They didn’t bring in the big fish, but they still took home the big money.
Destin’s Capt. Chase Lake and the crew aboard Team Supreme caught and released six billfish to take top honors and $105,489 in prize money at the Mobile Big Game Fishing Club Gulf Coast Masters Tournament in Alabama over the Memorial Day weekend.
Team Supreme, which set a record last year for most billfish caught and released in one year, 64, is well on its way to moving the bar even higher.
Lake said, with the five blue marlin and one white caught over the Memorial weekend, their catch and release number is at 13, which is a couple more than what they had at this time last year.
On the first day of the Gulf Coast Masters, May 22, Lake and the crew caught two blue marlin and one white marlin fishing about 150 miles out.
Lake said his mom, whose birthday was May 22, had passed away last year.
“So, I thought it was pretty fun,” he said to catch the three fish on her birthday.
“It was one of those things, where we probably shouldn’t have caught that fish, but we caught him anyways … so it was pretty neat,” Lake said.
He estimated one of the blue marlins to be about 400 pounds and the other about 250. Plus, they caught and released a white.
On May 23 they caught and released one blue. Then they finished on May 24 with a pair of blue marlins, weighing about 300 pounds each.
“They were all decent size,” he said.
“There’s a lot of fish showing up,” Lake said.
Team Supreme moved around while fishing for marlin.
“The second day, we caught one, I felt like we messed up. So, I went back to the first area,” Lake said.
Lake recalled the words of Capt. Gary Jarvis, “Don’t leave fish, to find fish.”
“So, we turned around,” he said, and got the two on May 24.
Not only did they win in Catch and Release but earned Top Boat honors with 2,700 points.
Making up the team of Team Supreme are Allen Krake, Allen Krake Jr., Seth Brennan, Alex Krake and Lenny Stevens.
And the team is just getting started.
They will be fishing the Cajun Canyons Billfish Classic, May 29-June 1 out of Venice, Louisiana.
“Cajun Canyon is where it usually starts firing off for a lot of marlins,” Lake said.
“It’s about to be prime time,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Destin Log: Team Supreme reigns supreme in Gulf Coast Masters, catch and releases six billfish
Reporting by Tina Harbuck, The Destin Log / The Destin Log
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
