International Cap Cana Billfish Shootout 2014
The scoreboard on the first day of fishing in the 20th International Cap Cana Billfish Shootout showed a surprising entry: a release credited to Scott Leon, captain of Sandman, a 63ft Spencer owned by Florida’s Sandra MacMillan. It’s anglers, not captains, who get credited with billfish release points. Yet Leon received his ‘points’ as a humorous way of ribbing him about running over and releasing a FAD (fish aggregating device).
“Sometimes it takes something bad for something good to happen,” says Leon, who with the anglers and crew aboard Sandman had the last laugh by ultimately winning Top Boat.
“The luck is that FAD started working for us that first day when our anglers released four white marlin,” Leon recalls. This catch placed the talented team aboard Sandman second to those on Puerto Rico’s Peje, a 47ft Cabo whose team finished the day in the lead by one billfish release.
Day two, Sandman jumped into the lead and distanced itself point-wise from the rest of the fleet. The collective efforts of all four anglers resulted in the remarkable release of three blue and three white marlin.
“The next day was slow for us. We only released three white marlin. But it wasn’t slow for the other boats,” says Leon, who preferred to fish the tournament over a 200ft deep shelf called ‘the hotdog’ due to its shape on nautical charts.
Sandman kept its lead the third day. However, the anglers aboard Singularis released six white marlin to propel them into second place ahead of Peje. Peje’s owner and angler, Carlos Garcia, added two white marlin to his team’s effort. In doing so, Garcia planted himself firmly in the lead for Top Angler going into the fourth and final day of competition.
Neither Sandman by boat nor Garcia by angler was guaranteed their champion positions on that last day. One reason was team Alina from Aruba, which bid an incredible come-from-behind push to release four blue marlin and one white by the time lines out was called. Their determination gained Alina a second place in boat awards, displacing both Peje and Singularis. Sandman’s MacMillan released four white marlin to cinch Sandman’s Top Boat triumph. MacMillan’s quartet of catch nearly earned her Top Angler too. However, Peje’s Garcia maintained his ground by releasing two white marlin. Garcia and MacMillan ended the tournament tied on points, however, Garcia took home the trophy by reaching his point total first.
“Consistency got me the win. I fish light tackle most of the time and this tournament was in 30-pound line,” says Garcia, who earned Top Angler in 2010 and this year fished with his daughter, Kirema García.
The 19-boat fleet released a total of 166 billfish or a spectacular catch rate of 8.73 fish per boat. What’s more, the white marlin bite was red hot. White marlin made up 135 of releases, with 25 blue marlin and six sailfish.
For more information and full results, visit: www.intlbillfishtourns.com
Carol Bareuther has written for ALL AT SEA since 2004.
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