The finals
Dwight did a great job capitalizing on the bites that he got today.....but the bite that he didn't take cost him in the end. The five anglers fishing the World Billfish Series Championship's final day had a tough day of fishing. Dwight Wolf on the Dragin Fly started the day with the first billfish release of the day with a sail, several minutes later, missing another one. At 11 am, no one else had reported a fish when James runs over a patch of hungry sailfish. Dwight hooked the first, then a second sail with another hot fish coming in on the last teaser in the water.
With no other boats reporting fish, Dwight took a conservative approach, opting to land the two hooked fish instead of going for a triple header. After all, no one else had reported a release and we seemed to be raising them. Who knows what would have happened. A angler hooked up with multiple fish can only fight one fish at a time and must pick up the rod in order to take up slack. It's not easy to control 2 jumping sailifsh, let alone 3 at one time.
After landing both sails, we put the spread back out and watched as the other boats chipped at Dwight's lead through the day. Although he had a couple more opportunities, Dwight's thoughts shifted back towards that hungry sailfish that wasn't presented a bait.
It took 400 points to win the tournament on time with a marlin release, 2nd place also with a marlin, Dwight's 3 sails in 3rd place......the third part of his triple header would have put him in first on time.
The obvious footnote here is IF. IF any of the other boats had hooked a marlin, they would have won. IF we had not gotten our last minute double header of marlin last weekend, we would not have won. That's part of what makes this "sport" so exciting.
With no other boats reporting fish, Dwight took a conservative approach, opting to land the two hooked fish instead of going for a triple header. After all, no one else had reported a release and we seemed to be raising them. Who knows what would have happened. A angler hooked up with multiple fish can only fight one fish at a time and must pick up the rod in order to take up slack. It's not easy to control 2 jumping sailifsh, let alone 3 at one time.
After landing both sails, we put the spread back out and watched as the other boats chipped at Dwight's lead through the day. Although he had a couple more opportunities, Dwight's thoughts shifted back towards that hungry sailfish that wasn't presented a bait.
It took 400 points to win the tournament on time with a marlin release, 2nd place also with a marlin, Dwight's 3 sails in 3rd place......the third part of his triple header would have put him in first on time.
The obvious footnote here is IF. IF any of the other boats had hooked a marlin, they would have won. IF we had not gotten our last minute double header of marlin last weekend, we would not have won. That's part of what makes this "sport" so exciting.
posted by Capt. George Beckwith at
10:48 PM
