East Pass Challenge: Catching Up With the Leader
SFC Insider caught up with Mississippi Blues Angling Club to learn about their plans for day 2
The sun has risen over the Gulf for day two of the East Pass Challenge, presented by Legendary Marine. Mississippi Blues Angling Club remain in the lead with 900 points while the rest of the field is desperately looking to play catch up.
One of the first three boats out from day one’s shotgun start, the Mississippi Blues and their 58’ Viking named “Rising Son’s” emptied their fuel bladders early to make the long run to the fishing grounds. As the sun began to set, the lines started to get tight.
With angler Jaselyn Berthelot in the fighting chair, the Blues cashed in twice, securing Blue Marlin releases at 6:43PM CT and 7:16PM CT. 900 points and the only two fish recorded so far in the tournament. SFC Insider spoke to the Blues this morning while attempting to catch more bait.
“With the clubs we have out here we have to always stay on our A-game and stay ahead because they’ll catch up with us quickly,” said Angler/Mate Toby Berthelot.
Berthelot is referring to the murderer’s row of competitors that make up the SFC’s Gulf Division. One of those clubs being Gulf Coast Cowboys Angling Club, the defending SFC champions. Lingering engine issues from a topside rebuild this week delayed their start time yesterday, but the Cowboys, led by Captain Blake Bridges have been known to rack up releases quickly.
With that urgency in mind, Mississippi Blues Captain Jimmy “Cricket” Crochet put a plan in place to try and extend their lead.
“We made a big move last night,” Berthelot said. “We ended up over 250 miles from where we started yesterday, hoping it would pay off for us in the morning but unfortunately it didn’t.”
How did they know so early? Because even the simple tasks were challenging at the new spot.
“We got there and had some difficulty catching bait just due to having dolphins (the mammals, not Mahi-Mahi) there eating our bait,” Berthelot said.
Looking in the transoms of all these sportfishing boats, there is a big difference between the type of bait used between last week’s Fort Lauderdale Billfish Open, presented by Yachts 360, and this week’s East Pass Challenge. In South Florida, kite fishing uses smaller bait fish like goggle eyes, threadfins, sardines among other species that are kept in live wells.
The Gulf requires a few more trips up the food chain in the bait catching process. Smaller bait is used to catch larger bait: blackfin tunas, skipjacks, bonito that are a few pounds in size to stuff into tuna tubes. When that process is a struggle, the entire day is a struggle.
“We had to make another move, hopefully we [will] find a few more fish out there to keep us on top,” Berthelot said.
Find out if Mississippi Blues Angling Club holds onto their lead today during live coverage on SFC+ from 2:00-3:00PM ET and ESPN+ from 3:00-5:00PM ET.