2008 Banana Bay Marine Billfish Tournament
Shrouded in controversy the Parrot Bay Village team was disqualified from the 2008 Banana Bay Marina Invitational Billfish Tournament. Just kidding, I just always wanted to say “shrouded in controversy.”
The Parrot Bay Village team once again did a great job in finding the fish and having fun. John Murphy, retired Chief of the Asbury Park, N.J. Fire Dept., Robert Taylor, Battalion Chief Asbury Park N.J. Fire Dept., Frankie Love, engine chauffuer Hackensack, N.J. Fire Dept., Donald McGuiness, local captain and fishing nut, and Chad Parker, “retired” Asbury Park, N.J. firefighter and Parrot Bay Village manager made up the anglers onboard the brand new 61′ Tribute custom yacht, The Typhoon 1. Local legend, Capt. Darren McClave and deckhand “Pana” did an outstanding job finding the sailfish and keeping us in the hunt for the title.
Day 1 dawned dark and stormy with a healthy chop on the water, but that did not stop us from heading 65 miles offshore to an offshore sea mount that we have all heard about but never had the chance to fish. Once on ”The Hump” we marked good bait and saw some freejumping sails so we set out the spread and were immediatly hooked up on a nice double header. We landed one of the two but were off to a great start. We went on to release another 4 sails for 10 raised and we were all feeling pretty good because none of us had ever billfished together before and knew that we had found a nice body of fish.
We decided to stay overnight on “The Hump” to avoid running around in the dark and burning a bunch of fuel. Again this was uncharted territory for us because we had never had the chance to spend the night offshore down here. As soon as we turned the spreader lights on we had hundreds of 2-3 pound squid behind the boat and commenced in loading the coolers with these little gems. We couldn’t resist in putting down a live bait to see if anything bigger was around and as soon as the baits hit the 40′ mark we were on with another double header of sailfish. It brought back memories of all of the tunas that we have caught under the lights in the Hudson Canyon off the Jersey Coast. These fish didn’t count for the tourney because it was after “lines out” but was fun none the less.
Day 2 broke sunny and calm and at the 7 a.m. ”lines in” we were tight on our first release of the day. Again the Typhoon 1 was on the meat. We raised another 15 and released 8 for a total of 13 releases overall. At 2 p.m. we began trolling inshore in search of a marlin that we figured could seal the victory for us. (Saifish count for 100 points and marlin are 501 points.) At the 50 mile mark we found a giant log and hooked a nice dorado in the 40 pound class. Dorado didn’t count for the overall title but there was a seperate catagory for heaviest dorado and tuna. We spent the rest of the afternoon slow trolling bridled tuna in hopes of getting the marlin, but she never showed.
We arrived back at Banana Bay amidst cheers and applause. Little did we know that the cheering was for Abraham of Sailfish Rancho, who also released 13 sailfish and took the overall title. The PBV team had been disqualified for not being back to dock “by the time the party started.” Now I have fished some tournaments and have never seen a rule that states that you must check in “by the time the party starts.” And if that is the rule, please, don’t start the party an hour early.
Oh well, we had fun. We weighed our dorado anyway and we would have won that spot with the 38 pounder. Donald would have also won the ”individual angler award” with 6 releases. Like I said, we had fun, the beer was cold and all of the money went to the local school system, so it wasn’t a bad weekend. Thanks to the owner and crew of the Typhoon 1 and to Bruce and his staff at Banana Bay for running the event. PBV is looking forward to next year. We have some debts to settle. And “good luck” to Abraham in the World Billfish Championship.
Our guests have been getting in on the sailfish bite as well on our 29′ Sea Vees. We are averaging 5-7 sails released a day over the past 2 weeks. The inshore fishing for snappers and roosterfish is off the charts right now. Some catches of note have been a 65 pound rooster on a butterfly jig and a 52 pound Cubera snapper on a popper.
I know you guys are getting your boats ready to fish back in The States and looking forward to fishing your home waters, but the spring fishing in Costa Rica is as good as it gets. We will be seeing a nice run of blue and black marlin in June, July, and August, so if you can find the time, come on down and see us.
Call us now at 1-866-551-2003 or contact us through the web at www.parrotbayvillage.com. Our direct phone line has been changed to 011-506-2-735-5180. You can also see the latest pics and videos at www.myspace.com/parrotbayvillage. See you at 8 degrees. Capt. Chad, Parrot Bay Village
