With winds gusting to 40 or more miles per hour, Joe Hector of Extreme Kayak Fishing wisely decided to postpone his Sailfish Smackdown tournament by a day. And he and his anglers were rewarded with much better, safer fishing conditions.

“It was a fun tournament,” said Hector, the co-host of the Nautical Ventures Weekly Fisherman radio show, which airs from 6-8 a.m. Saturday on WINZ 940-AM and live-streams on the Nautical Ventures Facebook page. “We really got blessed on Sunday.”

Morning temperatures were in the 40s, but warmed up to the mid-50s, and winds were only around 10 mph. The tournament fleet, which launched off Pompano Beach and included kayak fishermen from as far away as Seattle, hooked 11 sailfish, but only two of them were landed. An angler had to touch the leader, which connects the main fishing line to the hook, to make the catch official while Hector watched from the tournament boat.

“We didn’t get as many sails as we would have liked,” said Hector. “It was tough in the morning as a help boat. We’re out there and we’re going from guy to guy who’s hooked up, so you’re watching the sails jump and they’re fighting them and then, oh, lost, lost again. And after the fifth one in a row I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, man, come on guys, we’ve got to land these fish.’

“Given the circumstances and everything that went on, and we smashed our Nautical Ventures mahi-mahi division record for the tournament, all in all, it was a great tournament, we had anglers from all over the country, probably the most I think we’ve ever had.”

Longtime Extreme Kayak competitor Brian Nelli was the first to catch and release a sailfish at 10:50 a.m. He won $5,000 from RAILBLAZA along with a Powercore custom EKFT sailfish rod.

“He’s fished our tournaments since like 2010,” Hector said, “so it’s good to see a guy like that who’s put in so much into our events win it.”

Brian Arnold released a sailfish at 2:03 p.m. to finish second – standings were determined by the time of the catch – to win $2,000 from Nautical Ventures Marine and a Proyaker fish bag.

Roy Moncada set a record in the ninth running of the tournament with a 19.1-pound dolphin to win $500 in the Nautical Ventures Dolphin Division. He also caught a 16-pound dolphin.

Hector has three more tournaments scheduled for 2022. Dates and details are available at www.extremekayakfishingtournament.org. The next event is the Exotic Bass Roundup in April out of Lake Ida Park in Delray Beach.

For more information on kayak fishing and kayak tournaments, along with fishing tips from top captains, listen to The Nautical Ventures Weekly Fisherman radio show every Saturday morning from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. live on 940 WINZ, an iHeart station. You’ll learn where the fish are biting and how to catch them. If you can’t tune in live, the Weekly Fisherman radio podcasts are available through:

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