Second place wasn’t good enough, so he came back for first!
Well, there you have it, folks, another Fisherman Dream Boat Challenge is in the books, and the winner this year is no stranger to our leaderboard. As a matter of fact, the first-place winner of The Fisherman’s 2024 Dream Boat Fishing Challenge is , Kyle Krause. Though he narrowly missed a first place win in the ’23 contest he comfortably landed the second-place spot, which nabbed him a sweet “Fishing Trip of a Lifetime” to Costa Rica. Being the determined, talented and persistent angler that he is, the second place finish wasn’t enough for Kyle, and he came back with a vengeance for this year’s contest, with a commanding first-place win. Major Kudos to you, Kyle, for staying the course and bringing home the Grand Prize Steiger Craft, Yamaha, Minn Kota, Humminbird package in 2024!
Creating Breathing Room
The ’23 contest was a literal down-to-the-wire tie-breaking event between Bobby Cifarelli and Kyle Krause, and this year’s competition was shaping up that way until the beginning of November before Krause iced a first position 4.7-pound sea bass and a tog weighing in at 8.95 pounds, grabbing the second slot in that category. These two late-season submissions moved Kyle up from third place overall to first, skipping over Ahmed Soliman and bumping Scott Waterman from first to second. At that point in time, Kyle was in command of the lead with a double-digit margin. A November 20th tog submission from Ahmed moved Scott out of second and into third place, and while it wasn’t enough to top Krause, it still brought on a little late-season heat by narrowing the gap even more.
Kyle had booked a Captain Lou Fleet wreck trip 2-1/2 months before the board shuffle for a November wreck trip and three days prior to the trip, it got canceled, and then the next trip he rebooked got canceled. He jumped on the Super Hawk for a similar style trip, fishing a South Shore wreck. Kyle was looking for a big porgy to create even more breathing room with Soliman creating some last-minute leaderboard buzz because with this contest, anything is possible, and you never know what will come in. Even though he didn’t catch the porgy he was looking for on that mission, his lead was still commanding enough to close the deal and maintain his position, securing himself the win.
You could say that Krause nailed these two game-changing fish just in time because right after they hit the board and shuffled the top three, the fans came on across the Northeast, plaguing the region with tough fishing conditions for the rest of the month. So while all anglers, including Krause, have distain for cold fall winds (less time fishing), it certainly benefited him by keeping all of the other top contenders at bay for the month, ensuring him a smooth first-place ride until the end of the contest with no last second shakeups. After passing a professionally administered polygraph test, Krause became the official 2024 Dream Boat Fishing Challenge winner – he wins the inshore fish-catching machine, the Steiger Craft 21-foot Classic Center Console powered by a powerful, yet reliable and efficient Yamaha 150-horsepower outboard motor, with a Humminbird SOLIX 10 CHIRP MEGA SI+ G3 and Minn Kota Riptide Terrova 112v Trolling Motor. In my opinion, the 21-foot Steiger, paired with that power and armed with those electronics, is one of the best rigs you can fish inshore waters in the Northeast – the ultimate prize for any angler in the area.
Second Place Winner, Ahmed Soliman wins the trip of all trips this year. He, along with a guest of his choosing, will be treated to a five-day/four-night stay at Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. The trip includes inshore fishing trips, along with world-class accommodations in a tropical fishing paradise. Third place winner Scott Waterman walks away with the Sea Eagle FishSkiff 16, a ‘tough as nails’ inflatable skiff that is completely inflatable, portable, storable, and transportable, and will accommodate two anglers.
Let’s also not forget that throughout the duration of the contest, other lucky anglers were nabbing the Largest of Species Prizes, which consisted of 6.5-inch Visser-Grip pliers, Fin-Nor Sunglasses, or Shurhold $200 Gift Cards. Fish of the Month prizes also were given out, and they were made up of Tsunami SaltX 2 Reels and Dexter Dextreme 7-inch Dual Edge flexible fillet knives; on top of all that, finalist prizes were divvied out that were made up of Owner Hooks and Tsunami Swim Shads. That’s a whole lot of fishing goodies ending up in the hands of participating contest anglers!
Kyle’s Story
Being that Kyle Krause, a resident of Cutchogue on the North Fork of Long Island, he brought the gold back to the island, I had the honor of talking with Kyle to get his take on this year’s contest and how he went about pulling off the win. Kyle grew up on the North Fork of Long Island and has been on a boat since a young age. His dad actually had a 21-foot Steiger Craft Block Island model that he was fishing off of before he could even walk. As he grew up he learned the waters of Shinnecock Bay with his brother, “like the back of his hand” for fluke, which he still fishes. His favorite kind of fishing these days is probing the various wrecks, reefs, and rock piles out of Shinnecock and Montauk for tog, sea bass, and cod. One thing he mentioned to me, which stood out, was that during his teenage years, he did quite a bit of fishing out of a 16-foot Steiger Craft Hunky Dory that he totally rebuilt himself. During my chat with Kyle, his fishing passion was very apparent, and we shared some insights about some of the shared waters that we fished before getting into some of his responses to my Dream Boat-related questions.
Here are some of the questions I asked the winner and his responses.
Q: Kyle, being that you were so close to winning last year’s contest, did you do anything differently to pull off the win this year? If so, what was it?
A: “What I did differently was I targeted different species at different times of the year so that I would not waste time targeting species that would not gain me points on the board. For example, I focused on proven locations where I typically caught sea bass and tog in year’s past during the ’24 contest more than before which paid off during the late part of the contest and gave me the points to bounce ahead.”
Q: What was your most memorable fishing moment of the contest?
A: “It was actually previous to the contest. I had my personal best blackfish in 8 feet of water at 12-1/2 pounds in April, which psyched me up for the contest to begin in May and gave me the motivation to try my best. At the same time I was disappointed because that would have been a top placing fish if I could submit it at that time.”
Q: What are your plans for your new 21-footer next season?
A: “Lots of weakfishing inside Peconic Bay for sure. The Minn Kota Spot Lock will come in handy for setting up on the North Fork rock piles for tog as well as setting up drift courses when the drift conditions are not the most ideal for fluke.”
Q: What can you attribute your angling success to the most this year?
A: “A lot time fishing and being out on the water. Taking vacations at the right times and checking the weather constiantly. Also using the last year’s leaderboard to my advantage by seeing what time would be the best to target certain species.”
Q: What advice would you give future participants looking to take home the first place prize in 2025?
A: “Dedicating time to the tournament is certainly the most important. Weigh in any fish that might even grab you 9th or 10th place in the individual categories and let the family know you’re going to be taking some vacation time to strictly go fishing for this season-long event.”
For those who love fishing competitions and would like the chance to win a brand new, decked out boat, The Fisherman Magazine will again run the Dream Boat Challenge in 2025. You won’t have to go up against multi-year proven angler Kyle though, because first place winners are no longer eligible to compete, but you’ll certainly have your hands full with the other fierce competitors. We’re giving you a challenge once again – do you have what it takes to come out on top and make the dream come true?
