Capt. Chris Lemieux and a few young anglers hold an 87-pound wahoo caught during the Lantana Fishing Derby. Lynn ’Doc’ Moorhouse came up with the idea of the derby 30 years ago to support the Lantana Chamber of Commerce. Officials later added a kids fishing event. Photo provided
By Steve Waters
When Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse promoted the idea to have a fishing tournament to support the Lantana Chamber of Commerce, few people imagined that the Lantana Fishing Derby would still be going strong three decades later.
The derby celebrates its 30th anniversary May 3. The captain’s party is May 1. Anglers weigh their catches on May 3 at the Old Key Lime House and there’s also a fishing derby for children at Bicentennial Park that day. The awards ceremony is May 4 at the Lantana Recreation Center.
“Lynn was on the board, and he brought the idea up,” said former chamber President Mark Easton. “It was his baby to do it. Did we expect it to go 30 years? Probably not. Did we expect it to be nearly as successful as it was? No, not at all.
“I forget how many boats we had the first year. Not a lot, 15 or 16 maybe. But by the third or fourth year or so, we topped 100 boats. And I don’t know how many it’s done the last couple of watches, but for years we were cracking.”
Easton said the money raised by the derby, which some years topped $30,000 after expenses, enabled the chamber to not only weather some tough times, but also thrive.
“The chamber was just about ready to close from having no money when I got elected to be president,” he said. “And with the aid of the Fishing Derby and Mack Stephenson’s annual golf tournament and annual chicken barbecue, where we cooked and sold over 300 chicken halves, we managed to (raise money) and gain some members and keep the chamber going. And the Fishing Derby has kept the coffers full for about every year for 30 years.
“You know, we were just hoping to go for a little while, just kind of tide the chamber over, and here it is, still producing. And it is still a great event for the town.”
Unlike many saltwater tournaments, where the competition is cutthroat and anglers go out every night for weeks before the event to catch and stockpile live bait, the emphasis is on fun at the derby. According to Capt. Chris Lemieux, when he fished the derby it was more about camaraderie and bragging rights between him and his friends.
“The reason why I liked it was it was all local guys that I knew growing up,” said Lemieux, who runs fishing charters out of Boynton Beach Inlet. “I actually won a trophy when I was 8 years old. I caught the second-biggest kingfish, 12 pounds.”
A highly successful tournament fisherman who has skippered a variety of teams to victories, Lemieux got one of his biggest thrills competing in the derby when he was 18.
He had recently purchased his first boat and caught a 32-pound kingfish fishing on that bay boat to win biggest kingfish honors. It was his first tournament victory on his own boat. Another time he ran someone else’s boat and won the biggest kingfish title with a 40-plus-pounder.
After its initial success, the derby added a kids fishing day, which Easton said Moorhouse funded out of his own pocket in the beginning.
“We used to put them on a drift boat,” Easton said. “They went offshore for half a day and we ended up with a bunch of sick kids and kids that had never been on a boat. And they had the day of their life getting seasick.”
After the first drift boat was decommissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard, the kids fished on the B-Love drift boat in Lantana. When that boat moved to New Jersey, the kids fished on the Lake Worth pier, where the city waived the admission fee for the youngsters.
Because the tournament no longer had to pay for a drift boat, it used the money to buy fishing rods and reels and small tackle boxes for each of the kids to use and keep.
When a hurricane damaged the fishing pier, the youth event was moved to Bicentennial Park. At first the kids fished from the sea wall. When the bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway was built, the kids fished from the bridge’s catwalks.
“So, it’s been a good ride for the kids,” Easton said. “Every year there’s about 50 kids. Some of them get some pretty nice prizes. And it’s a day of fishing and learning about fishing. It’s really a neat event.”
Although Easton, who owned The Lake Worth Herald, which recently closed after more than 112 years of service to the community, had a boat, he never fished in the derby. Instead, he would help make sure the kids had a good time, then head over to the Old Key Lime House to work the docks and weigh in fish.
The derby awards prize money for the three biggest fish in three divisions — kingfish, dolphin and wahoo — with $1,250 for the heaviest of each species. Prizes go to the top lady angler and junior angler (under 13). The awards ceremony is open to the public and, in addition to honoring the winners, features a huge raffle for an array of prizes donated by local businesses.
The tournament entry fee is $300 per boat for up to four anglers and $50 for each additional angler until April 18. The registration deadline is 3 p.m. May 2. Visit lantanachamber.com/fishing-derby.
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.
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