posted by admin on Mar 22
Key West Fishing Tournament
The Key West Fishing Tournament runs from March to November every year, and any one can enter. It’s open to the general public and there are weigh stations throughout the area. You can register your fish at no charge, and locals as well as visitors can enter the Key West Fishing Tournament. Every fish that’s officially entered will earn the angler a certificate. Every registered catch also makes the angler eligible for prizes, too.
The Key West Fishing Tournament works like this: you catch your fish either in front of a witness or have it weighed and registered at an official weigh station. With catch and release species like tarpon, bonefish, permit, sailfish, and marlin, the leader must be touched by the angler.
The rules of the Key West Fishing Tournament state that any marlin, sailfish, spearfish or tarpon that’s killed will not be recognized by the tournament. This is to discourage killing of these species, which are not good to eat anyway. Rules of the Key West Fishing Tournament also dictate that a catch must be either “angler assisted” or “angler unassisted”. That means for angler unassisted catches, nobody else can touch the rod, the reel or the line or help the angler in any way. For assisted catches, just one other person may set the hook for the main angler, but the rod and reel have to be passed immediately to that angler.
The Key West Fishing Tournament has a pee wee division, which is kids under 10 years old. Next is the Junior division, for ages 10 to 14. The other two categories are Men’s and Women’s. Each category has its set of prizes, including heaviest fish in a species. There are prizes for most catches and largest catches of more than 40 species of Key West fish. These species have prizes for “Most Releases”: bonefish, permit, sailfish, tarpon, barracuda, blue marlin and dolphin.
The Key West Fish Tournament is partially sponsored by the Monroe County Tourism Development Council. Kickoff is usually in mid-March. The tournament ends November 30 each year.
