Iroojlaplap Michael Kabua was up bright an early Saturday morning to welcome anglers to the Marshalls Billfish Club and make comments about his long-time colleague and friend Tony deBrum, who was honored by the day’s special sailfish tournament.
According to a fishing results release, Billfish Club co-founder Wally Milne had suggested the club start a remembrance fishing competition for his friend, Tony. “The club added a sailfish derby to its 2025 fishing schedule… Tony’s family was informed and responded with enthusiasm.”
This resulted in there being a total of $6,000 in cash prizes for fisherfolk who weighed in sailfish.
“Their criteria for winning first place is to catch the biggest sailfish 50 pounds or over and for second place to accumulate total sailfish pounds by tag or catch and release.”
Unfortunately no sailfish were caught on Saturday, so Tony’s family confirmed their sponsorship will be carried over to the 43rd Annual Fishing Tournament in July.
Saturday’s tournament included the double up Half and Half derby, with the objective to catch the biggest qualifying fish and/or total qualifying pounds.
Eleven boats headed out under the bridge on a day in which “the weather was fair, but the fish were lazy … except for a 25 to 50 pound range of yellowfin tuna.”
Team Daliah, Captain Wally Milne, caught the biggest fish, a 204-pound Pacific blue marlin. Second was Team Nali, Captain Kyle Aliven, which caught six qualifying yellowfin.
Other boats that weighed in fish included Team Lotujo, Captain Danny Paul, and Team Hangloose, Captain Larry Hernandez III.
The club thanked Team Jumbo for welcoming on board new club members Jake and Dan Porter so they could experience fishing in the Marshall Islands.
The latest President’s Cup standings for local anglers:
Wally Milne 3,094 points
Kyle Aliven 2,730
Danny Paul 2,568
Jonathan Howe 2,550
Damien Milne 1,768
Ronnie Reimers 919
Robin Reimers 810
Baron Bigler 639