Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

The Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce will again host the 3rd Annual Frances Langford Memorial Fishing Tournament to be held May 1^st – 3rd, 2008. This event will award over $65,000.00 in cash and prizes. The tournament site will again be located at Four Fish Marina in Jensen Beach, Florida. This tournament and associated events is a community-wide tribute, honoring a special woman, who loved her community and her fishing. Frances Langford loved Rio and Jensen Beach and generously blessed the community in many ways before her passing. The Chambers establishment of this tournament in 2006 assures that her memory, her love for the community and her passion for fishing is forever celebrated. 

The fishing tournament, which will include both offshore and inshore division’s will be the center piece of a festival of events that will be a tribute to good old fashion family fun and values which Frances believed in. Plenty of food, drinks and activities for the whole family are featured at the tournament site. 

The offshore tournament will include cash and prize award categories for the Largest Kingfish, the Largest Dolphin and the Largest Wahoo and a bottom fish cash prize as well, going to the lucky angler that weighs the highest aggregate weight for Grouper, Red Snapper and Cobia. 

The inshore tournament participants can fish from a boat or from the shore and will include cash and prize awards for the Largest Snook, the Largest Redfish and the Largest Trout. Both the offshore and inshore tournaments will award the top Lady Angler, Top Junior, and Top Senior Anglers for their efforts and the Frances Langford Perpetual Trophy will be presented to a team or angler that is selected by the tournament committee for their accomplishments during the tournament. 

Entry forms can be obtained  from the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce, from the Snook-Nook Bait and Tackle in Jensen Beach, Four Fish Marina, Sundance Marine or visit our web site at www.langfordska.com. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. Additional information and the schedule of events can be found on the website as well. 

This event is sanctioned by the Southern Kingfish Association and once again is host to the second of five tournaments in the SKA’s Pro Division. As a member of the SKA, you can compete for points in the Kingfish category of this tournament that may qualify you and your crew to attend the National Competition in Biloxi, MS in November, 2008. But you do not have to be a member of the SKA to fish this event.  Local fishermen are encouraged to join the organization, but they can still fish the event and take home any of the prizes given away. SKA representatives will be at the tournament site during the event to answer any questions or accept new members. You can also visit the SKA website at www.fishska.com. 

Spectators are also encouraged to attend the event. The Captains meeting on Thursday night hosted at Four Fish Marina offer’s great food, drinks and local entertainment. The tournament conducts a raffle during the Captains Meeting with lots of great prizes to be given away. The weigh in activities, Friday from 2 – 5 pm and Saturday from Noon – 5 pm are a great time for local residents to come out and watch the fishermen as they bring the fish they caught to the dock to be weighed. There is plenty of free parking at the Marina for the event and Four Fish Marina has slips available for anyone wishing to dock there boat during the event, with free boat trailer parking for all fishermen registered in the tournament. The awards ceremony is immediately following the Saturday weigh –in.

The Indian River and Saint Lucie River are home to several great hotspots for fish.  Some of the most obvious of those are the various bridges throughout the county.  The county has a good mix of older, lower to the water bridges and a few very new bridges.  Both old and new bridges are good sanctuaries for fish for several reasons, all of them seem to have their own little ecosystem in place from barnacles to bait fish on up to bigger toothy predators. 

First, the older bridges are favorites of many fishermen.  Not necessarily because we have a lot of older fishermen either (hope I don’t take a beating for that one).  The older bridges are typically lower to the water and have more support structures.  The bridges being lower to the water has a bigger causes the bridge to effect the lighting in the water more so than the newer bridges.  During the day, the lower bridges cast a darker shadow into the water, giving the predators a place to lie in ambush of the bait fish.  At night, my personal time to go after the snook, the lower bridges have more of a pronounced shadow line than the newer bridges because if the bridge is lower, the lights on the bridge are also lower to the water.

The Palm City bridge is an older bridge but it’s elevated off the water to allow boat traffic without a draw bridge.  One of the best bridges is the old Roosevelt bridge.  This is a very popular spot for several reasons, first is the fact that this is an old style draw bridge, so it sits pretty low to the water.  Second, there is the railroad bridge just a short distance away, providing even more fish habitat.  Third, part of the old Roosevelt bridge is submerged  leaving even more underwater habitat to create a perfect ground for sport fish.  A few hundred yards up river is the new Roosevelt bridge, a tall bridge with a catwalk underneath for bridge fishermen.

The newer bridges like the Roosevelt or the Sewall’s Point bridges are different than the older bridges in that they are much higher than the older bridges and allow for more boat traffic.  The downside is that the bridge lights are much further from the surface, but they still cast a defined shadow line.  One thing these bridges have going for them is their large base platforms at the water level.  These are very wide and can manipulate the flow of the current, causing eddies where bait fish will congregate.  Some of the better spots to fish these bridges are near the shadow line on the back side of the current.  You can also get strikes from snook near some of the lighting that is down lower, like the lights near the end of the channel.  There always seems to be several snook hanging out there to see what snack the current will bring.

If you’ve been around the coast for long, you’ve undoubtedly seen a lot of docks with lights hanging under the dock to illuminate the water.  Many docks have green light eminating from underneath in an effort to attract bait fish and ultimately predators, like snook.  A company out of Tampa Bay, Florida has taken this a step further and made undersea illumination.  These lights are actually submerged in the water off of your dock, marina, harbor, canal or seawall.  What’s the difference does it make if the light is beneath the surface?  True illumination.  You won’t have the water reflecting the light back to you.  You will be able to see fish the silhouette of all the fish swimming over the lights.  Not only can you just look down and see when a big snook is sitting waiting for a nice shrimp to be dropped on his head, but it makes for a nice view as well.  Turning your dock or marina into your own personal aquarium.  Check out this video of the lights at work: