Day 1: Five minutes after lines in we had a double header of window shoppers that wouldn't bite. Then about an hour later I hooked, caught, and tagged a blue marlin of about 300 pounds in 12 minutes with the 50-pound stand-up gear we had chosen to use. The tournament rules this year allowed only 50 pound tackle and for reasons unclear to any rational person no double line. The fish struck my Pakula lumo longshot, the lure that had been so hot in Bom Bom. I next had a small fish on for a few minutes until it spit the hook on its third jump. That was followed by another small fish that pulled the hook on its first run. Later that afternoon I hooked up for the fourth time again on the lumo longshot. A boat was about to cut off our lines though forcing Bobby to back down rapidly. I could not reel at that same pace resulting in some slack and the fish was gone. Although we had a great day at raising fish, it was not really a successful day since we were only one for four. Our lures and hooks were a bit large for the small fish that we encountered so we changed to smaller stainless 7732 hook-sets and Bernd switched to the smaller Leon lure.

Day 2: We didn't get action until about 10 AM when again my lumo attracted a blue of 350 pounds. The fish cooperated with us, staying on the surface, and was tagged after a brief 10-minute fight. An hour later my lumo went off again enticing a small fish off the left teaser. It ran straight away from the boat for 200 yards and then settled down. As we began backing down regaining string the line suddenly went limp. When I reeled in the remainder of the line there was a clean cut at the end as if a Barracuda or Wahoo had gone after the swivel and cut us off. I had lost my favorite lure, the one that had drawn 9 of the 16 fish we had in Bom Bom and the one that had experienced all 6 of our strikes thus far in the tournament! Now we were really in for a tough battle. Later in the day we had two short strikes that pulled drag but the fish missed the hooks. One was Bernd's first strike of the tournament and the other was on the replacement Pakula longshot I had put out. I didn't have another with the lumo colors so I chose the closest color combination to it that I had. It made me feel better that it at least had drawn a strike.

 

Day 3: This was a long quiet day for us. We finally raised a fish about noon but we couldn't entice it to eat. The same scenario happened twice more as the long afternoon progressed. Then about four o'clock the bite turned on and we were in the area. A fish came up and ate our left teaser ripping it from the line before I could get my bait close. He then went to the right teaser and stayed long enough for me to get my lure there. In a flash the marlin crashed on it and we finally had a hook-up for the day. He jumped twice directly away from the boat and then turned jumping across Bernd's line. As my line ran down Bernd's his cut me off, but not before Bernd's hook had buried deeply into the fish's tail. Now I had a broken line and Bernd had the fish. He fought it for about 35 minutes and had it right behind the boat when the sharks arrived. A few minutes later Bernd pulled up the tail, which was all that remained of the 300 pounder. Now we really had experienced bad luck! We were two for nine on hooked fish and I had lost two of my favorite lures! If I had caught the two fish that had parted line by freak accidents I would be first place angler and we would be the first place boat for the tournament. Instead we were a long way back in the pack.

Day 4: The last day of the tournament started off slowly with no fish being seen for several hours. Then about 10 AM two window shoppers came up on my substitute Pakula but could not be enticed to eat. Approximately 30 minutes later though it successfully hooked a small blue which we tagged and released after 3 minutes and 47 seconds, the shortest fight of the tournament. At three o'clock I had another strike but the fish came off. I reeled the line back in and lifted my rod tip to present the lure once more and the marlin slashed across the baits from right to left and inhaled it. The 300 pounder came off again though after a few seconds despite my best attempts to set the hook. I reeled in my lure once more with the marlin following my bait. As he came to a point where he could see Bernd's lure he raced over and inhaled it. Finally Bernd had a solid hook-up. After an eight-minute fight the blue was tagged and released. We fished hard but could not raise another fish before lines out at 4:30.

Summary: Our final tally was three fish caught from 10 strikes for me and one for three for Bernd. We finished in the middle of the pack for the boat and I finished in 11th place in the individual angler standings. Not great, but acceptable and with a little better luck we would have been right up near the top. We had our shots and had fished with a great captain and crew on the Jeni-Lyn. Sam Jennings was the first place angler catching seven blue marlin and his boat Revenge won the boat competition. OB O'Bryan on Fonda Fishing was second place angler with six fish and Blank Check's Clark Lea, Jr. was third capturing five blues.