Photos courtesy Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament
What does it take to catch a bit of Florida kayak fishing history? Stamina for starters.
John McKroid, of Fort Lauderdale, put in an epic effort to catch his Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament Summer Slam Part 2 winning 71.9-pound kayak wahoo, an astounding fish. The circumstances of the catch are themselves remarkable. He told the tale at the Florida Sportsman No Motor Zone online forum.
John has been fishing his Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14 since 2014. He’s an Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament regular, but had never won – although he’d come close. As the eve of the tournament approached, John had been off the water for a month. His gear needed work. His fishfinder was failing, his downrigger clutch was wonky, and his steering lever was stripped. Instead of turning in early for a restful night, he spent the evening repairing gear and had less than an hour of sleep. He was up early, in time for a 4:45 am launch in a failed attempt to catch bait to supplement the tank-load he’d ordered. You go all-out if you want to win an Extreme Kayak Fishing contest.
Once the tournament kicked off, his poor luck continued. “I spent almost as much time focusing on repairing my gear as I did fishing,” he says. As the hours until the weigh-in counted down, he had nothing to show for his efforts. Finally, at 11:20 am, his perseverance paid off when a solid 23-pound kingfish smacked the bait he was soaking on his deep outfit.
“The king was a good entry, but I would need one more qualifying fish if I wanted a shot of being on the stage. I continued my routine fishing mode of slow trolling one live bait on the surface, and one down deep, while casting ahead working a vertical jig through the water column,” John recalls.
He removed the wire from his surface rig in the hopes of fooling a blackfin tuna, and not too long after hooked an 8.2-pounder on the sink using a jig. He had two fish but 29.8 pounds, but lacked the kicker. He was running short of time, but wasn’t ready to call it a day. He was hot, and short on water. It would have been easy to call it a day. Instead he’d make Florida kayak fishing history.
He was marking fish chasing his jig on the sonar he’d spent the night repairing, but they wouldn’t commit. John decided he’d spend the last of his time circling in the area. Twenty minutes later his deep bait outfit bent hard. The drag was singing as half the spool vanished from his Avet LX reel loaded with 40-pound mono.
“My heart leaped with adrenaline, but I stayed calm as big sharks often mimic a good fish by taking a strong run out to sea,” he says. He pedaled hard, chasing the fish to regain line. He went deep, from 240 feet to 340. The fish was heavy. He didn’t feel any head shakes, causing him to wonder if he was reeling in a shark, but then he remembered a big wahoo he’d once reeled in. That fish had been heavy enough to feel like he’d snagged the bottom. There was a flicker of hope.
When the fish hit the 60 feet mark, deep color, he spied the telltale stripes of a wahoo and started feeling emotional. The fish made the landing easy, conking out, swimming to the surface, and rolling over upside down. John hit the easy gaff shot, euphoric. He’d never seen a larger wahoo.
It was too early to celebrate. He had only 50 minutes to make the long pedal back to the beach, and by this time, he was battling heat stroke. His right leg locked in a painful cramp. He pedaled for a while using his hands. Fortunately, the cramp eased and he made it to the weigh in just in time.
His wahoo weighed an astounding 71.9 pounds, the largest in Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament history. With his blackfin and kingfish added to the total, he was the first to top 100 pounds (101.7), winning Summer Slam Series Part 2 by more 40 pounds. He earned $5,000 for the win, another $1,400 for the kingfish Calcutta, and topped it off by winning another $500 for the Wahoo Division, for a total of $6,900.
“Not bad for a kayak!” he says.
Full standings Extreme Kayak Fishing Tournament Summer Slam Part 2
