Double Header IV earns Best Boat
None of the 114 anglers aboard 27 boats competing in the 2009 Toyota Wahoo Wind-Up on November 1 caught a 75-plus pound wahoo to win the Toyota truck. But, there was good fishing and good catching, including some real whopper wahoos reeled in.
St. Croix’s Curtis Diaz, fishing aboard the Wild Cat, caught the Largest Wahoo, a 51.5-pounder, and pocketed a $1,000 cash prize
“We were getting bored when all of a sudden the reel started screaming with line peeling off,” said Diaz. “That’s when we knew it was a big one.”
Eight-year-old Nathan Gatcliffe of St. Thomas, aboard the Double Header IV, caught the second largest wahoo, a 47.4-pounder. “Two months ago I told him we were going to fish the wahoo tournament together this year,” said Nathan’s father, St. Thomas charter captain, Jonathan Gatcliffe. “We put him in the chair, winched him in and he reeled in the wahoo.”
Gatcliffe, driving Double Header IV, earned the Best Boat prize for St. Thomas with the catch of five wahoo weighing 173.07 pounds. Meanwhile, St. Croix’s Big Bills won Top Boat for St. Croix with the catch of three wahoo weighing 113.2-pounds. Both captains won $1,000 cash.
A total of 28 wahoo, collectively weighing 934.7 pounds, were caught. Personal from the Department of Planning & Natural Resource’s Fish & Wildlife Department conducted the weigh-in.
Over $5,500 in cash and prizes, plus the possibility of winning the Toyota truck, made up the prize booty in this tournament hosted by the Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club on St. Thomas and Golden Hook Fishing Club on St. Croix.
Report submitted by Virgin Islands Gamefishing Club
