The biannual Tahitian Inter-Island Billfish Tournament was held in early March on the spectacularly beautiful islands of Raiatea and Bora Bora. Teams representing the islands of Raiatea, Bora Bora, Huahini, and Tahiti competed for the French Polynesian club championship. But there were also teams from France, Japan, and the United States present competing for the overall tournament championship. J. D. Crouch from Houston, Texas and I fished aboard the 37-foot Luhrs Tehitirere with Captain and owner Emile Vongue. We were one of three U.S. teams that made the long trip. The 1997 version of the TI-IBT was the largest tournament ever held in French Polynesia with 39 boats joining the competition.
The waters off the outer French Polynesian islands are famous for harboring not only large numbers of fish but also fish of tremendous size. The entire American contingent therefore had extremely high expectations. Unfortunately though the tournament was not held the week of the full moon which characteristically is the better time to fish there and the capture rates were correspondingly reduced. There was only one nice fish taken during the pre-tournament Raiatea Jackpot and it weighed just under 200 kg (440 pounds). The three days of the TI-IBT we fished at Bora Bora where we found a few more fish but still far less than the previous tournament here four years earlier. That was the most productive in tournament history with an average of two marlin per boat per day! This year our team had only one strike the entire tournament. Fortunately we hooked and landed it. The fish was relatively small at 221 pounds but he proved to be the largest fish of the first day earning us the daily jackpot of approximately $3000.
On the last day the 50-foot motor-sailor/sportfisher Tara Vana captained by expatriated American Richard Postma caught the tournament winner. The marlin weighed just over 450 pounds and garnered their team 2 daily jackpots as no fish had been weighed on the second day of the tournament. Fortunately for us our fish held up as the second largest of the tournament which was worth another $4300. We also edged out two other teams for second place overall by half of a point and took home some beautiful hand-carved wooden trophies.
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