14 West Palm Beach Fishing Club pompanette.com • Sales contact mike_murray@pompanette.com on the final day.  Once again, the majority of the fleet headed north. Normally, the persistent southerly wind would be frowned upon by sailfish anglers.  However, the agitated sea condition energized the fish improving the morning bite from the previous day.  A total of ten teams released four or more fish during the first three hours of fishing.  Locally based Old No. 7/ Propayroll and Miami based Remix/ Freebird continued their slugfest at the top of the leaderboard.  With a whole lot of pride on the line, a classic north versus south shootout was develop- ing.  Southern Run, Native Son, Sore Subject, Goin’ Raptor and Fish On were also grinding their way up the scoreboard and soon found themselves within striking range of the lead.  By noon every boat in the Derby fleet had posted one or more sailfish releases for the tournament.  The Palm Beaches were living up to their reputation as the Sailfish Sector of the Gulfstream.  While other teams were out finding fish, Team Southern Ground found themselves stuck at the dock.  A live well and float switch issue nearly sunk their boat the preceding night.  With dogged determi- nation they were able to recover from their misfortune and were back on the water by mid-day.  Karma was definitely at work when they soon hooked a triple-header sail not far from Palm Beach Inlet. With only two hours remaining it was evident that this years tourna- ment would come right down to the wire.  Nearly a dozen teams had po- sitioned themselves close to the top.  Teams Seraphim, LaLa, Griffin, Sore Subject, Miss Annie and Reel Capti- vating were all ascending the leader- board.  Teams Remix/Freebird, Na- tive Son, Southern Run and Old No. 7/Propayroll were battling it out at the top.  With less than an hour to go three teams each had 16 overall sails.  Deteriorating weather was also coming into play.  Heavy rain, strong winds and building seas challenged the fleet in the final half hour.  As it turned out the rain, which forced teams to pull in their kites, would be Southern Run’s savior.  While clearing their water logged kite they deployed a threadfin herring off the bow on a spinning rod just to keep a bait in the water.  The move paid off producing their seventeenth sailfish release with 2018 winner of the prestigious Rea Trophy, awarded to the angler with the most individual releases, Mike Simko.