The 2026 Winter Lionfish Throw Down Is Open. The Reef Does Not Take the Winter Off.
Lionfish do not pack it in when the water cools. They keep eating, they keep breeding, and they keep working the same reefs the rest of the year. The Winter Lionfish Throw Down exists for that gap: a three-month individual harvest tournament that keeps divers in the water from October 1 through December 31, when a lot of the derby calendar goes quiet.
Submissions are open now. They close December 31 at 11:59 PM. Fish have to be caught on or after October 1. Frozen fish and anything from before the season do not count.
Last season, divers in this event pulled nearly 10,000 lionfish off Atlantic, Gulf, Puerto Rico, and USVI reefs. The point this year is the same. More pressure. Cleaner reefs. A scoreboard that makes the work worth showing up for.
New to the species? Start with lionfish facts. Already hunting? Register on Fishing Chaos and get a daily identifier in your inbox.
What you are signing up for
The fee is $50, non-refundable, and non-transferable. Registration includes:
- A custom event rash guard
- Sponsored items and an exclusive event gift
- Eligibility for the top 10 harvester prizes
- One monthly drawing entry each month you submit at least one verified lionfish
- Voluntary challenges through the season
Event goodies ship by late October to the address on your registration. Full rules live on the event page and inside the Fishing Chaos tournament. The short version is the Throw Down FAQ.
Who can enter, and where the fish count
This is an individual tournament. No teams. No commercial harvesters.
Eligible water is Atlantic and Gulf state waters, including Florida, plus Puerto Rico and the USVI, under the rules where you dive. Catches outside those areas do not count. If you are not in Florida, you can still enter as long as the harvest comes from eligible water.
The grand-prize trip has extra rules. The winner has to be 18 or older, hold a passport valid through the travel dates, and send eligibility proof within 10 days of notification. Read the trip exclusions on the registration page before you build a season around that ticket.
How a catch gets on the board
Each morning, registered divers get a daily identifier by email. After the dive:
- Lay out whole lionfish. Heads and tails on. Nothing missing.
- Show the identifier, catch date, county, dive buddy’s name, and the count in the photo.
- Submit it in the Fishing Chaos app under Submit Catch within 24 hours of the identifier timestamp.
One submission per day. If you send more than one, only the first counts. Late uploads are not accepted.
Score is the total number of verified lionfish. Ties go to the earliest app submission. Unclear counts, a missing identifier, a missing county or buddy, duplicate or altered photos, or fish that are not whole get rejected. Officials can audit at random. Ignoring that request is a disqualification. Each lionfish can be submitted once.
Monthly drawings are live on the ZooKeeper Facebook page in October, November, and December. Dates also go up on Instagram. Five prizes a month, minimum $30 each, for anyone who submitted at least one fish that month. Those prizes ship within five business days. Grand prizes are announced in early January after submissions close.
The 2026 prize board
Grand prizes go to the top harvesters. Values and donors are from the official 2026 prize sheet.
1st. 2027 ZooKeeper Curaçao Lionfish Hunting Trip. Value $3,665. Donated by ZooKeeper.
2nd. Garmin Descent Mk3i, 51 mm, Carbon Gray DLC Titanium with DLC titanium band. Value $1,799.99. Donated by DXDivers.
3rd. Cressi Commander Evo BCD and Cressi Da Vinci dive computer. Value $1,299.99. Donated by Cressi.
4th. Scubapro MK17 EVO 2 / S620 Ti regulator set. Value $1,099.99. Donated by Dive 1st Aid.
5th. Riffe 41″ Marauder Series open-track speargun. Value $1,104. Donated by DXDivers.
6th. DAN Rescue Pack Extended Care Plus. Value $784. Donated by Elite Adventures.
7th. Koah Fatback 45″. Value $685. Donated by Niuhi Dive Charters.
8th. Big Blue TL5200P Lumen Tech light. Value $639.99. Donated by Elite Adventures.
9th. Dive Rite HydroLite BCD. Value $629. Donated by Isla Divers.
10th. Garmin inReach Mini 3+. Value $499.99. Donated by Deep Water Mafia.
You do not have to win the season to win something. One verified fish in a month is enough for that month’s drawing.
Gear that keeps spines off your hands
Any legal container is allowed. Spears and fingers do not belong in the funnel. The tool built for this job is the ZooKeeper Lionfish and Marine Debris Containment Unit: clear tube, slotted funnel, safety drain, no handshake with a venomous fish.
Size is the part people stall on. The short version is on what size containment you need. A 20″ covers most weekend reefs. Derby days and known loaded sites are a 24″ or 28″. There is no bag limit on lionfish in U.S. waters. The limit is your container, your air, and your slay. More options are in the shop.
Plan the dive. Watch your air. Respect decompression limits. Wear puncture-resistant gloves. Carry a first aid kit. No reef damage. Unsafe hunting is an immediate disqualification.
After the fish are up, they still have to become dinner. Filet them without getting stuck, then cook them. Butter-baked lionfish is the low-argument version.
Register and get in the water
The board is live. October is already on the clock.
- Register for the 2026 Winter Lionfish Throw Down
- Event page
- Rules, dates, and FAQ
- Questions: contact ZooKeeper or info@lionfishzk.com
- App issues: Fishing Chaos
Get out and slay. #SlayEatRepeat
