Lee fights the sea for a bit of fishing glory

OUTDOORS By JEFF KLINKENBERG
St. Petersburg Times, Sunday, May 27 1979

Jim Lee is afraid of things that go bump in the night, which is why he doesn't like to operate his boat after dark. Bad things can happen. A large freighter may suddenly looming the gloom. .
But one of the worst things happened one night a few years ago when his boat struck something floating in the gulf west of St. Petersburg. Lee feared he'd torn a hole in the bottom of his boat. He was even more frightened because the floating object resembled a mine.
"The Coast Guard wanted me to haul it in," said Lee, whose boat weathered the incident. "But I wasn't able to find it in the dark. And maybe that was fortunate."
Lee was operating his boat in the dark again this week end during a unique contest that pitted human beings against fish and the sea: The eighth annual Old Salt Loop Fishing Tournament that ends today. "It's a test of nerves, skills, boats and weather," said Lee, who has fished in seven of the contests. "It separates the men from the boys."
Spectators can see how men, boys and boats survived the experience when competitors weigh their fish beginning at 4 p.m. today at Maderia Beach Municipal Marina, 503 150th Avenue N at maderia Beach.
Sponsored by the Old Salt Fishing Club, the tournament is a two-day, two-night competition that occurs far offshore in the Loop Current, a wide stream of warm Caribbean water that enters the cooler Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Channel, loops through the eastern gulf and then exits below the Florida Keys.
As it swirls through the gulf at 2 1/2 knots, the Loop Current retains its Caribbean identity. Warmer than adjacent gulf waters, the current contains large concentrations of plankton, the microscopic organisms that begin the food chain. Plankton attract tiny grazing fish, which attract larger fish that are eventually devoured by large predators like billfish and tuna that are otherwise rarely caught in the gulf.
the Position of the loop is always changing. For anglers who wish to sample the fruits of the loop, that is the problem. Although the current is sometimes as close as 50 miles, it often meanders as far as 200 miles from the coast.
That has happened this spring. the main loop is about 200 miles from St. Petersburg. Old Salters this weekend had to fish in what they call eddies - sections of the current that broke off from the main loop and spun closer to shore.
Lee, a 42-year-old Tampa businessman, is know as much for his fishing ability as his penchant for turning bad luck into good fortune. Lee's 65 pound-sailfish , a tournament record, still provokes groans from friends who remember the catches circumstances in 1973. Lee was fishing in a small boat with engine trouble when he caught the fish. And before he landed the sailfish, while his boat was undertow because the engines were operating at all, he trolled a bait and caught king mackerel and bonita.
Lee caught another sailfish last year, making the most of a potential disaster. Lee was slowing down his boat, preparing to catch bottom-dwelling fish,when a sailfish surfaced, slashed the one bait being trolled and headed for Mexico. the sailfish wrapped the line around a buoy Lee had dropped to mark the location of a reef. "I was sure i was going to loose that fish,"said Lee, who did not.
On several occasions, Lee could have lost something more valuable than a fish. Once while navigating at night through the shipping channel, he was nearly run down by a large freighter. during another loop tournament, Lee and a friend decided to return to shore because of rough weather and an unpleasant thunderstorm heading in their direction. Although they made the 50 mile voyage back to St. Petereburg without incident, Lee's engine lost oil pressure just as the boat slipped into the dock. Part of his engine had rusted through.
"You've got to be ready for anything," Lee said. that's why he also carries a swim mask. He had to us a mask last year when some fishing line wrapped around his propeller. In rough seas, he pulled on his mask and hopped overboard to clear his prop of the line.
"The water was 200 fathoms-about 1200 feet deep," Lee said. "I never looked down. I was afraid I might see something that might like to eat me."