SHANNON ROSE DOMINATES ZANE GREY

Shaun Keating was in his garden when his cell phone rang. He picked up and asked the caller, "How you doing? Are you happy?" When the caller, a reporter who called to get the details on Keating's boat Shannon Rose topping the Zane Grey Invitational, replied yes, Keating said, "Well, I bet you're not as happy as I am!"

Which was at least true by the sum of $54,662.50. That's the amount the team of the Shannon Rose won for catching the only two marlin of the two-day event held Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 13 and 14.

The Shannon Rose was captained by Jimmy Kingsmill. The angler on both fish was Barry Brightenburg. The first of the two -- both caught the first day -- exceeded the minimum size limit and ended up weighing a whopping 204 pounds. The boat's regular captain, Erik Carmac, was the gaffer. The rest of the team was made up of Keating, his son Kyle and Braden Ingling. The Shannon Rose is a 54 Bertram no stranger to the marlin victory circle. Formerly called the Gene's Machine, it was owned by renowned billfish angler Gene Price.

"What a dream, I can't believe we won the thing," said Keating, who only began competing in marlin tournaments two years ago. "I'm really lucky to be able to do this, I'm lucky with my business. My company makes dental implants -- basically we make teeth -- and the business has just been growing and growing in spite of the economy.

"Kyle has always liked to fish and fished a lot on the local half-day and 3/4-day boats. He said, 'Dad, we've got to get a boat.' He took me out on a 3/4-day trip and it was fun, we were catching lots of little calicos. Then I got this hit and it was a heavy fish. It turned out to be a 22-pound halibut and I won the jackpot. I said this is great. I'm a competitive guy and to beat out my son my first time, I was hooked. I said okay, let's get a boat."

Keating bought "a little 28 Bertram" and fished the Zane Grey and Catalina Classic last year.

"After that experience, I wanted a bigger boat," said Keating. "I met Jimmy (Kingsmill) at a seminar before the marlin tournaments last year, he was one of the speakers along with the Beak (Mike Hurt) and the other guys. He pointed me to the Gene's Machine."

"We had the Gene's Machine at the Crow's Nest and Shaun said he was interested in a bigger boat," said Rod Halperin, tournament director for the Zane Grey and the Catalina Classic. "It told him if you want a battlewagon, there it is. It had definitely been fished hard, and needed some work, but it's still a great boat."

"When I saw it I loved it and had to get it," said Keating. "I named it the Shannon Rose after my wife. Jimmy was great. He went fishing with us in the new boat and helped us get a feel for it and what needed to be done. Since the Bad Company wasn't going to fish the local events, I asked Jimmy if he wanted to fish with us as captain. He got us Barry (Brightenburg) and we spent two weeks pre-fishing. My captain Erik was all for it, he knows these guys are great fisherman.

"We went from country club to boot camp, it was incredible how hard these guys work," Keating noted. "Everybody has to be doing something, from hours and and hours in the gyros to standing in the cockpit watching the jigs. We learned more in the last two weeks than in the last two years."

Then as the tournament approached, it didn't look like the new team would get a chance to prove itself. "Two weeks out, we hit something, bent both props and cracked both shafts, But a down season was lucky for the Shannon Rose. In normal years boat yards would be backed up with work, but two new shafts were crafted and installed within a week. Then, with two days to go before the official start of the tournament, a turbo blew. "We tore that down, got it out, took it down to someplace in Santa Fe and had it back together in time to prefish the day before the tournament.

"My captain is good, but if you surround yourself with good people, good things happen. That first fish was pretty amazing. Barry got it up along the boat and he said this fish looks good. Jimmy said we've got to measure it, we're not going to kill anything unless it's a good one."

According to the rules of the Zane Grey, a qualifying marlin must measure at least 84 inches and weigh more than 165 pounds. Brightenburg, who was the designated "first caster", said it was apparent the striped marlin was a big fish from the moment it was spotted.

"There had been a little zone where the guys had been catching marlin, but you don't get many chances," said Brightenburg. "We got into a batch of fish midday and had some shots at tailers that didn't bite. We saw a guy get a bite about us and knew we were in the zone.
"There was this huge fin sticking three feet out of the water and Erik said, what was that? I said, that's a big striper," recalled Brightenburg. "We got on it, got a clean cast and had it to leader in 20 minutes."

"So we brought it up along the swimstep to measure it and here I am holding onto the bill of this monstrous, powerful fish and it wasn't that long ago I had never seen a marlin before," said Keating.

Measuring it was one thing, getting a gaff in it was another. The fish surged and it took quick work on the part of the captain and crew to keep the opportunity alive.

"The fish was tail-wrapped or something and Jimmy made this crazy maneuver with the boat while Barry whipped the rod around in circles," said Keating. The fired up marlin fought the 30-pound tackle for another hour and 10 minutes before Brightenburg got it back to leader and the waiting gaff of Carmac.

"All that time Jimmy never got excited," said Keating. "When we saw fish he was really animated, shouting out what everyone should do. But when we were hooked up he didn't let any emotion show. Until finally we pulled that fish in up the swim step through the transom door and he went crazy. It was a great moment."

The next fish was caught and released in three minutes.

"We all worked as a team --boom boom boom, hooked it, leadered it, got it on video (all catches have to be videoed with a time stamp), let it go," said Keating. "We were all pretty excited, then to come in and weigh it and have it go over 200 pounds."

With the only fish brought in, the Shannon Rose easily won all the daily pots and with such a quality fish on the board established a solid lead for the overall title going into the last day.

"The next day the weather was rough and we covered a lot of water with a lot of other people around us. We never got a bite, but nobody else caught a fish, either. We won the Zane Grey and I started getting all kinds of calls. I deal with dentists and doctors all over the country and a lot of them fish. It's amazing how many of them saw it on the Internet."

With no fish caught, that meant all the options rolled back to the first day and along with the overall award money every cent went to the team of the Shannon Rose.

"The same team is going to fish the Classic and hopefully we do well and head on down to Cabo," said Keating. "I want to fish the Bisbee now. Jimmy will be fishing on the Bad Company, but Barry can run the boat. They are such great fishermen and there is so much more to learn from them. I love this."