Islander takes first place in IFA Redfish Tournament
A life-time of fishing has paid off for Pine Island resident, Cory McGuire, 22, as he and his fishing partner, Cody Chivas of Clearwater, took home first place in one of Florida’s most prestigious fishing tournaments. Late last month, team McGuire/Chivas were named Division Champions in the IFA Redfish Tour event held in Ruskin.
“We had a great day even though it started out with some engine problems, but we were able to find the fish and was done by 11:30 a.m.,” said McGuire.
According to McGuire, he and his partner had two good days of pre-fishing for the event, but on the morning of the tournament ran into problems with their boat.
“When we started out we discovered the engine had developed a problem with the coil and we had to return to the launch site, borrow some tools and replace the old coil. This set us back quite a bit and knew that we wouldn’t have time to run out to the spot we were going to fish,” said McGuire. “We decided to just fish a sand bar closer to the launch site and found fish there.”
The area fished by McGuire and Chivas was just 15 miles from the launch site.
McGuire’s first fish of the day weighed 7.68 pounds and was easily the biggest fish weighed in at the tournament. With a two-fish limit, McGuire and Chivas weighed in with a total of 14.73 pounds to take the title.
McGuire and Chivas were awarded with a 2009 Ranger Banshee Extreme boat valued at more than $30,000. The boat is powered by a 60-horsepower, four-stroke Yamaha outboard and is equipped with a Bob’s four-inch Ultra Light Jackplate, Power Pole shallow water anchor, a Minn Kota trolling motor, Himminbird electronics, Blue Point Fabrication metal work and a Loadmaster trailer.
In addition to claiming the top prize for winning the tournament, McGuire and Chivas also netted $1,500 for weighing the big fish of the day.
McGuire was born and raised in Fort Myers and moved to Pine Island nearly two years ago. He fishes in 20 to 25 tournaments each year, including the IFA Redfish Tour, the Pro Tarpon Tournament Series, Flats Masters and locally the Bobby Holloway Jr. Memorial Tournament and the Tarpon Lodge Summer Shootout.
McGuire also captains guided fishing trips and can be reached by contacting Falling Tide Charters at fallingtide7@aol.com or call Capt. Cory McGuire at 738-9095.
Taking second place in this year’s event was another team with a Pine Island fisherman as well. Kyle Potts, 24, of Pine Island and Chris Magnano of Fort Myers brought in 13.69 pounds to the scale, one of which was an impressive 7.08 pound red.
“Cory and I have fished a lot of these tournaments and we fished together the day before and found this great school of fish,” said Potts. “On tournament day we worked together and ended up with just the right fish all measuring 25 to 27 inches and nice and fat. It was a really good day.”
The teams of McGuire/Chivas and Potts /Magnano will next fish the IFA tournament in Orange, Ala., in early November to compete for the final event of the season — the Regional Championships.
Potts has been living on Pine Island for the last 10 years and is a captain with Tow Boat US out of Bokeelia.
The field of competition for this event included a total of 82 teams.
The IFA Redfish Tour attracts anglers from Texas to the Carolinas and offers two-angler teams an opportunity to compete in six different divisions, each offering a three-event regular season. Anglers can fish close to home during the regular season one-day catch-and-release tournaments. Teams fishing any three of the IFA’s 18 regular season events are automatically qualified to for the no entry fee championship event for a combined $77,000 in payouts and prize packages.
The division in which McGuire and Potts fished is the IFA Florida West Coast Division.