Al Reed picked an ideal time to catch the biggest bass of his life.

Reed, of Jupiter, caught a 10-pound, 14-ounce lunker to take big-fish honors in the Florida Invitational Bass Shootout Sunday and give his club, Beeline Bass Busters, the title.

The 15th annual event, sponsored by the Big Reel Bassmasters of Margate and held on Lake Okeechobee out of Okee-Tantie, offered bass clubs from as far away as Tampa the chance to see which has the best anglers. A team consisted of six anglers; 23 teams (138 anglers and 69 boats) competed.

Reed’s big fish gave him and teammates Norm Willoughby, Tony Akin, Byron Chastain, Larry Steele and Don Jarriel an easy victory. Their three boats produced stringers weighing 19-9, 19-5 and 15-10 for a total weight of 54 pounds, 8 ounces and a check for $1,376. Reed also won $690 for the big bass.

“As soon as I stuck him, I knew he was big,” said Reed, who caught the fish by casting a plastic worm into holes in the eel grass near Harney Pond on the west side of the lake.

The big fish, which was caught at 3 p.m., enabled Reed and partner Chastain to cull a bass weighing 1-5. Otherwise, Beeline, which consists mostly of retired Pratt-Whitney employees, would have finished second.

Defending champion Bass Rattlers of West Palm Beach was second at 47-9 and won $676. The team consisted of Harry Weishaar, Mike McGrew, Ron Mitchell, Eddie Grabenhorst, Dell Hatfield and Rick Wilhelm.

The Bass N’ Fools of Davie team of Bob Yoder, Russall Slick, Jim Barnick, Art Sacco, Gary Chupp and Ed Walker was third at 45-2 and won $338.

Reed’s catch was made even more exciting by the absence of a landing net, which had blown out of the boat on the ride down from Okee-Tantie Sunday morning. Chastain had to land the fish with his hands.

“It surged away from the boat probably three times,” Chastain said. “Then I couldn’t get my thumb into its mouth.”

Most of the Bass Rattlers — the club entered three teams — did their fishing in Bay Bottom, at the southeast end of the lake, which made for a long, bumpy run from Okee-Tantie, which is in the northwest corner.

“We just decided to go south and it paid off,” Weishaar said. “We caught fish there all day. We probably caught double and triple limits.”

Those fish came out of holes in the eel grass and hit a variety of lures, including topwater plugs, 7-inch plastic worms and lizards. Weishaar said the majority of their bass were caught on a shallow-running Bandit crankbait.

“We were throwing it into the holes and then cranking it,” he said. “It’d go down a foot, then we’d let it sit, then jerk it. They’d usually hit it after that.”

Catches

Deric Lauck and Art Smith caught 21 pounds, 2 ounces of fish to win the Big Reel Bassmasters of Margate monthly club tournament on Lake Okeechobee out of Okee-Tantie Saturday. Randy Arrowood and Rob Twiss were second at 12-8. Tony Valachovic and Jim Fox were third at 12-5. Lauck had the biggest bass at 4-12.

Scott Christophel caught five fish weighing 13 pounds, including the big bass of 6-1, to win the Everglades Bass Anglers monthly club tournament on Lake Okeechobee out of Okee-Tantie Saturday. Bob McDaniel was second at 10-12, followed by Joe Arcese at 10-10, Mike Beard at 10-7 and John Nydam at 7-6.

Tom Cass of Connecticut caught a 93-inch sailfish on a sardine in 135 feet off Port Everglades on the Flamingo drift boat Friday afternoon. Anglers also have been catching some nice kingfish at night.

Earl Clarck caught a 42-pound wahoo on the Helen S drift boat of Pompano Beach.

Corey Beck, 15, caught a 291/2-pound kingfish off Hollywood on Squid Pro Quo and Kyle Kylmanen, 16, caught a tuna 17 miles offshore Sunday. It was the first saltwater trip for the Wisconsin residents.

Hunter Clark of Weston celebrated his 8th birthday Thursday by catching and releasing his first tarpon, a 70-pounder, using live shrimp and 20-pound tackle, and three bonefish using shrimp and 8-pound spinning tackle fishing with his grandfather Bill Laswell and Capt. Carl Ball in Biscayne Bay. Ball also guided Pete Lovell of Denver to a 10-pound bonefish on 6-pound spinning tackle and Lovell and his wife, Corinne, also caught a 120-pound tarpon and two 30-pounders using live shrimp around Key Biscayne.

Fishing on his boat 4-Ever Fishing, Al Peranio of Lighthouse Point caught seven dolphin 5-10 pounds using live pilchards on flat and deep lines along a weedline in 750 feet off Hillsboro Inlet Saturday. He later got a 30-pound kingfish on a live tinker mackerel on a deep line in 140 feet and a sailfish on a kite bait in 200 feet.

Dave Schmidt and Chris Ghaubidi caught dolphin, wahoo, bonito and grouper fishing on Get Me Wet off the steeple Saturday morning.

Instead of a bachelor party for Matt Bohn of Delray Beach, Quinn Miklos of Boca Raton, Randy Callahan of Jupiter and Dana Blanton of Deerfield Beach took him fishing with Capt. Rob Delph in Key West. Fishing around wrecks in 40 feet, they caught 10 cobia 30-42 pounds and six kingfish 20-30. Bohn caught a 41 1/2-pound cobia on 8-pound line and a 29-pound kingfish on fly.

Ernest Lamb and Peter Carballo towed their boat Hook Em Up to Key West Saturday night and on Sunday caught dolphin of 45 and 40 pounds trolling ballyhoo. Then they moved to the reef where they caught two groupers, their limit of yellowtail snappers and a 55-pound cobia that ate one of the yellowtails.

Jim Costello of Marathon and Capt. Chris Hinckley caught 70 sea trout fishing out of Flamingo on Saturday.

Austin Mills and his son Chip, 13, caught snook, redfish, Spanish mackerel, mangrove snappers, ladyfish, jacks and whiting fishing out of the Port of the Islands Sunday with Capt. Jamie Brown.

Steve Waters can be reached at or at 954-356-4648.