We spent the past few days fishing in the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament (VBBT). The format is three possible days to fish, you pick any two. Almost everyone stayed in port the first day (Thur) because we thought that it was going to be the roughest of the three days. It turned out that Saturday was the roughest day but for all of those 60-footers, it did not matter.

It is a real nice tournament, both the parties on land and the fishing. It is almost a total release billfish tournament. The problem with a total release tournament is that your weekend fisherman (me) has a hard time beating the large boats with professional crews. During “kill” tournaments, you are always just one lucky bite away from walking off with a jackpot so everyone is still in it through the last day. There tend to be larger participation in “kill” tournaments than in total release tournaments. The VBBT has a good compromise. You can weigh in a blue marlin but it has to be a big one, at least 500 pounds. You had better be sure because a non-qualifying fish won’t just cost you that day’s points as in some tournaments, it automatically disqualifies you from the entire tournament. In the history of the tournament, only one blue marlin has been weighed. So you have the chance to win with just one bite but almost no billfish are brought to the scales.

Big money tournaments tend to bring out the competitive side of people. During this tournament, it is a very friendly competition. Most of the boats are Virginia and North Carolina charter boats. Those guys know each other and help each other out on the water on a daily bases. It was no different during the tournament. They were on the radio all the time helping each other out, congratulating catches an so on. This is a very friendly tournament: all the best of tournament fishing with none of the bad stuff. I think it has to do with the quality of the teams and a lot to do with the ladies who run this thing, Paula Owens and Deirdre Bell. They are offshore fishing in Virginia.

Release tournaments are about numbers. Quickly release the fish and get fishing again. I am part of a tagging project where we are placing pop-up satellite tags ($4,000 each) into blue marlin. With these expensive tags, you take a little extra time to make sure the fish is under control and the tag is placed properly. I had already decided that we would take the extra time with a blue to get a tag out. Dr. John Graves asked me if he sent one of his graduate students along with more tags, would some of the other boats allow him to ride along for a chance to get a tag out? I said that I would ask but gee, this is a tournament. It was amazing. These guys want to win but they were more than willing to give back to the sport. Dan, the grad student, road the first day on Sea Rounds and on Backlash the second day. I’m not sure which boat he road on the third day. There were a number of boats willing. The blue marlin did not cooperate but the captains and crews in this tournament sure did.

For the tournament, only 3 blue marlin were caught and a single sailfish. The 67 boats who fished found a good number of white marlin though. 92 white marlin were caught. The best locations were east of the Cigar in 50-100 fathoms and just north of the Washington Canyon. The top two boats each had 6 billfish releases. Swordfish beat out Triflin by time of catch. Sea Toy, Waterman, and Maggie finished 3rd-5th each with 4 billfish releases. The Healthy Grin finished again, just out of the winners circle with 3 white marlin releases. Actually, when the time-of-catch tiebreaker stuff is calculated, I think we came in 11th.

We did beat Capt. Jimmy Grant though. Jimmy is one of the best marlin captains in the world. He is who I fish with in Venezuela and I have learned an awful lot by fishing with him. We actually tied him but we have the time-of-catch. I’ll take it. On the last day, as we were going up and down the seas, I told my crew that this was just like fishing in Venezuela. The seas were big with beautiful blue water. There were a lot of birds and flying fish. It was a lot like Venezuela except we were in a much smaller boat, we had run 4 times as far, we saw a 10th of the billfish, and we paid about 30 times the cost in fuel. Other than that, it was just like Venezuela. If you are interested in some of the best marlin fishing in the world, contact Capt. Jimmy Grant: captjimmygrant@hotmail.com .

We had two anglers on board who had never caught a billfish. Roger Burnley caught our first white marlin. Danny Forehand caught our second. Besides being his first ever billfish, it was Danny’s 6th citation of the year earning him his first Virginia Expert Angler Award. Both of these guys were thrown in the water back at the dock. It used to be, you were thrown in for your first blue marlin. Now, any first will do. Steve Martin caught our last fish but he had caught a white before so we did not get to throw him in.

I was interested to see what the circle hook rule was going to do to the meat fish divisions. It did not seem to hurt them too much. A 147.7 pound bigeye won the Top Tuna for the Skirt Chaser. The Top Dolphin was 37.3 pounds caught on the Sea Note. The Top Wahoo was 43.4 pounds caught on the Gannet.

The Top Angler was Allen Palmer with 4 billfish releases while fishing on the Triflin.

The Top Lady Angler was won once again by Tiffany Griffin with 3 billfish releases while fishing on the Hatterascal. The last person to win this award other than Tiffany was Tricia Neill in 2006.

The Top Youth Billfish Angler was Dwight Wolf, II with 2 billfish releases while fishing on the Sea Wolf.

The Top Youth Gamefish Angler was William Wangle with a 29.5 pound dolphin caught on the Fighting Chance.

For complete results of this year’s tournament and to start planning to fish next year’s event, visit: www.vbbt.com .

Ken,
Great seeing you there and thanks for the full reporting! Our crew ending up helping Paula out, with Pat and Laura volunteering during the main events, Don working the scales, and I stuck observing on Hunter and Swordfish Friday and Saturday! Those Captains and crews have it wired to be sure. It was an honor and pleasure to be observing on Swordfish, the leading boat and eventual winner when we had a White Marlin and Blue Marlin release Saturday! THe VBBT is a class event!
Sharp hooks and tight lines.
Dave

You were able to observe on a couple of great boats. Good thing you were not on my boat Saturday. We would have had to tie you in. There were some impressive seas out there.

Man you got the better end of that deal over Don. Two great boats that obviously know their stuff.

Dave got to look at billfish all day, while I got to look at the lovely female volunteers/bartenders at the big tent. I'd say I got the better deal!!!