The excitement picked up as the bites increased Thursday during the second day of fishing in the 51st July Open Billfish Tournament, with the team aboard Indigo maintaining its lead.
According to the V.I. Game Fishing Club, the eight-boat fleet nearly doubled its catch rate from Wednesday’s three catches to five on Thursday, for eight total marlin releases in the two days of fishing.
The team aboard Indigo, a 61-foot Buddy Davis that is part of the local Ocean Surfari Charter fleet, maintained its lead by scoring blue and white marlin releases Thursday.
“Angler Alan Patterson released the first fish of the day, a blue marlin, around 9:30 a.m.,” said Indigo’s captain, Kevin Haddox. “The fish first took a shot past the short rigger and we missed it. Then it came charging back to the longer rigger and ate the bait. It was an amazing bite. And a relatively easy fight. It went down, then up, and Alan released it in 15 to 20 minutes.”
Patterson also released a white marlin around 11 a.m.
“We were glad to catch the fish early to maintain our lead on time,” Haddox said. “So far, we’re doing what we set out to. That is, catching everything we see.”
Meanwhile, the team on Casca Dura, a Brazilian-based 80-foot Merritt, finished as the top boat for the day and second overall in tournament standings, with the release of two blue marlin by angler Gabriel Abud.
“We saw four blue marlin today,” Capt. Bruno Larica said. “We missed the first, then Gabriel caught the second, the third went swimming by but didn’t bite, and Gabriel released the fourth only five minutes before lines out. Both marlin were good size, 250 to 350 pounds, and quick releases – under five minutes.”
Abud is the only tournament angler so far to have released a pair of blues. Thus he moves into the lead for Top Angler and the Capt. Johnny Harms “Give Him Line” Trophy.
The team fishing aboard Reel Passion, based out of Charlotte, N.C., didn’t release any marlin Thursday. They remained in third place because on Wednesday it was the first team to release one blue marlin.
Mixed Bag II, chartered by Capt. Robert Richards out of the Westin, St. John, earned a spot on the scoreboard Thursday when angler Travis "Mac” McNeil released a blue marlin around noon. The Mixed Bag II team boasted the youngest tournament angler, Richards’ 6-year-old son, Robbie.
“The marlin haven’t eaten his bait yet,” says Richards, about his son, “but tomorrow is another day.”
The hot "dock talk" of the day was the relatively slow bite compared to the fishing over the July full moon in past years.
“Everything seems a little late this year,” said Indigo’s Haddox. “The seaweed just showed up and it normally appears in May and June; the weather starts getting rough in May and it’s just getting so now. So, I think, since the July moon is earlier in the month, that the bite is more like we’d see in the June moon.”
Traditionally the full moons in July through October have produced some of the best blue marlin fishing in the world in terms of total numbers.
The fishing competition continues Friday with lines in the water at 8:30 a.m. and concludes with lines out at 4:30 p.m.
IGFA trained observers, all members of the International Game Fish Tournament Observers, ride aboard each boat throughout the tournament to verify the releases.
The public is invited to greet the fleet as the boats come back to the dock around sunset. The number of flags flying on the outriggers indicates how many billfish the boat’s anglers caught and released for the day. The JOBT is an all-release tournament.
More information is online at www.vigfc.com.
