Earlier this year the 1st annual Marathon Premier Sailfish Tournament raised $10,000 for a fantastic organization named Mission Fishin’. For those unfamiliar, Mission Fishin’ is an organization founded by Mr. Tony Davis.Tony started the organization to benefit children with special needs, foster children, and their caretakers and families.

With three boys, one having special needs, Tony and his beautiful wife Alison know the importance of putting a smile on these children’s faces. Taking a family fishing, snorkeling, or cruising around the beautiful Florida Keys is an excellent way to do this! In addition to being the founder of the MPS Tournament, I co-own a fishing charter business with my husband, Captain Marty Lewis.

Through our fishing charter business Main Attraction, I first met Tony Davis, RJ Boyle, and everyone involved with the Mission Fishin’ organization. After a few years of providing Mission Fishin’ with our boats for fishing outings and seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces year after year, I decided I wanted to do more to help this great organization.

Tony Davis (left) and RJ Boyle (right)

Hence the Marathon Premier Sailfish Tournament was born. MPST is both an annual fundraising fishing tournament event and a non-profit organization that raises funds for worthy causes like Mission Fishin’.

Mission Fishin; is a South Florida-based organization that ventures down to the Florida Keys several times a year. They sponsor monthly outings free of charge for families that truly deserve it. Main Attraction Sportfishing typically reserves October, which is the last month of our slow season.

When the Mission Fishin crew and families showed up at our new Marathon Sailfish Marina location this past October 22, 2023, Mr. Tony (a pastor) led us in morning prayer. The day was gorgeous. The sun was shining, the winds were perfect, and the kids and families were thrilled to get out on the water and go fishing.

RJ and Tony divided the families into the four Main Attraction Vessels, introduced everyone, and started to untie the lines. It’s always fun when Captain Marty puts RJ and Tony’s fishing rap songs on to get the party started. The kids, families, and crews were dancing and moving to the beat.

Each vessel pulled out of its slips, and away they went. Within an hour, the boats were reporting different fish species were being caught. The boats caught yellowtail snapper, different types of mackerel, mangrove snapper, black grouper, yellow jacks, and one boat even caught a blue parrotfish.

We had one kiddo named Cade, and he was a yellowtail slayer. Once we got back to the dock, he was very interested in learning how to filet his catch, so Captain Jonathan pulled up a cooler for Cade to stand on and showed him how to handle and filet his yellowtail snapper. This kid was in hog heaven, taking it all in and loving life.

Cade the “Yellowtail Slayer”

Once all the boats returned to the marina, we displayed their catch on the racks and filet tables. The groups all told stories and compared what types of fish they caught. The mates started to clean the boats, and captains filleted the catch. Lots of delicious fish were sent home with each group to enjoy for meals to come.

The smiles you see on these kids’ faces were priceless. We have met some terrific families along the way through Mission Fishin and continue to see them grow their social media updates.

Ally and her brother Braydon

While RJ, Tony, and I were simultaneously in the same place, we did a few interviews with the photographer we had along for the day. Last year’s primary recipient of the Marathon Premier Sailfish Tournament fundraising efforts was Mission Fishin. So, we shot some content to help promote the 2023 event. Some of that video is available in this article; we hope you enjoy it!

If you would like to be involved in our 2023 Event, reach out to us using the contact page or by calling (305) 783-8313. We hope to see you next year on Apr 21st and 22nd for some exciting Sailfish action!