KAREN EARNSHAW
It is unlikely that any of the fisherfolk taking part in the 43rd Marshalls Billfish Club Annual Fishing Tournament had any patches of dry clothes or skin by the time they reached the clubhouse on both Friday and Saturday afternoons.
Between the two, the first day of fishing delivered the most punishment: “The enormous waves were coming right over the boat,” grimaced one fisherguy. “The rain was blowing horizontal, you couldn’t get away from it,” said another.
Friday morning started out being promising, but after a few hours the heavens looked like a flock of dead penguins and a bed of oysters. Wild squalls were developing and pressing down on the fleet and were most punishing on the smallest craft.
Fortunately, though, everyone did just fine, with the big navy blue XXXX being the only one to suffer mobility issues. As it was relatively close to Arno, Captain Ben Reimers was relieved to have his boat towed to Arno dock by the Lomor II.
Of the 27 boats taking part in the event, 10 boats weighed in fish on Friday and the same number on Saturday.
Team Hangloose Captain Larry Hernandez, III, fishing on Baron Bigler’s boat Li-Manbwini, won total pounds that included his winning 364 pound marlin.
There was a big crowd watching the weigh-in on the club side of Shoreline, while a similar-sized group of onlookers were on the floating dock side, concentrating on the fish being brought in as part of the Urok Club tournament.
A splash of color and beauty graced both docks in the form of Miss Billfish 2025 Taylani Mwedrik Lucky and Miss Urok 2025 Alana Alexandria Marie Hernandez.
The sun shone down on Sunday’s picnic at Enemanet and Monday evening was the banquet at the Jokutaak event venue next to the lagoon in RRE Hotel’s garden.
The area was filled with many, many fisher champions and their families and friends, with the biggest champion of all being one of the Billfish Club’s founding fathers, Wally Milne, who won the prestigious President’s Cup with 3,344 points. Congratulations go to Wally and his team and all the other expert fisherfolk who won trophies and other prizes.