Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament

The Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament (GJKT) is a contest fishing for King mackerel that spans six days every July in Jacksonville, Florida. The tournament is the largest kingfish tournament. According to Rick Ryals, a local boat captain, the GJKT is "true competition in its purest form. It doesn’t matter how big your boat is or how much it costs. There are no secret weapons. There is only good solid preparation and the luck of the draw."

History
In 1980, a handful of Jacksonville businessmen including Bob Gipson, Walt Murr and Pete Loftin resolved to create a fishing contest like the ones offered in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The first tournament was staged in 1981 at the Pablo Creek Marina at the Intercoastal Waterway. Commuters on their way home would stop, relax and enjoy the event. For thousands of spectators, it became more of a food festival than a fishing tournament. That changed drastically in 1996, when the tournament was moved to Sisters Creek Park, a much larger area but more remote. A newspaper reporter stated that "Sister's Creek (Park) isn't 'on the way' to anywhere from anywhere. If you're headed that way, you're pretty much headed there." The location is ten miles northeast of the city center, down a winding, two-lane road.

Charity
By the tenth year of the tournament, the event was firmly established and had grown so large that a legal entity was needed to take responsibility for signing contracts and handling finances. Jacksonville Marine Charities, Inc. (JMC) was founded in 1991 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to run the tournament and distribute the proceeds. Jacksonville Marine Charities, Inc., the 501 c(3) organization behind the GreaterJacksonville Kingfish Tournament, evolved through the success of the GJKT and utilizes its proceeds to support marine science research, preservation, and education.

The Board’s criteria for funding a project is strict. It must be marine oriented and overseen or proposed by other nonprofit groups. The effects of these donations are far reaching and benefit, not only Jacksonville and the First Coast, but also the entire state of Florida. Over the past 19 years, Jacksonville Marine Charities, donated over $650,000 to the First Coast Community.

JMC is proud to support a variety of marine focused
charitable programs within the community including:
· Promotion of marine conservation and preservation of fishing habitats.
· Development of Sisters Creek Park as the permanent site of the Greater
Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament and annual contributions, over
$308,000 to date, to the Sisters Creek Park Maintenance & Improvement Fund.