Sixth Annual Western Sound

Despite some rain on Saturday and breeze on Sunday, more than 25 teams targeted striped bass, bluefish and hardtails in the Western Sound Slam this year. While the albies were present, there were only a couple landed by the field along wtih some trophy bluefish and solid striped bass on both fly and spln gear.

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We were pleased to partner wtih the International Gamefish Association this year, with each team using their world record length rulers, so this year's results were recorded in centimeters, allowing for more exact measuring on a clear and standardized measuring device. Without further ado - here is a recap of this year's winning anglers!

 

Team Champion

 

The structure of the tournament and the focus on targeting all three species (striped bass, bluefish, hardtails) was key this year, and with only a couple albies landed by the field, the teams that found, hooked and boated them this year were in rare company. Team Endorfin out of Fairfield was able to combine their false albacore with 150cm of striped bass and 159cm of bluefish, for a winning total of 373cm. Team Little Fish also landed all three species, with a total of 271cm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fly Division

 

2023 marked the highest fly participation to date, with more than half the teams registering fish on fly and committing a large portion of the weekend to the long-rod.

 

Bluefish were certainly less available this year than they have been the past few, with 2022 realizing some incredibly consistent fishing on large fish. This year, however, only a few anglers were able to land them on fly. Jeff Erdmann caught solid fish totalling 162cm (~64") in some protected water on Sunday to take home the bluefish category.

 

Logan Williams, who fished on team Light Bite grinded it out on the striped bass front, landing an 87cm (~34in) striper on Sunday morning to bring his two fish total to 150cm.

 

Jeff Erdmann also took home first place in the Individual Slam Category, with a bluefish and a striped bass totalling 154cm (~61in). Unfortunately the albies did not present themselves in a fly-targetable fashion this year, so there was no fly hard-tail winner in 2023.

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Spin / Conventional Division

 

The spin side of the tournament was exceptionally competitive, with every team registering fish starting early Saturday right through to the final gun on Sunday.

 

The bluefish division was as close as we have had, with ASMW's Stephen Arcamone taking the title with 169cm, less than a cm ahead of the 2nd place finisher and 3cm ahead of third. Three anglers within approximately 1 inch of each other! Congratulations on a hard fought win.

 

The striped bass category was a little less dramatic, with Matt Quinlan from team Far Right Twix taking home the title. This is the first time that one angler had the two largest striped bass landed in the tournament, with Matt landing a 93cm striper Saturday and following it up with a 90cm fish on Sunday to take home the title by around 27cm (~11 inches)! Congratulations Matt.

 

Two anglers landed a false albacore this year, however Gerry Berrafati of Team Little Fish was able to put a stud 68cm fish in the boat, serving as the tie breaker in terms of size to take home the win in the hardtail category. This fish was landed somewhere I wouldn't expect them to be, but as I had heard from a few people heading into the tournament, the albies had pushed in abnormally tight to shore this year! Nice job finding them and converting!

 

On the individual slam-side, while there were a couple false albacore caught, no angler was able to land all three species on fly or spin this year, so the slam category was limited to those who caught two species. This was another close grouping, with Matt Quinlan taking home first place combining his 93cm striped bass with an 83cm bluefish for a 176cm total. Justin Calimari of team Porgy Picatta came in second, catching an 80cm bluefish and 85cm striped bass to total 165cm. In third place, Stephen Arcamone finished with an 85cm bluefish and 73cm striped bass totaling 158cm. There were another four anglers who finished within 8cm of that figure (just ~3inches)!

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Second Annual Eastern Sound Tournament 

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We did not realize the growth we had hoped for in terms of anglers and participation out East this year, so the tournament was pared down, but a few boats did get out on the water and battled wind and rain for the second straight year. Hopefully heading into 2024 we can expand participation and really take advantage of the incredible fishing the Eastern Sound has to offer!

 

On that note, the fishing was, once again, great. Big striped bass and bluefish coming on Saturday and tons of albies making themselves available in incredible weather on Sunday.

 

All the fish landed this year were on the spin/conventional side. Chase Freiman landing two striped bass totalling 213 cm, including a 115cm (45") striper on a topwater in the weather on Saturday.

 

On the bluefish side, Kyle Freiman, fishing on the same boat as his brother, landed two bluefish totaling 138cm. Kyle also took home the Individual Slam this year, adding a 98cm striped bass to his 80cm bluefish. Nice work Kyle!

 

While the albies did not show themselves much in the Western Sound, they were plentiful on Sunday, especially after the final gun. That said, Sam Stavis landed 9 albies on his own (part of 12 by him and his partner, Clay Andrews), taking home the individual hardtail category this year and setting a tournament record for total albies landed by an individual. Nice work!

 

Adding a few albies to their impressive bluefish and striped bass totals, Kyle and Chase from Team Sea Fox took home the team category this year, with a total of 480cm across 2 bass, 2 blues and 2 albies. 

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