Bimini Wahoo Smackdown III

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How many boats fishing?

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33 of 35...
Chopper assisted and RBDF will bring them to Berries where Sea Tow will bring home. No injuries, just a truly screwed up boat. Machines can be replaced, my good friends can't...

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Setting up...



3rd Largest yesterday... Miss Kethlene


Angler Management in the running... And having a great time...


Team Nauti with their catch...


Team Brizzo is in the lead and largest fish...


OCD holding 3rd for first day as well...

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Hillbilly Deluxe first to scale day 2 with fish to 23 pounds...

alacrity

sounds like size of fish is on the small side, but lots of fish being caught. more importantly, that's a lot of boats and a lot of business. great success. congrats to all involved esp paul. you've been working this for quite some time.

Lazy Bones

alacrity wrote: »

, that's a lot of boats and a lot of business. great success. congrats to all involved esp paul. you've been working this for quite some time.

+1

Thanks for the reports

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Dinkiest Hoo- Scallywag 7.5
Outstanding- Island Runner Tuna 18.4
Outstanding- OCD 27.8 King
Top Dolphin- Team Nauti 13.2
Top Junior- OCD, Sophie and Juan Carlos of Ya Ya
Top Lady- OCD- CC 32.8
Top Lady 2- Tie- Both Gals on Annie 28.3
Largest Day1- Brizzo 51.6
Largest Day2- Matchless- 49.9
Largest- Brizzo- 51.6
Top Boat Day1- Brizzo 109.6
Top Boat Day2- Ditch Digger 108.9
3rd- Fishin A Loan 152.1
2nd- Timeless- 189.9
1st- Brizzo 193.8
Congrats to all the players!!! Great Time!

Alex got towed in a while ago. Thanks to our USCG and RBDF guys for safely returning them home to us...

Bimini Dream

Sounds like a great time was had by all. I hope everyone gets an early start for home as some nasty weather looms ahead. Be safe!

snookyj

Great job Paul!!! No matter what anybody says...you put on a heck of a tourny and i hope to see this thing grow and grow! Its events like this that will make people eventually forgot about all the negativity that visits the island from time to time and hopefully create a camaraderie and rapport between fisherman from near and far. Congrats!!!

alacrity

congrats again paul and BBGC and to the winners.

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So few people understand what being a tournament director means. No its not about playing "star" in front of a big audience of hundreds at Captains meeting or awards. No its not about the hot chicks who want to hang with the man in charge.
It starts with dark to dark working days for months in advance. Gotta find and work with the sponsors. Then gotta get the word out its happening. One on one with each team in it gets them to come. Organize this and that and the other thing. Drive 2000 miles to pick up prizes. Tote a ton and a quarter of stuff across an angry gulf stream. Get it all set up. Direct the staff. Set the scales up. Sample the food. Set up the bars Feed em, drink em. Answer no less than a 1000 questions. Make the speech. Count the entries. Do the numbers for added entries. Get up in the dark and lead the fleet out.
Fish. Be back first to weigh the fish. Weigh em. Score em. Separate scoring for each added entry level. Feed em and drink em again. Deal with weenie internet trolls who have nothing to do with it but want to **** on all the hard work we all put in to feed the whole island a stream of income badly needed in the off season. Answer more questions. Shake hands. Smile all the way when inside is boiling.
Then o'dark o'clock gen set is lit. Engines getting warm. Phone rings. Scratchy signal coming through... "serious situation"! Lat/ Long numbers make it through the static filled airwaves. Engines shut down. Guests put on another boat while phone to USCG and RBDF pressed to ear. Relays of the mayday calls coming in from all over. Radio died before fleet could get numbers. I have em and sector 7 dispatches a helicopter.
Non stop all day updating loved ones. Trying to calm everybody elses nerves while mine get worn to paper thin. I have big show in hours to set up for. 200 others counting on me to show them a great time. 18 sponsors hang in the balance as well. Multitask at fever pace. Phone glued to ear, radio in other hand.
Show starts. I see lights. I walk off the stage and head to the dock. Lines in hand go on the cleat. Hugged each one aboard then went back and gave the two hour show all I had to give.
I tossed and turned after. Unable to sleep. Been there, done that. What a horrid feeling losing an engine 50 miles from anywhere in an angry sea. Each boat and crew in my event are my family. It had a happy ending with no injuries except to the machine which can be replaced.
Woke up this morn and this brought it all back... Its what we do. It can and does happen.

.

Bimini Dream

You said it yourself it's your job. It's what they pay you to do. Some might say it's a pretty nice job to have.

Saltydawg

Sounds like whining, maybe we all should list our work functions. On another subject how did they lose the engine?

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No whining to it... If I didn't like it I wouldn't do it. A little insight to "the other side" that a lot of people don't get to see. Just like my Bahamathon or prep threads, I let people see all of it.

On the engine just from a distance the upper bolts appear longer than the lowers for whats left. Guessing that one by one they hairline cracked and all let go in one catastrophic bang.

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The part that makes it all worth it!!!









The Legends of Bimini in the house!



Had to form two lines to feed the masses... Food was over the top great!



.

Saltydawg

So the engine just fell off without hitting anything? Looks like a sea Vee , can you confirm?

dpdash

Congrats on a great tourny everyone ! A bit surprised there weren't more larger fish, especially based on how many large fish were caught last weekend.

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Most of the fish were like 28 lbs... Almost cut from the same mold... Few smaller and few bigger. Last year's for the fall event were same class but quite a few close to or over 60lbs. The Feb event had lots of big fish to 97. From what I gather they were moving quick in all directions. No two days were they in the same areas...

Salty:
No hit, no warning, no anything... Bolts sheared from what I can see and it went away taking the steering with it... Well maintained boat, it just "happened". Yes a Sea Vee...

testerman28

nice job on the tourny Paul

FWCSnook

Nice tourney, and scary with what happened. No all I have to do is convince my buddy we can fish these things on his 52' viking without breaking stuff. I fished every Pompano tournament for 10 years, and it took the fun out of it for quite a while.

Tell the naysayers to pound sand. You work hard and put people on the island that has shown you no love recently. That's character.

Slipkid

FWCSnook wrote: »

Nice tourney, and scary with what happened. No all I have to do is convince my buddy we can fish these things on his 52' viking without breaking stuff. I fished every Pompano tournament for 10 years, and it took the fun out of it for quite a while.

Tell the naysayers to pound sand. You work hard and put people on the island that has shown you no love recently. That's character.

If you find a way to do a islands wahoo trip WITHOUT breaking stuff let me know!

Wonder if I can make that February tournament work... Dates again Paul?

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I think Feb 20-22

lbud

We'll

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Too many pics to get up one at a time...
The link!
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/9dm3lf7w8s5zjbg/Q6W7gloBcd

[email protected] Special

GREAT pics Paul, congrats on a good tournament.