Who says fishing is a guy’s sport? This year, the gals proved once again—for the fifth time in the past eight years—that they could meet the ‘Reel’ Challenge and beat the boys at St. Croix’s Golden Hook Fishing Club’s annual Guy/Gal tournament, held September 22 and 23.
It was the Gals’ turn to fish first this year, and catch they did, says Kathy Mackay, who along with Pat Johnson, Jill Fisher and Tara Gitt, made up the team aboard Capt. Bob Mackay’s Leisure Lady. Better named ‘lucky lady’ at this event, Kathy says, “We lucked out. We reeled in our largest fish about two minutes after lines in.”
Fishing the bank to the far east of St. Croix, the women caught another four fish during the day. This gave them five fish total, weighing a collective 153.8-pounds, and enough to win the day.
La Mensagera’s all-girl team caught three fish, weighing a total of 103.6-pounds, to take second place, while Stress Buster’s gals also caught three fish, tipping the scales at 80.2 pounds, to place third for the day. In total, all the girls’ teams together caught a total of 446.0 pounds of fish.
The Guys got their turn the next day.
“(Capt.) Bob (Mackay) knew that since we gals had such a good day, that Leisure Lady was in contention for the overall win, so he took the guys to the same fishing spot,” says Kathy.
Todd Nurnberger, Dennis McCormick, Pat Barsotti, and Bob Mackay fished aboard Leisure Lady for the guys’ day of the tournament and caught two fish that collectively weighed 60.1 pounds. This led Leisure Lady to win 2nd Best Boat, while Miss Becky led as Best Boat with its guys catching four fish weighing 108.2 pounds. Golden Eagle rounded out third place with its anglers catching 1 fish weighing 36.1 pounds. The total weight of fish caught by all the guys was 269.2 pounds.
Combine the two days and it was Leisure Lady’s seven fish weighing 213.9 pounds that placed it Best Boat overall. And, it was the Gals who beat the Guys by a whopping 176.8-pounds.
What’s the secret to the win? “Tara came all the way from Florida to fish the tournament with us,” says Kathy Mackay. “Her brother, who works for and often mates for Galati Yachts, was our mate for the two days and he brought down a whole bag of lures with him. Everyone went ‘wow’ when they saw what he brought.”
What lure or combination or lures did the winning trick?
“I’m not going to tell,” Kathy says with a chuckle.
In other awards, Melinda Moran, fishing from aboard La Mensagera, caught the largest fish – a 47.7-pound wahoo. Erik Rasmussen, angling from Miss Becky, reeled in the second largest – a 43.5-pound wahoo, while Kathy Mackay caught the third largest fish – a 39.4-pound wahoo.
