Record-breaking win for Forssell, Sayler
Steven Forssell and Rodd Sayler capped an impressive bass tournament season with a record-setting victory Sunday.
The anglers became the first team to win the King of the Glades Classic twice in the nine-year history of the open team tournament series.
(Tim Feller, who won last year’s Classic with Scott Crowe, was part of the 2010 Classic-winning team with a different angler.)
In the process, they also became the first regular season points champions to win the Classic.
“To do it in the same year is incredible,” Forssell said. “It means a lot.”
Forssell and Sayler won their second points title — the first team to accomplish that — without winning any of the five qualifier tournaments.
“We were just consistent,” Forssell said.
Twenty teams qualified for the Classic. Forssell, of Margate, and Sayler, of Sunrise, won with five bass weighing a total of 30.54 pounds fishing in the canals along Alligator Alley. They caught two fish on a 15-inch plastic snake, two on a jig and one on a frog. Forssell had the biggest bass of the tournament at 7.88 pounds.
Chad Langley was second with 25.32 pounds, followed by Danny Shelton and Jeff Justice at 22.14 and Noah King at 20.74.
Fish of the week
Joe Kessling experienced the best and worst of a blue marlin catch Saturday. While trolling for dolphin on the way back to Port Everglades Inlet, a 200-pounder whacked both outrigger baits, then ate an orange popper with a ballyhoo on a flat line 15 miles off Hollywood.
Cye Leland fought the blue, his first, and the fifth marlin caught on Kessling’s boat Off Duty, for two hours on a 30-pound Tiagra reel with 50-pound line.
“The marlin towed us,” said Kessling, of Davie. “I had to floor it to chase the fish down. Cye was fighting the fish, then it stopped and came up dead. It was the happiest day for him but a very sad day for me. I don’t kill billfish. I wanted to cry.”
Kessling contacted fish and wildlife officials to see if he could at least donate the dead marlin, which was below the legal size limit, to a homeless shelter to feed its residents, but he was told he had to release the blue.
Kit Mobley caught and released his first blue marlin over the weekend trolling for dolphin 20 miles out of Hillsboro Inlet. The marlin ate a blue Chugger lure.
Glen and Donovan Dusablon caught a 9.08-pound snakehead Saturday to win the JD’s Custom Baits Snakehead Round Up out of Margate. They earned $500. Scott and Keith Floyd were second in the 27-team field at 7.98 to win $300. Austin Ayers and Ryan Goldman were third at 7.3, followed by JP St. Clair and Ryan Everson at 6.94 and Mike Perez and Aaron Cove at 6.92.
Capt. Alan Zaremba guided David Castlen of Palm Beach and his 7-year-old grandson Jaden to 55 largemouth bass and a bunch of panfish using PopRs and jerkbaits on a morning trip in the L-6 Canal.
Slam moving: The weigh-in for Saturday’s Mercury/SeaVee Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam will be at Alsdorf Boat Ramp Park on 14th Street because of construction at Hillsboro Inlet Park. The scales open at 4 p.m. The kickoff party and final registration are 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Pompano Beach Civic Center. Visit saltwaterslam.com or call 954-725-4010.
Dolphin tournament: The third annual Bulls for Brooke dolphin tournament is Saturday out Bahia Mar Beach Resort & Yachting Center in Fort Lauderdale. First prize is $10,000 for the heaviest dolphin of 30 pounds or more. Register online at bullsforbrooke.com or at 5 p.m. Friday before the captains meeting at Bahia Mar at 6.