Living the Dream wins GL2S crown

Fri, Aug 29, 2008    to del.icio.us

While most charter boat captains spent their week catering to their clients, Spring Lake native Tony Salerno was able to spend his weekdays preparing for weekend tournaments.

Salerno and his crew used that advantage to capture first place in the Great Lakes Salmon Series (GL2S) Championship Points Series this summer. Fishing aboard his aptly named boat, Living the Dream, Salerno won the South Haven, Ludington and Saugatuck tournaments and placed second in Racine, Wis.

"It's not just the weekends," said Salerno, 24, who is currently finishing his masters' degree at the University of Tampa. "The tournaments are on Saturday and Sunday. We usually leave on Monday and fish Tuesday through Friday prefishing. Some days we'll go 25 miles in one direction just to see if there's bigger fish there.

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"That's the routine we did every week. It worked out for us."

The GL2S tournament keeps track of all the tournaments up and down the shores of Lake Michigan. Because of the cost of traveling to and from tournaments, many boats only fish the events closest to their home ports. Salerno and his crew, which includes his brother, Matt Salerno, along with Andy LeClair and Luke Triplett, made the decision to fish all of the events. Even though they were extremely successful, their year-long winnings of around $50,000 barely paid for their gas.

"Looking back at the summer, it wasn't a whole lot of money, even though we were probably the winningest boat on the lake," Salerno said. "If we're going to continue doing this, during the week while we're prefishing, we're probably going to have to charter the boat, just to pay for gas."

However, not having to appeal to customers allowed Salerno and his crew to do things their way, which certainly aided in their quest to win tournaments.

"We weren't worried about catching a lot of fish," he said. "If we were catching small fish, we'd say, 'Look, we're not going to fish here anyway,' and we'd pull the lines and leave."

Willis Kerridge, the captain of Thunder Duck Charters in Grand Haven, also fished with Salerno in a few tournaments.

"He really helped us out," Salerno said. "He fished with us in the Racine and Saugatuck tournaments. A lot of it is networking. The more people you know on the tournament trail, the better. Over the last couple years, we've made a lot of friends."

The GL2S is currently making a push to find greater sponsors and perhaps even a television deal that would put salmon fishing on the same level as bass anglers and redfish tournaments.

"Greg (Houtteman) and Tom (Greenberg) from GL2S are trying to get some more sponsors, and hopefully they can do it and make it worth while," Salerno said. "We're fishing these tournaments, burning all this gas for a $7,500 first place prize. It seems like a lot of money, but compared to what we're spending, it's really nothing.

"Look at bass fishermen. They're fishing for $100,000, $200,000, fishing in $75,000 boats spending hundreds in gas. We're fishing in half-million-dollar boats spending a couple grand for fuel each week, It's tough to break even."

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For further information, visit www.gl2s.com/.