Fishing: Community School student upstages big boys at Gene Doyle PHOTOS

NAPLES — This is the great thing about the Gene Doyle Fishing Tournament: world-class anglers might abound among its competitors, but a 12 year-old girl will sometimes turn in the performance of the day.

While the IGFA big shot team of Jeff Ball and Troy Pruitt battled it out in the adult open division with the equally the adept duo of Chris Turner and Rich Gordon in the annual event’s first day, Gabby Demarest had them beat, hands down.

Or, more accurately, with one hand down.

Both of the top two adult open teams closed out their cards by catching four of each of the tourney’s target species — redfish, snook and trout. But it was Demarest, who leads the youth open division going into Sunday’s second and final stage, that had the score-posting party crowd at Sunshine Ace Hardware in East Naples cheering.

The Community School student closed out snook, plus one redfish and one trout on Saturday and did it with her right hand, her casting hand, in a plaster cast. She broke her hand last month while competing in a taekwondo tournament.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, she was sporting fresh scars on her right shoulder from surgery last month.

“I can’t move my shoulder that well,” she said. “And I had to kind of cast sideways with my hand, which made it a lot harder. But it was fun.”

Gabby fished with her 9-year-old brother, Chad, both competing for the third straight year. Upon their uncle Richard Connolly’s 18-foot Actioncraft, the duo trawled the waters of Lovers Key while their father, Richard, baited their lines with shiners.

After Saturday, Chad, who won the youth trophy for biggest trout last year, was in third place, behind Chris Dagge. Chad and Gabby tied for the biggest trout of the day, but it was the younger brother who had the better story to tell.

“The gator trout kept circling around the boat,” said Chad, also a student at Community School. “It took a long time to get it on the boat. I had to keep moving with it. I didn’t want to lose it in the blade of the rudder.”

In the youth guided division, it was another family affair. Reagan Thalheimer led on Saturday with 750 points. She was closely followed by Cory Berning in second. Reagan’s brother, Ben, was tied for third with Daemel Thomas.

“This tournament is really about the kids,” said Pruitt, who was the tournament’s grand champion in 2007 and 2008. In the past two years, Pruitt has finished second in the Florida Keys Outfitters/IGFA Inshore World Championships, in which the winner of the Gene Doyle gets an automatic bid.

“That’s the most important thing,” said Pruitt who fished off Chokoloskee on Saturday with Ball. “To see all the kids this year and that all the sponsored kids received a rod and reel with line.

“When I was a kid, getting those were the best.”

In the adult guided division, the team of Tom Conroy, Bill Gonnering and Craig Timmins were in first place.

The tournament, which funds the Gene Doyle Adventure Scholarship program, concludes Sunday. The awards banquet will be held at the Hilton Naples.