- April 16, 2024
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Bill Navarra's "Reel Team" won the grand prize at the Northeast Florida Wahoo Shootout. Courtesy photo.
Bill Navarra's crew caught a tournament-record 108.66-pound wahoo on their third day of fishing in the Northeast Florida Wahoo Shootout. Courtesy photo.
Bill Navarra's "Reel Team" weighs in its tournament-record wahoo. Courtesy photo.
Bill Navarra's team poses with the trophy. Courtesy photo.
The fish was a monster.
“We were absolutely blown away,” Captain Bill Navarra said of the 108.66-pound wahoo his crew brought into his boat on their third day of fishing the Northeast Florida Wahoo Shootout.
The tournament’s all-time record fish helped Navarra’s team bring in a three-fish aggregate weight of 260.5 pounds to win the grand prize — a 21-foot Yellowfin Bay boat with a Yamaha 200 HP four stroke and an AmeraTrail trailer — a $95,000 value.
“We are so excited. We will get it in two months. We’re all going to have a cookout and take it for boat rides,” said Navarra, the owner and broker of Realty Pros Assured.
Navarra had a crew of eight, all Ormond Beach residents, who fished the three days of the biggest wahoo tournament in the world. The “Reel Team” crew changed out with five on the boat each day.
The other crew members were Donnie Sikorski, Beau Warren, Paul Viscomi, Jason Iannarelli, A.J. Pascoe, Brent O’Quinn and Matthew Kennedy.
The boats could fish any three days between Feb. 5 and March 27. Navarra’s team fished three days in a row out of Jacksonville, Feb. 10, 11 and 12.
“The secret was we located the fish the first day, and once we knew where they were we stayed on them the following two days,” he said.
The team caught over 30 wahoo during the three days, Navarra said. They could only weigh in two per day. The first day they weighed in an 82.6-pound fish and a 69.16-pounder. Those two became part of their aggregate total, which was also a tournament record.
The third day, they caught just three fish. But that included the big one.
“It was unbelievable,” Navarra said. “We knew it was a monster. It took two people to gaff the fish, to bring him into the boat. It was an unbelievable lifetime fish. I’ll never get another fish like that in a tournament.”
“It was unbelievable,” Navarra said. “It took two people to gaff the fish, to bring him into the boat. It was an unbelievable lifetime fish. I’ll never get another fish like that in a tournament.”
Sikorski, fishing with his own crew on different days, finished second in the tournament with an aggregate of 246.8 pounds, which also broke the old tournament record.
Each boat could win only one prize, so Navarra was unable to win the prize for the largest wahoo, a Kubota Sidekick compact utility vehicle. That went to Capt. James Powell, whose 96.72-pounder beat Sikorski’s largest wahoo by less than three pounds.
In addition to the grand prize, Navarra said his team also won about $65,000 through the tournament-within-a-tournament buy-in prizes they entered.
This was the third year Navarra entered the NE Wahoo Shootout. Last year he finished eighth.
Navarra has been fishing in tournaments for over 10 years, but the last five years he’s been “really involved,” he said.
“We went to Mexico six years ago with Donnie (Sikorski) and our wives, and we went sailfishing and caught 17 sailfish in one day,” Navarra said. “After that, I became hooked, literally.”
Navarra plans to fish in the King of the Inlet Wahoo Tournament at Ponce Inlet on April 9.
