Congratulations GULF COAST TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONS Team Supreme
The ‘Chase’ is Over as ‘Team Supreme’ Surges Past Eight Teams
Wins 1st Place Catch & Release at Blue Marlin Grand Championship
Captures 2023 Gulf Coast Triple Crown
For Immediate Release Contact: Jim Cox
(251) 802-2664
wahooproductions@gmail.com
The quest to win the 2023 Gulf Coast Triple Crown was more about a ‘Chase’ than the chase. Captain Chase Lake and ‘Team Supreme’ a 72′ Viking from Destin, Florida, entered the final leg of the season- long competition as the team with the fewest points on the leaderboard. Their third-place finish in Catch and Release at Biloxi gave them one hundred points through the first three events. Although they were only one hundred and fifty points behind the current leader, the more significant challenge was the number of teams ahead of them. Eight teams fishing the Blue Marlin Grand Championship had more points than them, so they knew they would need an epic weekend to have a chance at the trophy.
After not catching a fish on the first afternoon of the tournament, Team Supreme had a Friday that owner Allen Krake and crew will never forget. Angler Alex Krake caught six Blue Marlin in nine hours, releasing five and boating a 113″ fish that weighed 475.40 pounds. The five releases moved Team Supreme into the Catch and Release lead with one day of fishing remaining. Adding another Blue Marlin release by Krake on Saturday morning, giving them a total of six for the tournament, would solidify the win in the Catch and Release division as well as two-hundred and fifty Gulf Coast Triple Crown points. Their point total of three-hundred and fifty on the season moved them one hundred points ahead of the nearest competitors.
“I’ve been fortunate to fish all over the world,” said owner Allen Krake. “The captains and crews on the Northern Gulf Coast are the best of the best. To win the Triple Crown against the competition we face in every tournament is what makes this such a special accomplishment.”
“To win the Gulf Coast Triple Crown and be recognized as the top team among your peers is why we, as captains and crews, do this,” said Captain Chase Lake. “To celebrate with our entire team, where every member has a job to do, and each job is just as important as the next. Everyone on the boat constantly works their tails off to give ourselves a chance to get the most bites and catch the most fish, and this is the payoff for all that hard work.”
2017 Gulf Coast Triple Crown winner, Captain Jeff Shoults on the Mollie, who held the lead heading into the season finale, presented Team Supreme with their championship trophy and was proud of his former deckhand who started working with him when he was only fourteen. “Captain Chase Lake has elevated himself among the elite captains in the Gulf, and this year showed he is the best among us,” said Shoults as he grabbed a bottle of champagne and helped celebrate another Destin boat taking the crown.
Chris Bazar of Grander Marine, the Gulf Coast Triple Crown title sponsor, congratulated Team Supreme at the tournament awards ceremony. “As someone who fishes these tournaments, I know exactly what it takes to compete against these great teams. I am so proud of the season and especially the weekend Captain Chase and his crew had … to catch six Blue Marlin in one day in the Gulf of Mexico is something very few boats have ever done. It’s a championship well deserved.”
Team Supreme joins Mollie as the second Florida boat to win the Gulf Coast Triple Crown. They will start their defense of the championship next May at The Wharf in Orange Beach when the competition enters its fourteenth year.
