The island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands has been host to the Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament for nearly a quarter of a century. The proceeds from this tournament are given to the USVI Boy Scout Council leading to its popular name of “the Boy Scout tournament.” The twenty-fourth edition of the USVI Open occurred August 24th to August 30th. This year the number of teams was half of that usually present due to the fact the tournament was held the same week of the Club Nautico Tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico and because of three sequential hurricanes approaching from the east. None the less the fishing was far superior to that of the two most recent USVI Opens. The average catch was 5.5 blue marlin per boat for the four days of fishing. The fish tended to be larger as well with most being in the 300 to 400 pound class the last two days. There were several larger fish lost and two that were tagged and released were estimated at around 500 pounds. Due to the modified tag and release format with a 500 pound minimum no fish were hung.

Bernd Mastmeier and I fished aboard the hand-made Bluefin II with owner and builder Capt. Don Mertens for the third year in a row. We were the very last boat to catch a fish in the tournament, an event that didn’t occur until day three. We caught up with the pack though on the last day catching five fish to tie for the most marlin caught that day. Although we didn’t win any money, we felt we had achieved at least a moral victory going from dead last to eighth place in one day. The tournament was won by the team on the Cacatua.

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