Team Crawgator takes first place at the Cajun Canyons Billfish Classic

Cajun Canyons Billfish Classic—The 16th annual Cajun Canyons Billfish Classic, May 26-May 31, 2020, presented by H&E Equipment Services, and hosted by Cypress Cove Marina & Lodge is now in the record books. 36 sportfishing yachts, ranging in length from 42’ to 95’ fished for a total purse of $629,500.00.

Team Crawgator, a 61’ Viking, took 1st Place Blue Marlin, with Bill Butler weighing in a nice 505.7 lb. Blue, winning them $121,500.00. Crawgator also had 2 Blue Marlin releases, pushing them to Top Billfish Boat by 5 points and winning the C.R. Bob Potter Memorial Trophy along with an invitation to fish the Offshore World Championship in Quepos, Costa Rica. They were also awarded a custom Seamount Harness by our friends in Hawaii. Eric Chandler, Captain of the Crawgator, took Top Captain along with partner Bob England on the Crawgator taking Top Mate; these trophies are in Memory of Benny Collins.

Our Release Division, sponsored by the good people at Release Marine, was hotly contested with 23 Blue Marlin releases and 3 White Marlin releases. Our winners received custom inlaid step boxes from Release
Marine:

Restless 1st 61’ Viking Captain Jimmy Crochet 1500 points $73,800.00
Second Wind 2nd 72’ F&S Captain Marlin Brown 1500 points $44,280.00
All In Fishing 3rd 55’ Viking Captain Blake Bridges 1000 points $51,795.00

Our Tuna division saw a new tournament record with a whopper!

Southern Charm 1st 63’ Hatteras GT Angler Brett Hopping/Captain Landon Bell 193.4 lbs.
Miss Mary 2nd 68’ Viking Angler Rod Willhoft II/ Captain Adam Resmondo 171.3 lbs. $3,600.00
Team Supreme 3rd 76’ Viking Angler Allen Krake, Jr. Captain Jared Quick 153.3 lbs. $10,800.00

Our Dolphin division ended with the following standings:

Buggy Washer 1st 74’ Viking Angler Scott Blanton/Captain John Ramsey 29.9 lbs. $8,325.00
Pour Intentions 2nd 66’ Viking Angler Chris Britton/Captain Max Fogerty 28.4 lbs. $4,995.00
Buggy Washer 3rd 74’ Viking Angler Scott Blanton/Captain John Ramsey 21.9 lbs. $3,300.00

Our Wahoo division ended with the following standings:
Escape 37’ Hatteras Angler James Stock/Captain A.B. York 55.9 lbs. $7,560.00
Rising Sons 55’ Viking Angler Jaselyn Berthelot/Captain Toby Berthelot 54.6 lbs. $2,430.00
Escape 37’ Hatteras Angler Wes Sellars/Captain A.B. York 53.8 lbs. $3,960.00

Our Top Angler Award, in Memory of Dale Artigue, was won by Greg Trenor, fishing on the All-In-Fishing with 2 Blue Marlin releases on time.
Our Top Female Angler Award was won by Christina Forrestor, fishing on the Restless with 2 Blue Marlin releases.
Our Top Youth Angler Award, in Memory of Jim Peachey, was won by Seth Broussard, fishing on the Fleur de Lis with 2 Blue Marlin releases.
Venice Marina cleaned over 3,200 lbs. of fresh fish that was donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans.

We would like to thank all boats that donated fish to such a worthy cause. We would like to thank all our sponsors, participants, the staff of Cypress Cove Marina and Venice Marina and Plaquemines Parish for all their help and support; without you we could not have made this happen!

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.