Palm Beach County's Anglers Prepare for the WInner's Circle Charity Tournament!
This week from May 17-19 is the Mike Schmidt & HMY Winner’s Circle Invitational. This is a fishing tournament held at the Bimini Bay Resort on the Island of Bimini in the Abaco Islands, Bahamas. Mike Schmidt, a hall of fame baseball player, founded this charity in 2000. He decided to combine his love for angling and passion to fight cystic fibrosis. The Winner’s Circle is now on its 13th year and has raised over $1.5 million to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This year the tournament has been expanded a little bit. Schmidt has included HMY Yachts as a co-host to the tournament as well as the Cleveland Clinic of Florida and the Marine Industry Education Foundation, which benefits the Riviera Beach Maritime Academy for the training of students for boating-careers. The Rock-n-Reel Gala, kickoff party was at Admirals Cove, where Schmidt resides.
One of the awards given is the Jack Davis Award, which goes to the team that releases the most billfish throughout the tournament. Some of the billfish include; white marlin, blue marlin and sailfish. The grand trophy goes to the team who catches the heaviest combination of one tuna, one dolphin and one wahoo. Last year’s grand champion was the team on the Peggy Sue with the winning weights of a wahoo, dolphin and a tuna with a combined weight of 134 pounds. Some of the guidelines for the tournament include no live bait, no chumming and no wire-line rigs.
The mission statement for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is “to assure the development of the means to cure and control cystic fibrosis and to improve the quality of life for those with the disease. Our passion for fulfilling our mission grows stronger with each milestone we achieve.”
To learn more about the Winner’s Circle Charity email: WinnersCircleCharities@gmail.com or go to www.WinnersCircleCharities.org.
Leave A Comment