JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is a formula to the fun at the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Junior Angler Tournament; add little kids with big fish and what you will get is bigger smiles.
120 junior anglers weighed fish at Sisters Creek marina on Tuesday for the annual event. Sutton Crawford aboard the "Reef Thief" was the winner with a kingfish of 42.55 pounds. All the fish that were in the top five weighed more than 30 pounds.
But it was not about how big of a fish you caught, or how many. According to 11-year old junior angler Rebekah Fox, it was about having a good time.
"It was kind of like rocky when you were out there but it's a good time," said Fox. "It's definitely worth the waiting. You just wait for it and once the line goes 'zing!' you are so excited and just hoping that it is a good fish."
Fox said that she thought her 6 pound kingfish was going to be bigger when she was reeling it in but was just happy to catch one for the first time.
"We were just waiting and it was kind of right at the beginning so I was just sitting there and everyone just went 'oh my gosh the fish in on' and I was like, finally. Because you are just waiting there like oh, come on when is the fish finally going to come on. I started reeling and it is a fight, it puts up a fight and its exhausting but you have to keep going."
Sutton Crawford may have won the contest for the biggest fish, but the "Money Shot" won the unofficial contest for most junior anglers on board with seven. And the best part about it was that each angler caught a fish.
"It was amazing," said Keadie Altieri. "We had so much fun. We had a huge barracuda today, we had spanish mackrel, we acutally had eight kingfish. The kids played in the live well, had a water gun fight, it was the best day ever. We had a blast."
The official tournament begins Thursday morning and ends Friday afternoon.