How a 7-year-old boy won $200 in Manatee fishing tournament — and left with memories

In many fishing tournaments, junior anglers can compete with the adults alongside or against them.

Most of these junior anglers tend to be teenagers, who can take the boat out and do many of the angling and boating tasks easily with years of experience. Gaining experience is a necessary step — and young anglers need to start somewhere.

Angler Waylon Gretenhardt has wasted no time in gaining experience in his young years. At the recent Big Art Memorial Snook Tournament, he was able to win a prize before the tournament even started.

“The tournament started good but bad. They gave me $200 and a G. Loomis rod because I was the youngest in the kid division,” said Waylon, who fished with his dad Carl, Ryan Olles and fellow junior angler Reid. “The bad was I had to put some of that money toward gas.”

At only 7 years old, Waylon’s life revolves around fishing and sports. If his dad Carl is going out, Waylon isn’t far behind, always ready at a moment’s notice. But the Big Art would be a new challenge for Waylon as it was overnight, something he wasn’t used to.

“We started Friday at 6:30 p.m. and got a nice snook on the first cast. But then it was nothing but catfish until it got dark,” explained Carl.

Sitting at a popular snook spot the team fished big baits like ladyfish hoping to get bigger snook.

“The juniors needed to do everything by themselves to count for their division. Cast it, hook it, reel it in, net it. All solo. It was hard to watch at times when we wanted to help,” Carl said.

But he soon needed to help Waylon when an unexpected visitor ate bait in the dark.

“I had the rod and my dad ripped it out of my hands!” Waylon said angrily.

When the big rod started peeling out line, Waylon grabbed it. But then Carl had to grab Waylon and the rod.

“You were about to fly into the water,” retorted dad Carl. “When the fish hit, the line got all jacked up. We saw the splash from a big tarpon and the fish almost pulled Waylon in the water. It was the first big tarpon he’s ever hooked.”

A tarpon over 100 pounds easily could have pulled the small angler into the water, but dad’s quick thinking kept him dry.

After the adrenaline spike, the team kept searching for snook. But the lack of bites into the dark hours had them weary. At 1 a.m. they went home for a few hours of sleep and launched back out at 4 a.m. Saturday morning. On little sleep, Waylon was still ready to go.

“We fished some docks around Egmont but couldn’t get any big bites. We went to the Skyway to get better bait, but it was tiny. Waylon suggested we go to a nearby spot where we always catch snook, so we did,” Carl said.

At the spot along a shoreline, the two young anglers threw some of the biggest baits they had left up into the bushes. There a few big snook were waiting as Waylon had predicted.

“They hooked probably three big snook that were 35-plus inches but couldn’t pull them out of the bushes,” said Carl. “Everyone was a zombie by that point.”

“We lost them,” said Waylon, who looked at the positive. “But we got a big barracuda.”

While they didn’t have enough for a winning catch, the team with the youngest anglers in the field gained valuable experience. And they’ll be back soon to do it again.

“We’ll do it again next year. Now we know a little more of what we’re getting involved in.”