Results for 2006 St. Pete Open

[SpearMax]

Here are the preliminary results for 2006 St. Pete Open which happened today along with a few images:

Grouper - John Schmidt - 78.84 lbs.

Amberjack - Rick Hampton 94.94 lbs.*

Hogfish - DJ Strott, Jr. - 16.22 lbs.

Lobster - John Hermes - 7.60 lbs

Snapper - Julian Cruz - 16.98 lbs.

Sheepshead - Ritchie Zacker - 11.64 lbs. *

Cobia - Sasa Bratic - 30.24 lbs.


* These are tournament historical records

Note: the Billy Howell Ford leaderboard shown here is an early version that changed later.

[dagodiver]

Very nice all.!
Nice grouper John.!!!!


Dago.

[SpearMax]

Here is the live report from the Prize ceremony at SPO 2006. First is SPUC President Denny O'Hern presenting my good friend John Schmidt (a.k.a. Screen Name) - The King of SPO 2006 - with his first place grouper trophy (78.84 lbs.) which entitled him to first pick at the prize table. Next photo is John's prize choice of a Burt Lancaster Gyotaku Fish Rubbing. :thumps:

Contact Burt at 813-961-5132 and get your own fish rubbing art work. :cool:

[SpearMax]

Here is second prize table pick with first place Biggest Snapper (16.98 lbs.) winner Julian Cruz with his trophy. :cool:

[SpearMax]

Here is Rick Hampton with SPO third prize table pick ranking which is the first place Biggest Amberjack (94.94 lbs.) - a historical tournament record breaker. Great work Rick! :toast:

[SpearMax]

Here is DJ Strott fourth prize pick with the first place Biggest Hogfish (16.22 lbs.) ! :D

[SpearMax]

Fifth prize table pick was Sasa Bratic with the first place biggest cobia (30.24 lbs.) !

[titaniumdiver]

Awesome Tony...thanks for the quick report...congrats to all!.....I tried to make down....but had some personal stuff to attend to


Congrats John.....King of the 2006 SPO ;)...btw beatiful fish

[SpearMax]

Sixth prize choice is John Hermes with first place biggest lobster of 7.6 lbs.

[SpearMax]

And last of the first place trophies is Ritchie Zacker with the first place biggest sheepshead (11.64 lbs.).

This was also a historical tournament record breaker. Congrats Ritchie! :yay:

[ObieWan2bWet]

Congrats to all! :thumps:

[ChumBucketsGirl]

This was my first spearfishing tournament(only been diving since April) and I want to say that it was incredible!!!!!!!! I met some great people. I also didnt do to bad. I placed 8th(out of 11) out of the women and 94th overall out of 200+ competitors. Going to keep on shooting and im looking forward to next years tournament already. Thanks babe for introducing me to this absolutly amazing underwater world. :thumps:

[polespear]

Just a Thankyou, To all @ SPO. Great Tourny !! Had a good time. Meeting lot's of other members, Talking w/ Those I've got to know, in the last year.
Can't wait to do it all over again. :thumps: :thumps: S P U C Thanks, Dave

[BwanaR]

Can't figure out how in the pictures of the leaderboard early on someone was leading with a 17+lb. Hog and and the end a 16lber won it? :confused:

CB's girl....glad you could make it and had a good time. Guess those lobster weren't as big as CB thought huh? He thought he had it all wrapped up last week.... :D

[richhermes]

Can't figure out how in the pictures of the leaderboard early on someone was leading with a 17+lb. Hog and and the end a 16lber won it? :confused:

There was an error in the scoring and no changes were going to be made to the leaderboard until all the weigh slips were confirmed.

[Skillz]

That 17 lbs. was a mistake when the person wrote down the wrong weight. The actual weight was 7 lbs. not 17 lbs.

[Blondie]

This was my first time entering the St Pete Open and I have to say I had an absolute blast. Many thank yous to my wonderful boyfriend Jon that started teaching me how to spearfish about 6 months ago - I LOVE YOU!! I know winning 2nd in the womens today made him proud. Capt. Joyce, your the best!!! Love being on your boat. Wayne, Tim thank you as well. Could not have dove with a better bunch of people. Can't wait for next year:) :thumps:

[dagodiver]

Great job Blondie..!!!


Dago.

[bubblejunkie]

Congrats to John S, John H and Ritchie for doing it the way he wanted in the place he started spearfishng, that and John's grouper made for the best St pete open stories ever. Thanks alot Spuc's for another great tourney. See everyone in a month, going to dry out awhile ;)

[Flafishn]

The biggest of each of our bugs brought home over $500 worth of nice prizes.I would just like to say to anyone who thinks the tourney is for the pros welll its not it is for the spearos! Three bugs and the good prizes>Thanks you SPUC and I will be back next years and so on . It was a great time . And the lobster tasted good for dinner tonight.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i127/flafishn/DSC00158.jpg
Thanks again for one hell of a weekend!

[BwanaR]

Thanks guys I missed the first 2/3rds of the weighin taking the boat back!

[SpearMax]

Just got home and here are more photos of the winners. Here is the First place female winner Sandra Curran with 34.2 aggregate points.

[SpearMax]

Here is First Place Junior winner Tom Nahon.

[SpearMax]

Here is First place freediver Nole Karcher.

[SpearMax]

SPUC President Denny O'Hern received a special recognition award. Congratulations Denny! Great work on the SPO 2006! :thumps:

[ChumBucketsGirl]

Strange thing that happened. Last weekend we went out to our little honey hole and there he was at least an 7-8lb lobster.He was they only lobster in sight. We left him so that we could come back and get him for the SPO. Well we went back to the spot yesterday and he was gone. But in his place were like 30 slipper lobsters. We are tring to figure out if somone got him or if he was ran out by the slippers. What do you think? Needless to say it was dissapointing for the big one not to be there but, rewarding for the ones to be there that were in his place. :confused:

[SpearMax]

Here are the first place fish category winners all together.

[SpearMax]

Here are some views of the prize ceremony room and my good friend Master of Ceremonies Bill Hardman. Great job Bill! :yippee:

[SpearMax]

Prizes...Prizes....Prizes... :thumps:

[SpearMax]

More Prizes...more prizes...more prizes... :cool:

[SpearMax]

More Winners.... second and third place trophy winners.

[SpearMax]

More second and third place trophy winners.

[SpearMax]

More second and third place trophy winners. Congratulations all!

[Chad Carney]

Congratulations to all the winners!

Also congratulations to these shooters that brought in groupers from the upper 50's through upper 40's, that usually would have placed, but amazingly did not.
Lou Bonsey, Brandon Brooks, Gerry Rice, Pat Bennett, Chad Campbell, Mitch Spradlin, Mark Nahon and Chris Gardinal!!
So many of these guys turn in big groupers every year!

The same story occurred in the AJ category. Congratulations to almost winners Kenny LaCasse & Dan MacMahon. (At least you guys knew it early.)
Charlie Hogge and Ken Jones had to wait to find that high 70's & high 60's AJs wouldn't fly.

It was a great tournament! Way to go SPUCs and all the sponsors!

Chad