Lighthouse Point’s White, crew reel in top honors in tournament

Matt White’s team aboard his O-Sea-D won $11,370 with four blackfin tuna and four kingfish weighing a total of 187.2 pounds.

By SUSAN COCKING

The eight-member team on Matt White’s boat O-Sea-D weighed four blackfin tuna and four kingfish totaling 187.2 pounds Saturday to take top honors in the Mercury/SeaVee Pompano Beach Saltwater Slam.

The team motored south to the region around Fowey Light and fished live baits on kites, as well as flat lines and deep lines to amass their winning catch, good for $11,370.

“We went down to Miami because we heard good reports down there and we knew there would be a ton of boats up here,” team member Tim Maddock said after the weigh-in at Hillsboro Inlet Park.

It was the first Saltwater Slam win for White on his own boat in more than a decade of competing. The Lighthouse Point resident and his crew doused each other with champagne on the weigh-in stage after tournament director Jamie Bunn declared them the winners.

Rob Deignan’s six-person team on Covered Up took the runner-up position with four kings and four tunas weighing 173.8 pounds. They took home $9,352. Tito’s Vodka/Dippin Out finished third with 161.1 pounds of eligible fish, earning $6,068.

In fourth place was Bandit with 140.74, winning $6,110. Fifth-place Spiced Rum III was the big money winner, earning $20,446 for an aggregate of 140.65 pounds of kingfish because they entered several value-added prize categories.

A fleet of 105 boats competed in the one-day tournament.

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