EVENT SCHEDULE

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Bert's Redfish Challenge was born in 2008 after Chief Pete Gee of the Fort Myers Shores Fire District was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer. A tournament was quickly put together and titled "We're Fishing for Pete's Sake." The first event had just 12 teams but we were able to raise over $5,000 for Pete and his family. The following year, we teamed up with Pine Island F.I.S.H. in hopes of attracting more Sponsors. That idea worked and we were able to pull off another successful event raising almost $7,000 that was split between Pete and F.I.S.H. This partnership continued until Pete's death in 2010. Pete expressed his wishes to not be memorialized by the tournament but wanted us to continue raising money for local families in need for as long as we could. We changed the name to Bert's Redfish Challenge in 2012 and have continued to help local families through Local Charities and direct donations. What started out as a small one time tournament, has now grown into one of the most popular Redfish Tournaments in SWFL with an average of 35 Teams participating  and ten's of thousands of dollars raised for local families and charities. In 2022, SWFL Fishing Tournaments was formed. Tragically, on September 28, 2022, 11 days after 13th Bert's Redfish Challenge, Bert's Bar and Grill was completely destroyed by Hurricane Ian. This forced use to reimagine and relocate our event to Torched Bar and Grill where we will hold our first Torched Redfish Rundown.