Nelson’s Dockyard, 13th June, 2011 – The prize giving party of the 45th Antigua and Barbuda Sport Fishing Tournament declared an end to this year’s tournament and pronounced the out and out winners last night in Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour to a lively crowd of angling supporters. Two boats were victorious, one in each division.
The boat Skylark captained by JD Hall with only one other crew member, David Farara, proves sometimes it’s about quality and not quantity when it comes to fishing. The dynamic duo cleaned up in the Sporting Division winning no less than six of the fourteen prizes up for grabs including second largest kingfish, largest and second largest wahoo (50.75 lbs and 44.75 lbs respectively). The 50.75 lb wahoo gave David Farara biggest fish caught by a male and collectively meant they also walked away with Champion Boat 25ft and Under and Champion Boat overall with their total catch of 257.50 lbs. Their prizes totaled EC$4500 in cash, Maui Jim Sunglasses distributed exclusively by Shades Designer Eyewear Heritage Quay, a one year subscription to Weather Routing Incs. weather forecasting service, a gift from Colombian Emeralds and five gift bags from United Insurance agents Anjo Insurances.
Other winners in the Sporting Division included Champion Boat runner up Micky Hall in Scallywag with a catch of 234.25 lbs, Dana Siva who won Best Female with a 42lb wahoo, and Jason Bento who won Best Youth with his 44.75 wahoo, only missing best Wahoo overall because his catch was called in later than winner JD Hall. Total poundage of fish bought to the scale was 1264.50 lbs.
In the Marlin Division there were a total of 18 tag and releases with only one catch bought to the scale. Goldfin and captain Nico were delighted by their catch of 464 lbs which gave onlookers an amazing sight as the fish was hauled up to the scale and weighed. The fish was however disqualified from the results as they arrived back ten minutes after the scale had closed. The final winners in the marlin division came down to time, with three boats getting two releases and six hundred points each and therefore time called in was the deciding factor. Second runners up was Nick Fuller on Nicole, runners up champion boat was Mikey Pigott on Vitamin B and Champion Boat Captain Francis Lignieres on Guadeloupe boat Sea Ghost. Lignieres also won Champion Male and Most Tag + Releases as the angler who fought those fish. Champion female went for the second year to Ruth Liney on Rum n’ Coke with 300 points for one blue marlin tag and release.
The Honorable John Maginley, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation was invited to hand prizes over to each of the winning anglers. He thanked the overseas boats for their attendance at the event and formally pledged his and the Ministry of Tourisms support to inject cash into the event for next year and his delight at the entire set up of the event was evident.
Event chairman Phillip Shoul, tired but elated by how this years’ tournament has gone is clear that government assistance is needed to build up the event to the level he knows it can grow. He said ‘ To again get forty three boats competing with fourteen overseas boats making the very costly journey to attend is very pleasing given the current economic downturn. We however do know that in order to grow this event we have to reciprocate and send boats overseas. This is no small undertaking as the cost of attending an event is high and assistance in achieving this from the government will mean a significant increase in boats coming back to Antiguan events and this a growth in the event’.
This morning saw four boats take to the water for the 1st Annual Antigua and Barbuda Marlin Classic. The four boats, Xtreme, Rum N’ Coke, Overdraft and Goldfin have each paid US$1000 and the winner will take 80% of the total. A brief prize giving will take place this afternoon in Nelson’s Dockyard and draw to a close the entire weekend. For full results and photos of the event please visit the official website http://www.antiguabarbudasportfishing.com/
Full Sport Fishing Division can be found on this link
http://www.antiguabarbudasportfishing.com/results/2011%20Sporting%20division.doc
Full Marlin Division Results can be found on this link http://www.antiguabarbudasportfishing.com/results/Marlin%20Division%202011Results.doc
