{"id":74580,"date":"2025-07-19T05:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T05:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74580\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T05:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T05:26:16","slug":"greater-jacksonville-kingfish-tournament-45-years-of-tradition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/74580\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament: 45 Years of Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 For the 45th year, the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament has taken over the local waterways, with more than 300 boats from across the East Coast casting off in pursuit of the big catch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just putting a focus on the Kingfish and getting back to the roots,\u201d Tournament chairman Chris Ebreo said. \u201dNo boundaries this year on the GT. They can go as far as they want as long as they\u2019re here by 5:30 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Past winners have brought in Kingfish in the 40 to 50-pound range\u2014and this year\u2019s anglers hoped for the same, with one major prize on the line: a brand new $230,000 fishing boat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the originals,\u201d Ebreo said. \u201dWhen we started there weren\u2019t many tournaments at all and now they\u2019re up and down the East Coast. Every inlet you have there\u2019s probably a local tournament, but this is one of the originals so I think that name holds weight for people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some competitors, like Wayne DeCosta and his crew on the Frizzy Lizzy, chose to stay close to shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after a barracuda, we caught that,\u201d DeCosta said. \u201dI was honestly thinking 30s. I wouldn\u2019t think a 40-pound fish, but you know, I got him on the boat and put him in the bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, like James Drysdale and Daniel Samurin on the Anuket, spent hours chasing schools of fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe caught it about midday,\u201d Samurin said. \u201cWe were on a good school of fish. We caught four and threw back a couple so it was a good day. We tried to keep all the big ones and release all the small ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was a good fish, but it doesn\u2019t matter until it gets in the boat,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cOnce it got in the boat we knew it was a serious fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just about the competition\u2014it\u2019s also a family tradition. Like University Christian head football coach David Penland III, who brought his son along for the ride.,<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always fun to get out,\u201d Penland said. \u201dIt\u2019s just his second year getting to do this, so it\u2019s a good time. It\u2019s hot, long days so it\u2019s always fun to get out and enjoy the outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when the scales close, the spirit of the tournament continues. All non-winning catches are donated to Safe Harbour Seafood\u2014feeding families and supporting the local community. A celebration of competition, community, and conservation\u2014the Kingfish Tournament shows why, after 45 years, it\u2019s still a catch.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 For the 45th year, the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament has taken over the local waterways,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,19302,3188,723,51786,7310,51788,51789,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-74580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fishing","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-greater-jacksonville-kingfish-tournament","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-kingfish","15":"tag-sisters-creek-marina","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114878243379471999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}