02.17.21 Fish Village + PYGMY 2021

We are pleased to announce our continued partnership for the 2021 PYGMY Offshore Kayak Fishing Tournament hosted in Navarre Beach, Florida.

Last year Derrick Benton of 85th Day hosted the first iteration of his GOAT offshore kayak fishing tournament called PYGMY. Why PYGMY??? Because it is nearly impossible to create the best ever offshore kayak fishing tournament during a pandemic… options are incredibly limited. So what is the next best thing to a full size goat… a Pygmy goat of course.

The difference between a Pygmy goat and a regular goat is that the regular goat can get bigger, much like this event. The first step towards being the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) is to give anglers a reason to take this event seriously… Derrick just gave everyone $50,000 reasons why you should participate in PYGMY 2021.

If the little goat gets $50,000, what does this tournament look like when it grows into the full size G.O.A.T.? We know one thing for sure… we are sticking around to find out.

We will be sharing more about this event over the next few months. All event info and updates can be found on the official PYGMY 2021 event page.

Learn about Yahtzee King and how you can win a two (2) day guided fishing trip with Brian Nelli to either South Louisiana and South Florida.

PYGMY GOAT 2021

The best offshore kayak fishing tournament is backā€¦ PYGMY 2 is back badder than ever with $50,000 on the line. Fish Village and 85th Day have teamed up again in 2021 to support Derrick\’s vision for the best offshore kayak fishing tournament out there.. With Derrick at the helm… the shenanigan\’s surrounding the event will be equally as intense as the fishing.

When

Saturday June 19th, 2021

Where

Navarre Beach Florida

Registration

Opening soon

Fish Village Yahtzee King

At weigh-in, before the first fish is weighed, 5 dice will be rolled and summed to determine the target weight. If the sum is a 5, the smallest fish will win. If the sum is 6 through 30, the closest fish without going over will win the prize provided by Fish Village. In the extremely unlikely event of a tie, those fish in question will be transported to the nearest scale that can read to the next decimal place, thus breaking the tie.

Trip Prize

Choice to fish south Louisiana for marsh reds and trout OR south Florida\’s famous freshwater, inshore and offshore fisheries with Fish Village\’s Brian Nelli.

  • 2 days of guided fishing
  • Kayak + gear
  • Lodging
  • Meals
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps?q=Navarre%20Beach%20Florida&output=embed&hl=en-US&z=12&w=425&h=350]

PYGMY Related News

02.04.21 South Louisiana Behind the Trip Part 3

The South Louisiana Behind the Trip series continues…

One of the best parts of this trip for me personally was getting to meet some of the Fish Village pro staff in person. 2020 robbed us of just about every opportunity to meet with our team, our customers, our partners… basically humans. We were not alone with this… we know that everyone was basically in the same boat. So the opportunity to see even a handful of the team members was certainly one of my highlights.

The team members present for this event were:

  • Jesse Landry (Nor Cal)
  • Billy Centrone (So. Flo)
  • Sean Rigby (Mississippi)
  • Brian Nelli (So. Flo)
  • Derrick Benton (Pandhandle)

Why do we have a team? Why is that important to us? Because a team is considerably stronger than one. This trip wouldn\’t have happened without the support of a team. Every member of this group regardless of their affiliation to Fish Village acted as a member of a team. It was super cool to see.

This is why I have been taking the time to write my story about this event because everyone made it happen and I want to share my appreciation with all of you.

You guys know about my boy Jesse Landry already… I mentioned him in Part 2. Never met anyone that has a bad thing to say about Jesse… the dude is as solid as they come.

The Fish Village crew came to play, but they also wanted to help in any way possible. Billy without hesitation offered to pickup the Cali boys from the airport and then run them back at the tail end of the trip. Sean worked his ass off with Ivy to secure our incredible, custom Louisiana/Fish Village topwater lures from RD Fishing Tackle. These lures were part of the Redfish tackle packs provided by Fish Village and our partners.

I don\’t think anyone would argue that Brian Nelli was our pro among pros on this trip. His fishing knowledge leads his clients to the promise land year after year, all while competing in kayak fishing\’s biggest tournaments… and often finds himself on the podium. The best part about Brian is that you can just ask for some help and he won\’t be shy with sharing his tactics. Multiple people commented on how fishing with Brian makes them a better angler. Heck of a testimonial.

Our friend and tournament partner in crime, Derrick Benton actually wasn\’t that excited about the fishing aspect of the trip… I mean can you blame him when 3 Mile Bridge is just minutes away? Though the fishing wasn\’t foremost on his mind… the \”hang\” was. The opportunity to mingle, share ideas, talk shit, and laugh with some good kayak fishing minds was the golden ticket for Derrick. The best part about his journey was that he LOVED the fishing despite incredibly challenging conditions AND the social aspect was equally as rewarding. Why mention all of this… because I feel the same way. I wasn\’t hooked on redfishing in the marsh and I just wanted to see some of the people I respect and care about. I ended up walking away with such an appreciation for marsh redfishing and all of these human interactions on and off the water. Ohhh… he also got up before the sun rose and made sandwiches for the group, produced some BEAUTIFUL custom Fish Village rods for yours truly, my Pops and Joe. And if that wasn\’t enough, he and Ivy surprised me with an insane acid wrapped Fish Village rod just to say thank you for being a part of the journey. Simply incredible.

Thank you all for showing up in your own ways and making our team stronger.

The story continues…

02.01.21 An octopus walked into a bar…

This story is about our dumb luck friend Charlie… for the record, he even named his new boat Dumb Luck. This story took place easily five (5) years ago, if not longer while fishing the kelp beds off of the Strands out of Dana Point California.

The day started off as usual, we rolled into the Pure Watersports parking lot late (thanks Joe), Charlie was impatient and nothing went to plan. At some point we launched and charged north towards the headlands. We were in search of sheephead and big bass.

See… we do a lot of shit talking. I am pretty confident that the majority of the banter exchanged between Joe, Charlie, Tommy and I is largely nonsense. So with that knowledge… imagine how this would go down:

Charlie blurts out \”I got something\” over the radio. For the most part, we didn\’t think much of it. Then we heard him start screaming… not the big fish kind of screaming, more like laughing and terrified at the same time.

We couldn\’t understand what was going on… not that it mattered because he started heading our direction. As Chuckles started to get closer, we realized that he had an octopus on his line. This is where it gets hilarious.

Apparently Charlie does NOT like octopuses… As he was trying to figure out how to remove an animal with 8 arms, a beak and squirts ink on ya we chimed in and said… \”Whatever you do, don\’t let it touch your kayak!\” SMACK!

That was the sound of the octopus sticking onto Charlie\’s kayak which provoked Charlie to climb onto his seat and threaten to abandon ship and swim back. We laughed so hard. Fortunately for Charlie… the big bad mini octopus (yeah that is right, it was small) worked it\’s way to the bottom of his kayak and eventually let go and swam off. Both Charlie and the octopus (that is a good title for a book) were safe and unharmed.

Thanks again Charlie for a good laugh!