FORT PIERCE — Walking the grounds of the Pelican Yacht Club, it’s easy to see why club founders snapped at the chance to acquire the land in 1946. Simply put, it is prime real estate.

Especially for folks who enjoy a day of competitive sailfish action.

A few days after the Treasure Coast rings in a new decade, the shrimp cocktail, oysters Rockefeller and steamed King crab legs will hit the linen tablecloths of the serving tables in the club’s Anchor Dining Room.

The guests will not be the usual crowd accustomed to enjoying evening dinners overlooking the Fort Pierce Inlet. Instead, the invited will be men and women who at dawn the next morning will charge through the protective breakwaters of the inlet into the cool, rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean in search of hungry sails.

The Pelican Yacht Club’s annual Invitational Billfish tournament will celebrate its 30th anniversary Jan. 5-9 in what has become typical Pelican Yacht Club style. Tournament anglers, captains and crews will revel in good food, friendly service and warm camaraderie and fellowship while being thrilled by what can be one of the best weeks to target sailfish.

In three decades of angling competition, the Pelican Yacht Club affair has grown from a small friendly tournament among club members into the area’s showcase event. But even since its early days, the quality of the field has consisted of a who’s who of the Atlantic’s best sailfish-chasing skippers and anglers.

The names on the tournament’s trophy case are led by none other than Capt. Chip Shafer, longtime owner of the charter boat Temptress. For more than 20 winter seasons, the Oregon Inlet, N.C.-based Shafer made Fort Pierce part of his charter fishing rotation stopping here mainly to guide customers to the legendary sailfish action nearby.

While in town, Shafer collected numerous tournament victories and still ranks as the winningest skipper for the Pelican Yacht Club Invitational and Stuart Sailfish Club Light Tackle Tournament.

Other winning captains all with Fort Pierce roots include Capt. Sam Crutchfield, Capt. Glenn Cameron, Capt. Mike Everly and most recently Capt. Mike Brady. All have developed reputations as some of the finest skippers in the western Atlantic.

The Pelican Yacht Club Invitational has been an event open to all entrants since it shifted its dates from early December to early January during the 1996-1997 season. The move was necessitated by the tournament’s inclusion as the third and final leg of the Treasure Coast Sailfish Championship series begun the same season.

The Championship was created by local sailfish tournament organizers as a way to help showcase the region’s legacy of great sailfishing and great tournament competition. Since its inception, the Pelican affair has provided the backdrop for the Championship’s final week of rod-to-rod drama. Most years, the Championship is won and lost based on what occurs during the Pelican event.

Then the historic club hosts the awards gala for both its own tournament as well as the Championship.

The El Nino Affect

Since the springtime, the National Weather Service has pointed to warming currents in the Eastern Pacific Ocean as a major forecasting tool for weather patterns affecting the United States. The phenomenon of a strong El Nino has not let weathermen down either, as those forecasts have been very accurate.

So how does a strong El Nino affect Treasure Coast sailfish patterns?

“It’s anybody’s guess how the fishing is going to be,” said Capt. Glenn Cameron of Floridian, winners of last season’s Finest Kind quickie, Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic and Treasure Coast Sailfish Championship. “For the past month, it’s been hard to figure out where the fish are going to be one day to the next.”

Cameron said recently there seems to be little or no pattern with respect to where the sailfish will pop up on a given day. Some days the fishing has been good north of Sebastian Inlet, the next day the bite is reported off Boynton Beach.

Expert anglers will warn that predicting fishing patterns involves much less reliability than predicting weather. But three previous times when strong El Ninos were in effect — 1977, 1994 and 1997 — sailfish anglers and charter captains enjoyed brief periods of very good fishing.

All three years, teams assembled for the area’s oldest fishing tournament, the Stuart Sailfish Club’s Light Tackle Tournament, caught and released record numbers of sailfish. In January of 1977, the time snow fell on the Treasure Coast, Light Tackle teams caught and released 303 sailfish. In December 1994, the fleet bettered its record by one — 304.

Then, on Dec. 9, 1997, the tournament’s opening day, 38 boats in the fleet shattered those records catching and releasing 382 sails on warm, calm seas. The week finished with 538 releases, unofficially an American sailfish tournament record at the time.

Although no other area tournament has approached those gaudy figures, the remaining five events that fished through last season each recorded its own record high. Most recently, last year’s 20th annual Pirates Cove Resort Sailfish Classic saw 275 fish released by only 17 boats fishing just three days.

Pirates changes, Derby is off and Pink Ladies for hope

For 11 years, the Pirates Cove Resort Sailfish Classic served as the opening event for the sailfish tournament fleet assembled in Stuart each December for fishing and fun. The Finest Kind Quickie replaced the Classic as the local season opener in 2000. But as the season’s second event it did not lose its luster as an opener since it kicked off the annual intense Treasure Coast Sailfish Championship begun in 1996-1997.

Personnel who have organized the Classic have changed, but the goal is still the same: keep it fun while showcasing the quality of sailfishing outside of St. Lucie Inlet.

This year, rule changes have limited the number of professional anglers to two per boat. A “professional” is a crew member or deckhand who has been paid for his services over the prior 12 months. Until this year, a team did not have a limit on professional anglers.

A suggestion to outlaw professional catches for Treasure Coast Sailfish Championship entrants and a proposed limit of 50 mullet per teaser (dredge) were both overturned, according to one competitor.

The Fort Pierce Billfish Derby drew only four boats in January in its sixth year of fishing. Begun as an “all star” type of tournament boasting the area’s largest cash payout for a fishing tournament winner, the cozy event suffered from timing and the nation’s economic downturn.

The Derby opened with a bang in 2004 when 11 boats combined for 236 sailfish releases in three days of fishing. It grew to a high field of 19 boats in 2007, one year after 17 boats tallied a Derby record 330 releases in three days.

The Pink Ladies Sailfish Tournament grew from the Derby in 2007 as a single day precursor to help those who battle breast cancer. Although the Derby will not operate this year and is up for sale, according to director Jimmy Freitas, the Pink Ladies will continue to serve cancer victims who are uninsured or underinsured.

Cindy Allen, organizer of the annual Captains for the Fight Against Breast Cancer fashion show, is taking over the Pink Ladies tournament. She said plans are in the preliminary stages, but Fort Pierce City Marina will host the one day tournament Jan. 3. It will serve as an opportunity for teams to pre-fish in advance of the Pelican Yacht Club Billfish Invitational that begins two days later.

Monies raised through entry fees will directly benefit breast cancer patients who need help covering treatment expenses.

Killer coverage

As he has done since 1994, Ed Killer will walk the docks to provide daily coverage of the 2009-2010 sailfish season for the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and TCPalm.com. Check out his take on the daily twists in these events and more of his observations on a variety of Outdoors and Fishing topics by following his blog at www.tcpalm.com/killer.