JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The last bite of the day turned into the biggest of Donnie Sikorski’s life.
The captain of the Team Marine Specialties boat out of Ormond Beach, nabbed a 52.72-pound winner to take the top spot in the 46th annual Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament on Friday afternoon.
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The top prize — a Contender 28T, Twin 200 HP Yamaha Outboards, an Ameratrail Trailer and a custom T-Top by CT Customs — has a value of $240,000.
“We knew we had a couple nice fish for an aggregate, couple in the 30s, nothing real big,” Sikorski said.
The crew threw some lines in the water here and there after pulling in some solid kings, including a catch of 34.56 pounds that would have topped the leaderboard at one point in the day. They kept on and finally capitalized when the big one hit. Sikorski said it wasn’t the biggest king mackerel he’s ever caught — that one comes in at more than 54 pounds — but this one proved the most lucrative one. The team had placed in the top 10 at the Greater Jacksonville event before but never came close to winning it all.
“We just stuck it out, hit a few spots, just bounced around and got lucky,” Sikorski said. “Got the right bite at the right time right here at the end of the day and we just took it on in to Mayport.”
Sikorski’s two-fish aggregate was 87.28 pounds.
The record catch of 57.75 pounds, set by the Ponte Vedra-based Posse in 2023, still stands as the tournament’s best. Sikorski’s king was the only one of the 159 weighed to top 50 pounds this year. Jessie Ladson pulled in the runner-up catch of 45.8 pounds, coming to the scales later in the day to edge Ponte Vedra’s Geoff Stam (44.49) for the No. 2 spot and $10,000 prize. Stam got $4,000 for his catch.
Jessie Ladson’s aggregate of 70.61 topped that category and earned a $16,500 payout. Victoria Hilliard won the lady angler division at 34.96.
Anglers weighed 3,631 pounds of kingfish on Friday. The redfish tournament Saturday morning wraps up the competitive fishing for the Greater Jacksonville tournament week. The awards ceremony begins at 6 p.m.