior angler who has won each of the targeted species, Snook, Redfish, and Seatrout throughout her years fishing with us! Freshman Rylee Mayberry is our first junior angler trophy slam winner! An outstanding accomplishment by a great junior angler!
This day was definitely a Mayberry day because Rylee’s father, Robbie Mayberry partnered with his daughter to bring home the Adult Team Boat trophy with 82 total inches of which were all caught by Rylee!
This year we added 3 more trophy opportunities for the adult division which were the Longest Snook, Longest Redfish, and Longest Seatrout! The Longest Snook went to Robbie Mayberry with a 33” snook! The Longest Redfish was won by Richard Drew with a 25” redfish. The longest seatrout was won by a young man who fished the very first Hook’em in the Glades 7 years ago as a junior angler, Austin Finger with a seatrout measuring 21”!
The Kayak division trophy went to first time winner but long time participant, Joe Henary with 69 total inches! Joe had to work the wind and really work hard out there in the kayak!
This year we had 2 teachers from Everglades City School, Ms. Kozlowski and Mrs. Wellumson that volunteered to supervise students who didn’t have an adult available to fish with them! They had 7 junior On-Shore anglers that had never fished before! Mr. Whitcomb, middle school math teacher, Ms. Becky Tich, and student Jaxon Grimm met them at the river and they taught the kids how to cast a rod, bait their hooks, take fish off hooks, and measure their fish! There were several other families that joined them at the mouth of the Barron River to have a great day of fishing! The laughter and excitement at catching their first fish ever was priceless! One mom who joined them for her first time fishing with her son was overheard saying, “This is so fun! We are going to bring your sister next year!” Then I overheard her talking to her son as they were loading up their stuff and she said, “Maybe you can get a fishing pole for Christmas?” He said, YES! Little 1st grader Karen had never touched a fishing pole. Within an hour she was casting a spinning rod like a champ! By the end of the day, she even baited her own hook! Her middle school brother was there learning right along with her! The Smolinsky brothers, Ayden & Jaxsen both caught their first black drum ever! Ayden lost his at the dock, but Jaxsen landed his 21” drum! We had junior anglers on the river bank jumping tarpon, getting broken off by sharks, and landing their first fishes ever!
The fish stories told when they returned to the check in at Everglades Fishing Company were many and grand!
The best part of the event is the students and programs that will benefit from the fundraising tournament! The tournament was started in 2017 only to be delayed by Hurricane Irma! But we were able to hold our first ever Hook’em in the Glades in March of 2018! The tournament was created to help the Everglades City School athletic department pay for expenses. With the tournament’s success, we were able to again offer a one-time fee of $25 for a student All Sports Pass. We have purchased a digital scorers table, new padded chairs, championship banners in our gym, pitching machines for our teams, equipment, and more! With our raffle each year, we donate all the money to the student groups that help at the tournament! We are so blessed to have everyone continuing to support this great event! What started out as a fundraiser tournament has turned into a community and family event that has help us bring families together, introduce fishing to kids, partner community members and organizations with our school, and brings smiles to everyone around!
Thank you to the Everglades City Lions Club and everyone who fished, sponsored, volunteered, purchased shirts, and attended any part of the event! We couldn’t have had this successful event without all of you!
This year’s winners are:
Special thanks to our sponsors this year! Without their support Hook’em in the Glades would not be possible!
Tournament Sponsors:
Snook Sponsors
Redfish Sponsors
Trophy Sponsors
Special Thank You to our law enforcement officers who served as judges:
