Lights Out Boston Picks Up First Win of the 2026 Season: Key West Classic
Everyone enjoys a little champagne in honor of the Lights Out Boston win in Key West.
Lights Out Boston lit up the Atlantic Division in the Key West Classic with a win to start the season. The team came out of a productive offseason and a fun The Catch Pro-Am shakedown. Going into the home stretch on Sunday, the crew on the Viking 62 Lights Out had six sailfish release flags flying, thanks to a catch just after noon by Capt. Rob Carmichael, bringing the points total to 450 for the three-day tournament. Down to the wire, the South Carolina Outcast AC managed to even the score with a catch by angler Stephen Lackey—his third release of the day—at 4:58 PM, two minutes left before lines out. With the score tied as time expired, tournament rules stated that the win goes to Lights Out Boston due to the timing of the catches.
Mate Tucker Carmichael of Lights Out Boston readies a strip dredge in the saloon.
The bite was a substantial change from the offseason for the Lights Out crew, who practiced in the hot zones of Magdalena Bay for striped marlin and Quepos, Costa Rica, off Marina Pez Vela to refine their cockpit program with days with many shots at sailfish and marlin. Still the team’s training paid off as they were well positioned to scratch releases out of the slow bite. Added to the challenge was a steering fault on Lights Out that required Carmichael and the team to change course using the throttles rather than the rudders.
Day One started out slow and saw other teams happen on more opportunities, and Lights Out Boston was near the bottom of the pack, notching just one release, thanks to Angler Ross Nasin.
Anglers Ross Nasin, left, and Brian Bavosi enjoy the shade on the Viking 62, Lights Out.
The excitement of the season seemed to spark on Day Two. “The water seemed to shape up a little bit,” says Capt. Rob Carmichael. “We ran to some different spots—I don't think any place is incredible, so we've been moving around and just trying to find the bites. We've been struggling with a little bit of steering issue, but we’ve got Ray Rosher so that balances all things, he doesn't need steering. It's been spread out, but we've been fishing edges like we normally would, we're trying to find some wrecks and some structure just dig some out but it’s not red hot.”
Capt. Ray Rosher took over driving duties from the tower.
Day Two saw Lights Out Boston come on strong with a solid two-release performance by angler Alex Plick, adding to the tally along with catches from Jackie Hayes and Kyle Papparelli.
Jackie Hayes is ready for the bite.
“Today we had a pretty good variety we had a single and then Jackie and Alex got on a double,” Carmichael says. “Then Ray [Rosher] spotted one tailing down the side of the boat we did have the right conditions and Kyle jumped on his spinner, pitched a bait to him perfectly and got tight on the spinner and that was that was our fourth fish [on Day Two].”
Watch Kyle Papparelli tiptoe down the side deck past the Gemlux outrigger to fight the pitch-bait sailfish:
Lights Out Boston is gearing up for the next event: the Walker’s Cay Open, May 15 – 17.