BIG BLUE MARLIN BONA
CLICK THROUGH CLINCHES 2010 TRIPLE CROWN
SEA'DUCE SECURES THE SEA HORSE
WOUND UP WEIGHS A WHOPPER (AGAIN)
here now Big Time. This is the place to be.......I couldn't even
get this
report out quickly because there's
too much to say........it's blown my
mind - I can't write - I just don't
know where to start.............
Ok well one thing at a time.
How about the third and final day of the 37th
Annual Sea Horse
Saturday July 17. As
always, it was a very exciting finish.
"Freedom"
made a fast start on Day Three with
blue marlin releases at 8:08 am and
9:18 am to move them up to 2,000 points and into the
tournament lead ahead
of "Click Through". Ultimately this was good enough to win the
Day Three
Release Daily worth $16,500, and their four blue marlin
releases earned
them 2nd Place in the tournament
overall, worth a further $8,400. The 82'
Viking "Sea'duce"
started the day with 1,500 points and added blue marlin
releases at 12:02 pm and 1:07 pm,
which gave them an impressive 2,500
points for 5 blue marlin
releases. The latter release vaulted
them into
the tournament lead ahead of
"Freedom". These are the most
points scored
in the Sea Horse since the
tournament switched to a three day format, and
it earned "Sea'duce"
First Place honors worth $16,800 - HUGE
CONGRATULATIONS to Capt. Eric Solderholm
and team.
Capt. James Robinson and team aboard "Wound Up"
had a quiet start to the
tournament.......that ended at 8:50
am in the deep off
Shore when a slob of a blue marlin piled-on and angler Ken
Winton was
hooked-up tight. An hour or so later, at 9:58 am, Capt. James
called to
say that she was on the deck, and it
was clearly a good one in the 800 lb
class. The team then proceeded to have an active
day, with Ken also
releasing a 400 pounder
at 12:12 pm and then they were attacked by an even
bigger blue marlin than the one
already aboard. Eventually, they made it
back to Barr's
and was easily good enough to win
the Big Blue Marlin Jackpot worth $47,520
and the Day Three Blue Marlin
Jackpot worth a further $17,820, and Ken
Winton's 1,358 points earned him the prestigious High Point
worth another $2,800. NICE GOING
WOUND UP !!!
Capt. James Robinson is
certainly carving-out an impressive
big blue marlin track record. This 858
lb blue marlin was the biggest
weighed in the 2010 Triple Crown. Last
year
his 865 lb blue marlin not only won
the World Cup, but it was the biggest
blue weighed in the 2009 Triple
Crown. "Wound Up" becomes the
first boat
to have taken the "biggest
blue marlin in the Triple Crown" honor more than
once, and to do it in consecutive
years is very impressive. "Wound Up" also
caught the heaviest blue marlin
weighed in
and team landed a 1,049 lb Grander
on July 7, 2008.
The team aboard "Click Through" started the final
day in the lead in both
the Sea Horse and the overall
Triple Crown, but they were unable to add any
points to their tally and so had to
sweat it out. In the Sea Horse they
were surpassed by "Sea'duce" and "Freedom" but they held onto
overall worth $5,600, with 1,766 points
courtesy of a 666 lb blue marlin
and two blue marlin releases and a
spearfish release. In the Triple Crown
race, "Blank Check"
released a blue marlin at 9:04 am which brought them up
to 3,500 points and within 2 blue
marlin releases of the lead, but that was
as near as they came and they
settled for
standings. "Weez in the Keys" were desperate for redemption after
their bad
call on Day Two and they were given
hope with a white release 1:07 pm that
brought them to within a 400 points
of the lead, but they settled for 4th
Place. Their
performance in the Triple Crown series was highly noteworthy.
First, the landing of an undersize blue marlin (462 lb) on
Day Two of the
Sea Horse did cost them the Triple Crown title, but this is
not an
unprecedented occurrence - in 2008
"Tease Em" boated an undersized blue
marlin in the Classic which, had
they released, would have enabled them to
win the Triple Crown. One difference - as noted by my friend Straws
Haycock, "Weez in the
Keys" would have won the 2010 Triple Crown if they
had pulled the hook on the 462 pounder. Oh
well..........the team on Weez
did break a record of sorts - they
are the first boat to score points on
every day of a single Triple Crown
series and they caught more billfish (14
= 7 blue releases, 6 white releases and the 462 lb blue
boated) than has
ever been achieved in a single
Triple Crown Series. The two blue marlin
released by "Sea'duce" on Day Three brought them to within 266
points of
the lead and they settled for
their win in the Sea Horse - this
team really came on strong - after
getting blanked in the Blast they
finished the Series with 8 blue marlin
releases and a white release
!! The ever consistent "Que Mas" was eager to
become the first boat to win more
than one Triple Crown and they spent the
entire final day a mere 166 points
behind "Click Through" - just a white
would do, but it was not to
be. Still, the "Que
Mas" team had some serious
excitement shortly after the
tournament and they have the best historical
track record in the Triple
Crown. They won it all in 2008 and they
have
now finished up as runners-up twice
(2010 and 2007). So, it wasn't easy
but Capt. Matthew Mauldwin and team aboard "Click Through" held on
and are
thoroughly deserving 2010 Bermuda
Triple Crown Champions - MASSIVE
CONGRATULATIONS to them !!!! Over the 8-day Series they weighed a 666 lb
blue marlin, released 7 other blue
marlin and released a white and a
spearfish. In each of the past 5 years we had the
peculiarity of every
team that won the Classic also went
on to win the Triple Crown - that was
statistically strange given that
the Classic is only 37% of the total
Series. Anyway, that trend is broken as the team on
"Click Through" won
the 2010 Series by placing 3rd in
the Blast, 5th in the Classic and 3rd in
the Sea Horse = very impressive
consistency.
So Day Three of the Sea Horse saw 16 blue marlin taken (858
lb boated plus
15 releases) and 3 whites released. This meant that over the three days of
the Sea Horse, 28 boats caught 45
blue marlin, 13 whites and a spearfish.
Of those 59 billifish, all but
four were released. The four taken were
blue marlin weighing 858 lb, 749
lb, 666 lb and an undersize at 462 lb.
That is a FANTASTIC result.
The 37 lb wahoo taken by "Paradise One" on Day
Two held up to win the Gamefish
Award worth $2,800. The final Sea Horse
standings are as follows:
1. Sea'duce - 5 blue marlin releases - 2,500 points and cash
winnings of
$33,300
2. Freedom - 4 blue
marlin releases - 2,000 points and cash winnings of
$24,900
3. Click Through -
666 lb blue boated; 2 blue marlin releases; 1
spearfish release - 1,766 points
and cash winnings of $23,420
4. Triple Play -
749 lb blue marlin boated; 2 blue marline releases -
1,749 points and cash winnings of $17,820
5. Queen of Hearts
- 3 blue marlin releases - 1,500
6. Wound Up - 858
lb blue marlin boated; 1 blue marlin release - 1,358
points and cash winnings of $68,140
7. Reel Lax - 2
blue marlin releases; 1 white release - 1,200 points and
cash winnings of $16,500
8. Bree - 2 blue marlin releases; 1 white release - 1,200
9. Pink Impression
- 2 blue marlin releases; 1 white release
10. Mama Who - 2 blue
marlin releases; 1 white release
11. Blank Check - 2
blue marlin releases - 1,000
12. Reel Hot - 2 blue
marlin releases
13. Artemis - 2 blue
marlin releases
14. Ovation - 1 blue
marlin release; 2 white releases - 900
15. El Cazador - 1 blue marlin release; 1 white release - 700
16. Challenger - 1
blue release; 1 white release
17.
cash winnings of $2,800
18. Mako - 1 blue
marlin release - 500
19. Uno Mas - 1 blue
marlin release
20. Mega Bucks - 1
blue marlin release
21. Off Piste - 1 blue marlin release
22. C YA - 1 blue
marlin release
23. Que Mas - 2 white releases - 400
24. Weez in the Keys - 1 blue marlin undersize 462 lb; 1 blue
marlin
release; 2 white releases - 324
points
23 of the 28 boats (82%) successfully photographed and
released at least
one blue marlin during the Sea
Horse and only four boats failed to score:
Last Chance, Over Budget, Sea Quest and
Treasure Isle.
The top 5 boats in the 2010 Bermuda Triple Crown Series are
as follows:
1. Click Through - 4,466
2. Que Mas - 4,300
3. Sea'duce - 4,200
4. Weez in the Keys - 4,124
5. Blank Check -
3,500
Over the entire 2010 Triple Crown there were 139 blue
marlin, 48 whites and
a spearfish caught. 180 (>95%) of these billfish were photographed and
released. 8 blue marlin were boated (2009 - 7). Last year there were no
undersize (i.e., under 500 lb) blue
marlin brought to the scales, however
this year 2 of the 8 brought in
were undersize. How does the total count
compare to prior years? - it's been by far the best blue marlin bite in the
Triple Crown era - see below:
2010 - 139 blues and 48 whites = 0.45 blues per boat per
day; 0.16 whites
per boat per day
2009 - 73 blues and 73 whites = 0.24 blues per boat per day;
0.24 whites
per boat per day
2008 - 115 blues and 65 whites = 0.37 blues per boat per
day; 0.21 whites
per boat per day
2007 - 123 blues and 86 whites = 0.35 blues per boat per
day; 0.25 whites
per boat per day
2006 - 133 blues and 34 whites = 0.37 blues per boat per
day; 0.09 whites
per boat per day
2005 - 77 blues and 23 whites = 0.30 blues per boat per day;
0.09 whites
per boat per day
Subsequent to the conclusion of the Triple Crown, the RED
HOT marlin bite
continues and the REALLY BIG BLUE
MARLIN are here. On July 21, visiting
boat "C YA" hooked into
Porky in 200 fathom off Mid Ocean Point - the
battle was on and the big blue
marlin was eventually brought in and it
tipped the scales at 1,005 lbs -
the 2nd
(see photo attached) !!! The very next day, "Que
Mas" was leaving
and was about 50 miles offshore
when they too were attacked by a monster
with Capt. Travis in the
chair. Eventually they too boated the big blue
and so they returned to
fish also weighed 1,005 lbs. So back-to-back GRANDERS in
three Granders hung here in the
past few weeks. There's also been plenty
of other big fish raised, hooked
and/or fought and lost or successfully
released. I believe Capt. Allen Desilva's
"Mako" released a 900 pounder
last week and on Sunday July 25
they released a double header consisting of
a blue marlin better than 400 and a
bigger one estimated at 750 lb - now
that's some action !!! Capt. Cragin
Curtis and his "Reel Addiction" team
have been meat fishing for charters
(chumming etc.) but still releasing a
blue on almost every trip - one day
last week they released a 600 pounder
and on Sunday they caught two blue
marlin from 4 shots and boated a 143 lb
yellowfin (I attach a pic of the tuna with Cragin and
young Tucker Curtis
looking on). There's been a few nice yellowfin taken, but
they are not
predictable.
So, in summary the Fishing is AWESOME in
Jacobs and team for running a GREAT Triple Crown as always !!!