It is big fish month here in BDA and with what a bang did things go off!

The fishing was red hot and the boats and anglers were all here to take full advantage of it.

The first two big billfish tournaments took place earlier this week, with the World Cup coinciding with the Bermuda Billfish Blast. Great sea conditions and the added benefit of a full moon on July 3 set the stage for some cracking blue water action.

Visiting boat, Plane Simple, skippered by captain Chris Weeks, enjoyed some incredibly fast action jumping out to a lead that it maintained through the first day by catching and releasing five blue marlin and three white marlin. That is a lot of fish!

However, a lot of fish there were with 50 billfish caught that day in the Blast. With 37 teams fishing the event, it worked out to an average of better than one per boat, which is really high for this type of fishing here.

Obviously, it doesn’t work out that way with some boats getting a bigger bite of the pie than others but suffice it to say, the whole pie was very large.

The World Cup was, as always, a case of nail biting as time zone after time zone all over the world fished their respective times.

This year it truly seemed that the whole world was represented: apart form fairly obvious locations like Bermuda, Hawaii, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands there were really remote places like the Marquesas.

Before you go running to Google Maps, it is a chain of islands in French Polynesia, situated a long way from anywhere else.

Anyway, things were tense as fishing commenced in this time zone and it was not long before the action transpired.

First a boat headed for the weigh scale here with a catch as the word came in of a large fish being caught in the Cape Verde Islands.

Things turned sour here, as not only did the local fish fail to make the 500-pound minimum, thus having had its shot at the World Cup as well as being awarded penalty points in the Blast but the Cape Verde fish weighed in at 976 pounds.

A fish of that magnitude was certain to put a damper on the spirits of all here hoping to catch a world-beater.

But strange things happen. The word later came through that, for some reason, the boat that caught the big fish in the eastern Atlantic was not officially entered in the World Cup, so things were all wide open again.

With this seeming miracle, captain Mike King’s Blue Bill headed for the scale with a fish that tipped the scale at 712 pounds, putting it in the lead for the World Cup and assuring it of a daily jackpot in the Blast.

As Bermuda’s fishing day wore on, Hawaii started to fish, and it was not too far into its day when captain Cyrus Widhelm’s Apex hurried to the scale with what would, in a few hours’ time, become the 2023 World Cup winning fish with a 834.5 pound Pacific blue marlin.

Day two of the Blast saw Plane Simple still leading but now it was not the unassailable lead that it had been. Angler James MacReady, board Bailey’s Ark boated a fish that weighed in at 542 pounds, assuring itself a daily jackpot.

Three releases early on the third day saw Plane Simple come under pressure from Builder’s Choice as that team also clocked up a total of 3,800 points, tying for the lead.

While the clock started to wind down in the tournament, captain Kyle Liane’s Bree hurried to the dock to weigh in their 667-pound blue marlin and snag another daily while Angler Rob High’s first day entry of 714 pounds would hang on to take the overall largest fish jackpot.

Things tightened up when into the final hour of fishing on the final day, Plane Simple released yet another blue marlin, moving the score to 4,300 points from eight blue marlin releases and three white marlin releases.

Very soon thereafter, Builder’s Choice struck back with another blue marlin release to again tie the score on points. Stiff competition!

At the end of the day, the first place winner was Plane Simple with 4,300 points; followed closely by Builder’s Choice, also 4,300 points but based on time, with Wasteknot in third with 3,100 points. The Biggest Game Fish category was won by Ryan Small on board Unbridled with a 46-pound wahoo.

A truly remarkable total of 141 fish were caught over the three days: 109 blue marlin, 30 white marlin along with two game fish entries. All but four of the billfish were released.

Marlin madness continues this weekend albeit on a rather more light-hearted level. The local Blue Marlin Release Challenge takes place on Sunday.

This tournament is a total release event and does not adhere to the strict set of rules that normally govern competitive angling.

The far lower cost of entry also makes it attractive for anglers who want the thrill of a big game tournament without the intricacies that the really big-time events require.

This is meant to offer all a lot of fun and a chance of some real excitement while experiencing some of the finest Tight Lines!!!