Trippe’s Tarpon Tournament, aka The 3T, was held April 22-25 in Key West, Florida, and raised $10,000 to support Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s continuing educational outreach focused on best practices for tarpon catch-and-release. The campaign will continue to encourage short fight times, reduced handling (no-touch releases preferred), and reducing shark interactions.
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the event, which focuses on conservation and proper fish handling. The 3T’s motto is “No Fish Out of the Water.” The tournament also limits fight times so that fish are released in good shape. The rules consider a fish as caught when the leader enters the tip of the fly rod. And the tournament equips each angler with a de-hooker to reduce the need for fish handling.
This year’s event added two new wrinkles—it was a team scoring event (previously individual anglers accumulated points), and points were also earned for bonefish, permit, and barracuda after catching at least one tarpon. The tournament had six teams (12 anglers). Fishing was good, although windy, and the tournament had two anglers complete Grand Slams (Aaron Adams and Tim Smith). “Before this year, we only had one slam in the twenty years of the tournament, so having two was pretty special” said tournament founder Steve Trippe. There were also good numbers of bonefish caught as well as some large barracuda.
This year’s event also resulted in the first tie for first place. There were two teams tied with 1550 points each, with the team of Tim Smith and Mike McCrary, guided by Captain Gabe Nyblad, winning the tiebreaker. The team of Aaron Adams and Steve Trippe, guided by Captain Bill Houze took second place honors. The team of Mark McGarrah and Frank Smith, guided by Captain Will Smith, took third place.
Tournament anglers and guides had numerous good discussions about how to change the mindset and practice of anglers who want a picture in today’s world of social media posts. “While there are some very good pictures out there, unfortunately there are probably more bad pictures than good when it comes to proper fish handling,” said Trippe. “Getting anglers to understand how much a fish is marginalized and often killed by bad handling, bad release techniques, or just too long of a fight is the overall goal. We hope that BTT’s continuing educational outreach to anglers will help more fish live to fight another day.”
A few years ago, Trippe stated in an interview that “if we do this right, nobody will know we were here, but they will have changed their fishing practices.” While there are many elements in the fishery that anglers cannot control, fish handling is the one element completely in the hands of anglers. It is essential that anglers and guides practice best catch-and-release practices to make sure our fisheries remain sustainable and healthy.
The 2025 3T was sponsored by Bajio Sunglasses, YETI, and The Saltwater Angler.
