Team Tuppens wins SKA Division 10 Downtown Showdown
With the help of their trusty Garmin marine electronics, Team Tuppens solidified their spot near the top of the SKA Division 10 standings by winning the 2016 Downtown Showdown KDW that took place May 21st.
After not being able to pre-fish as planned, Capt. Steve Sprague and crew were uncertain about how the tournament would go. They knew the fishing would be slow on tournament day because of the full moon the previous night, but they set out of Sailfish Marina Saturday at 6 a.m. with a game plan in place.
“We ran our Jupiter 38 HFS straight to our favorite spot between Juno and Jupiter,” said Sprague. “As soon as we got there, we began marking fish on our Garmin GPSMAP 7616xsv. We dropped our lines in at 7 and had a fish on by 7:20.
“We have been losing a lot of nice fish to the sharks lately, so we decided to change our strategy a bit. We would fight the fish from the front of the boat and chase after the fish while reeling in as fast as we could. Jason Phillips was on the rod, Billy Brodbeck was on the gaff, and Christopher Sprague and James Gilchrist were busy keeping all lines cleared, while I was on the wheel. We reeled in the fish closer to the boat as fast as possible, Billy reached out with the gaff as far as he could and a nice Kingfish was in the boat. Needless to say, we were a very happy fishing team!”
After a few high fives, Team Tuppens got back to work, hoping they could upgrade. “We continued to mark fish below us on our Garmin units, but we just couldn’t get them to bite. Finally after several hours passed, we were able to put a second Kingfish in the boat. Throughout the day we could see other boats hooked up nearby, but we also saw the sharks move in and claim their fish!
“As the day went on, I spoke to several of my friends on the radio and felt confident that we would be towards the top of the leaderboard in the Kingfish category. Even though we lost a couple of nice fish to the sharks, our total catch for the day was two Kingfish and two Bonito.”
Sprague entrusts his dual Garmin GPSMAP 7616xsv chartplotters and BlueChart g2 Vision HD mapping to accurately find and navigate to his best fishing spots. From there, he relies on his powerful and highly detailed CHIRP sonar to find the fish he’s after. “The Garmin BlueChart g2 Vision HD mapping shows us contours and drop offs in great detail to help us find fish-holding structure. We just keep working the boat around these structures and that is how we find the fish.”
At the end of the day, Team Tuppens ended up finishing 1st in the SKA Kingfish division, 1st place SKA Jr. Angler, and 1st place Sr. Angler.
For claiming the top spot in the Jr. Angler division, Christopher Sprague received a $500 check, two very nice trophies to add to his collection and a cozy Ocean-Tamer beanbag!
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