‘Kind of surreal.’ Local fisherman takes home first place with huge black grouper catch

As a multiple-time winner at the St. Pete Open, Pat Bennett was close to bringing home another crown at last weekend’s 59th rendition of the “world’s largest spearfishing tournament.”

“The day started out with high hopes,” said Warren Hunt, Bennett’s teammate and dive partner during the Open with Team ESea Rider. “We knew it would be a bit rough early. But we were ready. I’m active duty so don’t get to dive all the time, so the first dive was a good shake-out. But the first few spots were dead with not much going on.”

The day would soon turn around with big fish, Bennett striking first.

“We went to a spot where I shot a 50-pound black grouper last year. Me and Pat rolled on it and that’s where Pat got his big grouper. He saw the fish before I did. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

No stranger to big black grouper, Bennett found himself with another nearing 100 pounds as he rose to the surface and seemed destined for the podium once again. At the next spot in 190 feet of water, Hunt readied up once again, allowing his teammates to hit the water first.

“When I hit the water I pulled my bands back and started heading down. Around 40 feet of water, I started to make out a shape coming from the blue,” recalled Hunt. “This fish, another big black, got within about two feet of Pat in 90 feet of water. I snuck up behind him, took a shot and stoned him. I grabbed it and thought ‘I can’t believe I just did this,’ taking in the awe of the moment for a second.”

The unusual midwater encounter was another huge black grouper for the teammates. Hunt was shocked to see it leave its structured home on the bottom below. Once secured, he continued his descent, where big fish on the bottom were also present.

“Pat went down with Megan Bogdanos and I shot a 17-pound cubera snapper. There was a bigger one, probably 95 to 100 pounds and a couple other black grouper, but we didn’t want to leave it barren. I headed back up and my total dive time was only 16 minutes.”

In the boat Bennett was stoked for his teammate, telling others of the circumstances and the shot that hit the black grouper right in the brain to kill it instantly. As they compared sizes, Hunt wasn’t sure his was bigger.

“I thought mine was in the 80s, Pat thought it was 100 pounds,” he said.

As the day wound down not everything went as smoothly as the diving. Bennett’s son, Austin, came up from a dive after suffering a medical emergency.

“It proved how quick things can go from great to terrible. We got him on O2 and breathing again. We called into the Coast Guard and were able to meet them off Ft. Myers. He was bay flighted in from there. It was a lot of lessons learned,” explained Hunt. “Luckily no one got more hurt than what could have happened. After something like that, I was pretty worn out.”

Pat joined Austin while the rest of the team headed for the weigh-in. Both big fish were gutted and brought to the scales. Bennett’s grouper weighed 86.05 pounds. Hunt’s would bend the scale even more at 98.45 pounds. Even with the nearly triple-digit weight, he didn’t believe it.

“I didn’t think I’d take home first place honestly. There’s always someone else out there with a bigger one in previous years. Until the very end, I was expecting someone to come in with a 100-pound fish.”

But the bigger fish never came, and Hunt remained in first overall with the biggest black grouper.

“It felt kind of surreal. After everything we went through that day, I was happy and excited but not as much as I could have been. But it felt good,” Hunt said.

Other division winners include Brett Booth, scamp grouper at 13.9 pounds; Caleb Padgett, cubera snapper at 76.5 pounds; Mirco Zanella, cobia at 33.85 pounds; Chad Herralnd, African pompano at 21.25 pounds; Cole Strickland, 5.60-pound lobster; Ritchie Zacker, 6.3-pound sheepshead and Brandon Konitzer with a 17.75-pound hogfish.

In the female division, Rosibel Molina would bring home first place with 32.2 points, while Hunt’s teammate Bogdanos would take third with 20.35 points.