The 8th biannual Tahitian International Billfish Tournament was held March 3rd through the 9th at Papeete, Tahiti with teams from South Africa, Japan, Australia, the United States, and a number of the surrounding atolls competing. My wife Teresa and I comprised one of the five U.S. teams. The usually gamefish-rich waters of French Polynesia were more productive this year than they were during the last version of this tournament in 1994. Only one Pacific blue marlin was taken the entire five days of the tournament that year in contrast to an average of almost 4 fish per day this year. The fish were relatively small though averaging about 200 pounds. Our team caught only one marlin which was a 225 pound male that we tagged and released the next to the last day of the tournament. That gave me 20th place overall. The largest fish of the tournament was a 324 pounder landed by Stanley Ellacott from Bora Bora on the first day. His team won a number of beautiful trophies and $12,000 from the hastily put together calcutta.

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