2008 Team YELLOWFIN/Comfortably Numb

2008

SKA Div. 11

3/14-15 Marco Island King Fling- 6th Place Overall/ Becky 2nd Ladies/ Jake 2nd Juniors/ Jake Top Mercury Award

3/28-30 Naples Kingfish Classic-9th Place Overall with a 39.98lb!!!/ Becky 2nd Ladies/ Jake 1st Juniors/ Jake Top Mercury Award

4/11-13 Ft Myers Beach Kingfish Shootout-7th Place Overall with a 36.84lber/ Becky 1st Place Ladies/ Jake 2nd place Juniors/

             Jake Top Mercury Award 

FINAL STANDINGS Division 11- Total Points 114.21   4th Place Class Boats, 1st Place Ladies, and 2nd Juniors

BECKY is the 2008 SKA Top Lady Angler in Division 11 and will be awarded in November at the SKA National Championship in Biloxi, MS

Jake claimed all 3 Mercury Marine College Scholarship Awards

Visit www.fishska.com to see the latest results   click on Mercury Point Standings go to Div 11

2007

Took a break, fished a few SKA events and a HBA billfish event

Team Catch22- 1st Billy's and 6th Old salts

2006

Comfortably Numb team members are also fishing with three other teams this season.

SKA D-10 Key West-Hogs Breath (Team Pelagic Magic)- 6th place(50.68lb), 2nd Junior out of 151 teams

SKA Pro-March 2nd-4th Key West, Fl-43rd out of 91 teams( Caught the 2nd largest fish in the event- 55.86)

SKA D-11 Marco - (Team Pelagic Magic)- No fish weighed in

FLW- Sarasota Series event- (Team Two Jays)- No fish weighed in

SKA D-11 Naples-(Team Pelagic Magic)- 8th place

FLW-Englewwod Series event(Team Two Jays)- 21st Place

SKA- D-6 Tournament of Champions 17th Place, 7th Place Ladies, 4th Place Juniors

FLW Pro Event April 14th-15th-(Team Devocean)- 3rd Place

SKA Pro- April 27th-29th Ft Pierce, Fl- Weighed 1 fish/ Day 2 cancelled due to seas

Old Salts King of the Beach-Spring- May 4th-6th- 8th Place/ 1st Place Ladies/ 1st Place Juniors

SKA Pro- June 15th-17th Fourchon, La- 14th Place out of 91 teams

SKA Pro- August 24th-26th Savannah, Ga- weighed in 1 fish

SKA Pro-October 12th-14th Little River, SC- 40th place

FINAL PRO STANDINGS

OVERALL- 17th place

LADIES- 5th place

JUNIOR- 1st Place   Jake Smith 2006 SKA PRO Junior Angler Of The Year     How Awesome!!!!!

SKA 2006 National Championship- November 16th-18th- 43rd finish

 2005

Division 10-Key West-finished 72nd out of 168 boats

Division 11-Marco Island-finished 30th out of 76 boats

Division 11-Naples-finished 12th out of 86 boats

Division 11-Sarasota- No fish weighed/ only 6 teams out of 87 weighed on day 2

Division 11-Final Standings- 18th place Overall/ 6th-Junior Angler

Division 11- Won RFA Raymarine package

Division 6-Treasure Island-(Clearwater Pass checkout boat) No fish weighed

Division 6-Clearwater- 26th out of 117 boats

King of the Beach-Madeira Beach- 5th Overall, 1st Ladies, 1st Junior out of 285 boats

Division 6-April 30th-(Clearwater Pass checkout boat) No fish weighed

Billys Kingfish Tournament- 4th place out of 90 boats

Pinellas County Fishing PAL tournament- 1st place Kingfish

4th Annual PBGCSA Fishing Tournament- small dolphin

Old Salts Ladies Tournament- 5th and 6th place Amberjack/ 5th and 6th place Snapper

Division 5-Jacksonville- 1st Place 25th Anniversary Tournament of Champions

Division 6- both fall events (Clearwater Pass Checkout) weighed 1 fish in last event

Division 6 Final- 31st Overall, 11th Ladies, 7th Juniors

Old Salts King of the Beach-Fall- 13th overall, 1st Ladies( Becky won both Spring and Fall)

SKA National Championship- Postponed till April 2006

2004

Before the 2004 SKA Tournament Season began, Team Comfortably Numb, began negotiations with Yellowfin Yachts for a new ride. After a little more than four years of fishing the Class of 23, they decided to move up to a 31 Yellowfin and fish the Open Class. 

While waiting for their new boat to be built, they fished SKA-Division 11 in their 23 and finished the Division in 12th place, which qualified them for Nationals in the Class of 23.

They also so fished some local tournaments:

Billys Kingfish Tournament-third place finish-Spring

11th Annual Miller Lite Suncoast Kingfish Classic-second place 23 Class

Old Salts King of the Beach-20th place-Spring

The first week of July, the new boat was ready. The goal now was to get it qualified for the National championships.

The team traveled to SKA-Division 5. They had their good friend, Jeff Silverthorne, on the boat fishing with them in the Division 5 tournaments. The first tournament they fished was Boaters World, they caught a 22.9lb fish not good enough to place, but it gave them points to help them toward their goal. 

 The second was the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, it's the largest kingfish tournament in the country. There were 918 boats entered, the team finished third in aggregate, with a 40lb king caught day one and a 25.8 caught day two. They also won SKA Junior angler.

Next they fished St. Augustine's Ancient City Gamefish Associations Kingfish Challenge. All they needed to qualify was a 20 pound kingfish. They fished the Junior Angler tournament on Friday, as a pre-fish day for the regular tournament. Jake caught a 28.2lb king to take first place Junior Angler, Josh caught a 15.3lb king and took the mystery weight prize.

On the tournament days the team could not get the fish that they needed, the seas had kicked up and the weather turned bad, the bite had shut down, but that's fishing.

Look for them in SKA-Division 4- Golden Isles, Georgia and the last two tournaments in SKA-Division 6- Treasure Island, Florida.

14th Place in D-6 TA Mahoney Kingfish Classic

Becky Smith- TOP SKA LADY ANGLER OF THE YEAR 2004 Division 6

1st Place-Billy's Thanksgiving Kingfish Tournament-Fall

The Southern Kingfish Association is America's Fastest-Growing Salt Water Sports Organization.

1999 thru 2003

Team Comfortably Numb reflects a new and welcome trend in SKA competition-a team comprised of family members.

Eric and Becky Smith and sons Justin, Josh and Jake live in New Port Richey, Florida

"I've been fishing here on Floridas West Coast since the early 1970s," Eric said. "My first taste of kingfish competition was in a tournament at a local marina in the summer of 1999."

The Smiths decided to take up the sport as a family. They fished from a 1988, 21 foot Proline. They spent the 1999 season learning and improving-finally mastering new skills and techniques for finding, hooking and landing the big kings. They learned to locate, catch and fish with live bait to catch the kings. In 2000, they finished eleventh in the Class of 23 in their local Division 6 competition.

With a degree of success and a wealth of new understanding of professional-level competition the Smiths began 2001 determined to finish in the Class of 23 top 10. They had upgraded their boat to a 2001 Proline 23Sport. The team went south to Division 11 where they won the Class of 23 as well as second in the Junior Angler. Back in Division 6, Team Comfortably Numb won the sixth spot in the Class of 23, fourth in Junior Angler and fifth in Lady Angler.

In 2002, the team once again traveled south to Division 11. They placed third in the Class of 23, second in the Junior Angler and eighth in the Lady Angler.

The team went to the 2002 National Competetion and finished at 36th place in the Class of 23 against the best teams of the SKA.

Team Comfortably Numb had great determination and growing reputation as a savvy team. What was lacking was a really competitive boat. That shortcoming was solved with a new 23 Yellowfin with twin 200 h.p. Mercury outboards.

In the 2003 Tournament Season, the team expanded their fishing arena.

They traveled to:

 SKA-Division 5- Ancient City Gamefish Association Kingfish Challenge (St. Augustine Florida)-15th in the Class of 23; 8th in Junior  Angler; 9th in Lady Angler; 6th in the Junior Angler Shootout.

Boater's World Tournament of Champions (Jacksonville, Florida)-1st in the Class of 23; 7th in the Open Class.

SKA Division 10- Yellowfin Boats King Mackerel Shootout (Ft. Pierce, Florida)-7th in the Class of 23; 8th in Junior Angler; 10th in Lady Angler.

SKA Division11- Naples Contender/Yamaha Kingfish Classic (Naples, Florida)-2nd in the Class of 23; 6th in Junior Angler; 4th in Lady Angler.

Ft. Meyers Beach Dodge King Fling ( Ft. Meyers Florida)-10th in the Open Class; 1st in the Class of 23; 1st in Junior Angler; 3rd in Lady Angler.

Sarastoa Sertoma Kingfish Tournament (Sarasota, Florida)-9th in the Class of 23; 1st in Junior Angler; 11th in Lady Angler.

Gasparilla Contender/Yamaha Kingfish Challenge (Boca Grande, Florida)-4th in the Class of 23; 5th in Junior Angler; 4th in Lady Angler.

Division 11 2003 Class of 23 Champions; 2nd in Junior Angler; 3rd in Lady Angler

SKA Division 12-Mississippi Deep Sea Rodeo (Mississippi)- No SKA fish weighed; Saturday, daily prize for largest Red Snapper and second largest Mackerel; Sunday, daily prize for largest King Mackerel.

Local Non-Sanctioned Events

Billy's Spring King Tournament (St. Petersburg, Florida)- 26th overall

2003 National Championships- 10th in Class of 23, against the best teams in the SKA!

The SKA also awarded the team the Dan Schaad Family Achievement Award