Day two saw boats screaming out of the harbor again and it wasn't long before "Great Escape" the boat with the 800 lb marlin, that was disqualified from the night before was hooked up again. Before noon they were at the scale to hang a 430 lb blue marlin, "what a story" we thought "poetic justice, they have the prize snatched from them and then go on to win anyway"; it's been done before....years ago, before the scale closed at a certain time, a boat hooked up to a giant marlin that it battled well into the wee hours of the morning. At 3.00 am the reel froze and they lost the fish. A dispirited team limped back into harbor with few people noticing except those keeping a radio vigil (no gps tracking systems back in those days). One of the anglers was so disappointed that he couldn't go back out, but the rest of the team were back on their boat with just a couple of hours sleep. Ten minutes before lines were out on the last day of the event, they radioed in a hook-up.....there was a lot of skepticism......people thought they were just trying to buy more fishing time, but it was true and they ended up with a 600 lb plus marlin and won the tournament......so we wishfully thought that there would be a repeat of this scenario from years before.....but it didn't happen. Great Escape led throughout most of the day, until Dreamweaver, a 32 ft Blackfin and who also happened to be in all the jackpots showed up with a 484 lb black marlin putting them in first for the day and giving them a payday of $411,655.00.
The third day did not see as much action.....even though our ears pricked up when we heard that "Fisherman" had a fish....they are serious....they won the Los Cabos Billfish last week with a 713 lb fish, they won the IGFA Offshore this year and last year, and also made history in the Tuna Tournament last year with the second biggest yellowfin ever caught at 383 lbs - a few pounds shy of the all tackle world record. Team Rehab had also been fighting a fish, which they already had on board and were on their way in to weigh. This is the thing in tournaments, you need to decide to bring your fish in immediately or stay and not lose fishing time, as you have the chance of another fish. If you stay out the fish starts to lose weight; I have personally seen fish that lose up to 40 lbs, which can make a big difference in a payout....Rehab's fish was a 347 lb black marlin, which added to the fish they had from day one of 560 lbs, gave them a total of 907 points...NOT a 907 lb marlin as people assumed from the Catch Stat page, nevertheless putting them into first place overall. At this stage, Rehab's fish was weighed and nobody knew what team Fisherman had; they had been experiencing their own problems as on day two they lost an engine but continued to fish...on the way back in, the second engine went, so that going into day three, their team was together, but not on their own boat. It was impossible to use their 35 ft Cabo so they ended up on a 60 ft Viking, that was loaned to them. Two other boats reported fish as boated, along with Fisherman, which was the one everybody was waiting for.
A huge crowd started to congregate around the scale at the marina, with plenty of activity, beer sales and bikini clad young women to keep the fisherman and public hanging around. Finally team Fisherman showed up with their fish and we all held our breath as it was hoisted up....we could see it wasn't that big, but would it make the 300 lb minimum? The red numbers on the digital display flickered back and forth and then stopped at 290 lbs.....so a non-qualifier. The other two teams that had boated fish decided not to weigh them, meaning they were also underweight. Team Rehab will be looking at a pretty big pay off as they will take all the monies in the pot from day three.
Tonight is the awards ceremony and we will bring you details of the payouts as soon as we have them, top five places are below...but remember there are different categories so full prize money won't be know until tonight.
By they way angler Carl Riley of the 800 lb marlin is in the hospital suffering from chronic back pain and broken thumb.
Top 5 Teams
Rehab — John Stonecipher — 560 & 347 lb. black marlin
Reelaxe — Jose Almanza — 599 lb. black marlin
C-Bandit — Buzz Colton — 549 lb. black marlin
Dream Weaver — John Boratto — 484 lb. black marlin
KW's Karma — Ron Pascoe — 431 lb. black marlin
PHOTO SHOW LAST NIGHTS CROWD AT THE SCALE FOR TOURNAMENT FINAL
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