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amen.
BBG got some cool ink here:
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/feb/06/tough-call-how-the-old-man-came-to-the-sea-at/
Do you mind sharing whether or not there was any kind of Calcutta set up in the tourney or how many boats wound up fishing? Will the next tournament have the same set up?
The billfish bonanza will be a release format verified by digital photo clearly showing species, close to the boat, with colored card in photo. Blue marlin will be the species most sought after and the heaviest points. Three base places will be paid. $5000 for top team, $3000 for 2nd, $2000 for 3rd. Rumor has it that added entry levels will be there...
We will have a kickoff party, two relaxed dinners and of course an over the top awards ceremony. The last tourney we had Playboys Miss February to assist with weigh in and prize distribution. We also had country musics Craig Morgan give an impromptu concert. We will again have celebrities in house but at this time can not say who or in what capacity.
Over all the event itself will be the same fun platform with an extra fishing day and dinner tossed in. Discounted dock and rooms are available for attending teams but as mentioned above we sold out for the last one so waiting til last minute is not advised. Press was there in profusion at our first two events and will be again. Winning teams as well as sponsors will receive quite a bit of exposure and notoriety (if they wish) (We do respect those who prefer to have privacy).
On line sign ups can be made here...
http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/big-game-marlin-tournament.htm
We have under ordered tee shirts the last two times cause we getting so many last minute people. Please message me if you are even thinking of getting in so we can get a better count and make sure everybody is covered...
Also just got word we are half way sold out on rooms with only 27 left at this time... Does not take long at the rate we are going to fill them up.
But come get ya some!
Is there any problem with booking a slip and not a room if we are sleeping on the boat?
Why not a short swordfish tournament sometime? It would be nice to have a deep drop and/or a night fish tournament sometime int he summer. I know you can fill the marina with one of those, we have talked about a swordfish outing in Bimini for years. The longliners used to have great catches of large fish on that side of the stream.
Deep drop I think would be a hard one to do with limits over there. It would be a multi place tie... If we do add the sword it will be likely a night thing.
Before I set anything in stone we need to do what we do with the wahoo events. Take input from all who fish this one on how they would like to see a sword addition work. Our anglers are the ones who come up with the formats, rules, etc. So far what water testing we have done says night traditional. Its my job to impliment or put in place what they want (If we can). There is no guarantee that the government will grant permit for a sword kill tourney. If they do, fees are expensive and would drive the cost up on the whole event. So many new stop signs go up on the empty road that we never know where we will see one next.
Remember on an international level, swordfish are at a high biomass and are considered to be a fully recovered stock. No one in the world is targeting them enough to meet their individual countries quota, at least in the North and South Atlantic.
I do agree on the deep drop breeders, we do not know enough about that exact fishery to know what it is doing yet, but research is planned. Problem is most sword research comes from longlines and thank god, the longlines can't fish the bottom.
Complete, I have worked on a lot of sword tournaments over the years and can help with some good info. We are tired of fighting the commercials on night trips over here now that everyone is fishing maximum amount of buoys, and I know we can fill that marina with a sword tournament in mid summer when weather is nice.
Anyway, my team is working on planning the billfish tournament and we can talk swords then.
Remember, I am the recreational swordfish representative on the NMFS advisory panel and also a rec swordfish rep on ICCAT.
The kill thing is what has topped any real swordfish testing of the waters over there. I would hope you can bridge that issue.
Another thing we need to look at is the purpose behind the tournaments we are running. They are directed at bringing in people at normally dead times of the year, exposing them to the deals that the island has in off season and show casing the continued efforts to improve the services the resort provides. Summer the place fills up pretty strong all by itself. They really want the tournies to help fill the off times rather than fill a mostly already full marina.
I suggested an easy does it dolphin/ fun fish event a while back and it was shelved so this will need to be carefully presented in a way that doesn't dilute the quality of the events we are currently running and will optimize positive things for the resort.
I'm all for doing a sword event. Just got to iron out details of how best to do it. I know the fish are there as its one of the few places I have fished where i have actually seen free jumping swords (good sized ones too) by day on more than just a one time thing. Hopefully you can attend the billfish and though free time is scarce for me being the director running all that I do, I would be happy to sit and listen to any input you and others can inject.