Critter Control Sail-Fishing Team Takes 1st, 2nd and 3rd

Gordon Weber (left) and Kevin Clark (right) receive their ‘Over the Hill’ Grand Champion/First Place and Top Angler awards from host Gary Dunn (two time Super Bowl winner with the Pittsburgh Steelers) .

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The Critter Control Fishing Team is off to a hot start for the 2009 sailfish season. Last Friday, Jill Clark (wife of Critter Control CEO Kevin Clark, and Top Female Angler in the 2008 World Sailfish Championship) added to her trophy collection by winning the Top Angler award for the Islamorada Presidential Sailfish Tournament. This was no small feat considering the 27 tournament boats and other 87 anglers involved - but what she had to do to clinch the award was even more impressive…a real fish story!

On day one, the team was one fish behind the Relentless, which had five sails on the day, and tied with the Challenger and Catch 22 with four fish each - but based on time they were in fourth place overall. Daily prizes go to the top 3 boats, so they needed one more fish to get into second place, or two to take the lead. A half an hour before lines-out, they hooked up a double. Here was their chance to get in the money!

They ended up with a north/south split (Jill’s fish headed south, while Kevin’s fish went north). After 20 minutes they got Kevin’s fish to the back of the boat, and mate Sam Worden reached for the leader (touching the leader counts as a catch), but the 15’ leader is just out of reach and the fish goes on another run. In the mean time, Jill is on the bow of the boat when her fish suddenly switches direction and starts swimming back towards the boat. The mates run up on the bow and get the fish within 20’, but again, they can’t get the leader.

Jill’s fish then swims by the boat and she has to carefully make her way back around to the cockpit to continue the fight. Five minutes later, with both fish swimming up-sea, they back down on Jill’s fish and the leader is in sight, but just as Worden goes to reach for it, the fish races under the boat – and Jill’s line becomes caught up under the boat. They’re not sure if it’s on the rudder or the prop, but its only 12 pound test line so this one looks like a lost cause. Jill loosens the drag and dips the rod deep under the boat trying to find an angle to free the line, but to no avail.

For five minutes the boat drifts in neutral as they try to figure out what to do. Second mate Hunter Barron offers to jump in and see how the line is tangled so they might figure out which angle to try to free it. Barron confirms their worst suspicion – the line is wrapped around the prop and looks hopeless. After diving down and taking a second look, Barron says the line is only wrapped around the prop once, and can be removed by hand – but it has to be Jill’s hand as she is the only one allowed to touch the rod, reel and line with the fish on.

Jill puts the rod in a rod-holder, sheds her jacket and jumps in, bobbing like a cork in the 3-4 foot waves. It takes her a full 5 minutes to get a handle on the situation, and she is having trouble with buoyancy and is apprehensive about going under the boat the five feet required to unwrap the line. Finally, she settles down and takes a deep breath and goes under the boat. Amazingly, she frees it on the first attempt – the line is now free and the fish is still there, still taking out line.

Back in the boat she engages the fish again, careful not to put too much pressure on the line as it is surely chaffed after rubbing on the shaft for 10 minutes. Now the two hooked sailfish are swimming together, and several times the anglers have to put the tips of the rods together to keep the lines from getting crossed. After 45 minutes they finally get Kevin’s fish to the boat again, and this time Worden grabs the leader. Ten minutes later they back up to Jill’s fish and make the catch – vaulting them from 4th place to 1st place for the day. Team Critter 6, Relentless 5.

On day two, the battle between the leaders started early as the Relentless caught the first sail of the day to tie things at six, but team Critter responded with the second sail of the day and padded their lead for a short time. They had 5 more hook-ups, but landed only two more fish that day. While the bite was even slower than day one, Relentless landed six sails Saturday for a total of 11, while Team Critter managed only three sails to take second place – just ahead of The Reel McCoy, which also had 9. Team Critter also won the Tagging Trophy for the most sailfish tagged and released, and Jill ended up Top Angler with six sails.

As if that wasn’t enough action for the week for Team Critter, on Tuesday Kevin Clark teamed up with Gordon Weber in the Captain Al Flutie ‘Over the Hill’ sailfish tournament to take First Place in the event that was solely for anglers over 50. They bested 20 other boats by landing 8 sailfish during the day, finishing ahead of the Mother Load (7), and the Contagious (6). Not wanting to be shown up too often by his wife, Clark took the Top Angler award with five spindle-beaks on the day.

Last month, in the only other sailfish tournament that the team has fished so far this season (the Islamorada Fishing Club’s Captain’s Cup), the Clarks caught 13 sails during the one-day event and took 3rd place.