InTheBite

Final Results: 56th Annual Buccaneer Cup Sailfish Tournament

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De-Bait-Able takes the Win in a Field of 39 Boats

The 56th Annual Buccaneer Cup Sailfish Tournament was held January 23 to 26, 2019 in the Palm Beaches.  This year an additional fishing day was added to the format giving teams the choice to fish any two. With two days of near ideal conditions, and a much-anticipated bite pushing into the area from the north, teams were rewarded with steady fishing.  After the entire field of top competition teams taking a lay day on Thursday, all 39 boats hustled to release 180 sailfish on Friday and Saturday, The prize, a purse in excess of $352,000, the prestigious and beautiful Buccaneer Cup trophies for the top three boats and anglers, and bragging rights for placing in one of the oldest and most enduring billfish tournaments in the world. Add to that the knowledge that the tournament proceeds benefits the Recreational Fishing Alliance and The Billfish Foundation, there was a lot at stake.

Courtney Bowden, currently in her sixth year at the reigns of the Buc Cup, did a spectacular job running one of the best organized and classiest billfish tournaments on the coast. Along with her team of volunteers, including staff from TBF and RFA, she has made the Buc one of the most exciting and talked about tournaments of the season.  The comradery displayed by the teams in attendance proved to everyone that the Buc is most definitely back!

The 56th Buccaneer Cup opened with the Captains meeting on Wednesday held outdoors at the recently completed Tiki Bar at the Sailfish Marina.  The meeting was sponsored by the Viking Yacht Company and HMY Yacht Sales.  Robert “Fly” Navarro emceed the meeting and went through the rules which included a few changes in 2019 to give the teams more flexibility and fishing options.  The meeting included raffle items provided by the long list of tournament sponsors included such as items as Engel Coolers filled with goodies, Costa del Mar sunglasses, Maxel Reels, Tsunami rods and lures, Caza Offshore knife kits and gear donated by Atlantic Marine Electronics (AME), AFTCO, Hi-Liner Offshore Tackle, Grand Slam Sport Fishing, Outrigger Yacht Products, and Mustad.

The competition teams made the unanimous decision to lay on Day One, opting to fish Friday and Saturday which, based on the forecast, held the best conditions of the three available fishing days.

Day Two opened with grey skies, and light east winds and a strong bite with 14 sails being released within the first hour.  Martha D called in the first release of the tournament just 17 minutes after lines in at 8 AM.  The live baiters seemed to have the edge as Old No. 7, and De-Bait-Able took an early lead, but dead baiters Polarizer and Krazy Salts also made runs to claim the top spot for the day and the Calcutta dailies.  By lines out, Old No. 7 racked up 10 releases on live bait for 2,000 points, followed closely by De-Bait-Able just 200 points off the leader. The top dead baiters filled out the leader board with Polarizer and Krazy Salts in the 3rd and 4th spots aided by a late bite that saw six releases in the final 30 minutes of fishing before lines out at 3:30.

Day Three saw a drop in the wind and accompanying slowdown in the action, but the live baiters continued to push their advantage.  Based on radio chatter, fishing was best in a small area to the north of Jupiter Inlet.  De-Bait-Able, with Capt. KJ Zeher at the helm, put on an astonishing clinic the final day amassing a total of 4,200 points by lines out bringing their two-day total up to 21 sailfish releases and leaving the competition in their wake.

Tournament staff utilized Reel Time Apps for accurate, up-to-the-minute scoring that was available to teams and tournament enthusiasts by simply downloading the free app. The program was linked to the official radio room computer scoring team and updated minute-by-minute allowing teams to follow the leader board throughout each fishing day. At tournament’s end the radio logs were matched against the boat’s catch logs and Reel Time Apps and then verified by video confirmation.

The winning boats were De-Bait-Able on top, Old No. 7 securing second place, with Sandman just 200 points behind in third. The competition was a nail biter between the top boats and was capped by a great run by Wrapped-Up breaking out of the pack in the final hour of the tournament trying valiantly to catch the leaders.  In addition to several Calcutta categories, Old No. 7 also won the Charity Calcutta which includes an entry fee to the 2019 Buc Cup.  They have been a regular in the tournament the past few years and no doubt the crew will be back next year trying to top their second-place finish.

The top angler trophies went to Bill Bryan on the Old No. 7 in first, beating Chris Weaks on the De-Bait-Able in second by time (both had 1,400 points), and Sandra MacMillan on the Sandman taking third as well as the Top Female Angler, which was also a tie broken by earliest catch.

The Buccaneer Cup Tournament cash award for the Most Points on Live Bait ($10,000) went to the De-Bait-Able team, which pocketed $110,800.  Most Points on Dead Bait ($10,000) went to Polarizer, the team receiving a check for $66,610 in total purse for their win. The InTheBite Top Captain loving cup was awarded to Captain KJ Zeher, who skippered the De-Bait-Able to victory.

New for 2019 and created in memory of a long-time participant in the Buccaneer Cup, the Walter Johnson Award trophy for the largest meat fish went to the Bertram 61 for their 34-pound dolphin landed on Day 2.  Pat Healey explained that the award was created as a posthumous honor that recognized his love of catching meat fish, and for his contributions to the development of the MTU engine, which has become the standard in sportfishing boats, during his tenure as the top executive at Johnson & Towers.

The awards banquet was held at the Sailfish Club of Florida and sponsored by MTU Marine Power, Florida Detroit Diesel Allison, and Johnson and Towers.  The awards dinner was emceed by Robert “Fly” Navarro.  Pat Healey, President of Viking Yachts and member of the RFA Board of Directors, presented Ellen Peel of the Billfish Foundation with a $5,000 check to aid the organization in its ongoing efforts to advance the science used for billfish management and assessment.

This event would not be possible without the generous  support of its  sponsors including MTU Diesel, Florida Detroit Diesel Allison, Johnson & Towers, Viking Yachts, HMY Yacht Sales, Yamaha Outboards, Jupiter Beach Spa & Resort, Contender Boats, American Custom Yachts, Akzo Nobel-Interlux Paint, Seakeeper, Garmin, Cummins Marine Power, American Venture Boats, Bahama Boat Works, Christi/Travelers Insurance, Atlantic Marine Electronics, American Fishing Wire/Hi-Seas, Release Marine, Viking Service Center, The Buccaneer Marina & Resort, Reel Time Apps, Sailfish Marina, and Outrigger Marine Products.

We look forward to seeing all our teams and more next year for the prestigious 57th Buccaneer Cup where we can make sportfishing history again.

Annual Silver Sailfish Derby to Celebrate 82nd Year

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The venerable West Palm Beach Fishing Club (WPBFC), founded in 1934, will again host the ‘World’s Oldest Sailfish Tournament’, the prestigious 82nd Silver Sailfish Derby January 9th – 12th, 2019.  The Derby attracts some of the best sailfish anglers, captains and crews in the sport to our region each season.
The tournament is limited to 50 boats who will be vying for some of sailfishing’s most coveted awards.  Part of what makes theDerby so special are the traditions and the people behind them.  Many Derby awards are sponsored by families who have been associated with the event for decades.  The Derby’s top angler award is the Mrs. Henry R. Rea trophy, a magnificent silver sailfish sculpture that dates back to the event’s origin in 1935 and is sponsored by Elizabeth Richebourg Rea of Connecticut.  The Rea Trophy remains one of the crown jewels in all of angling.  The Top Lady Angler trophy is sponsored by the Hampp Family of New Jersey in memory of Rose Hampp, who won the honor in the 1957 Derby along with many other awards throughout her accomplished angling career.  The Louis S. Boski award for Outstanding Angling Achievement honors the late Lou Boski, an active WPBFC member who set the Atlantic sailfish single day catch record of 83 releases in 1980.  Other prizes include awards for the Top Small Boat, Junior Angler, Captain, Tag Team, Daily Angler & Daily Boat awards, and Overall Boat & Angler awards.
Those who are not fishing the event can follow tournament boat standings on the Derby’s mobile friendly virtual scoreboard.  The Derby scoreboard will go live just prior to the event and can be found on the WPBFC website. Photos from the tournament are posted on Instagram & Facebook @westpalmbeachfishingclub and under #SilverSailfishDerby.  Proceeds from the event benefit the WPBFC’s many conservation and education initiatives.  For registration and additional details on theSilver Sailfish Derby contact the WPBFC at (561) 832-6780or visit:

More on Derby History & Sailfish Conservation….
According to America’s angling historian, Mike Rivkin, the Silver Sailfish Derby is the touchstone of all other billfish tournaments. Started in 1935, this patriarch played an important role by attracting people from across the country to the Palm Beaches as a way to stimulate tourism and business at a time when the region needed it most, the years following the Great Depression.  TheDerby became a significant sporting attraction and its popularity grew.  In the late 1950’s famous American author and avid big game angler Ernest Hemingway was a Derby trophy sponsor.  While plenty of celebrities have participated in the event through the years, it’s the Derby’s long standing support of billfish conservation that has been its hallmark.
 
The Derby’s contribution to the conservation of Florida’s Official State Saltwater Game Fish, the Atlantic sailfish, has been significant.In the late 1930’s Derby organizers began promoting catch and release fishing for sailfish, a very new and radical concept for the day.  This forward-thinking approach to offshore saltwater fishing set the stage for the catch and release ethic that is widely practiced by billfish anglers today. Perhaps the most notable conservation contribution attributable to the Derby is the development of the red release pennant.  The WPBFC began flying and promoting the pennants in 1938.  Today, the little red pennant is recognized around the world as a way to signify a sailfish release.  The Derby was also among the first tournaments to incorporate game fish tagging for scientific purposes into a competitive format.  Joining forces with the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the 1960’s, the WPBFC helped initiate the cooperative Game Fish Tagging Program for science.  It was an important scientific partnership that included ground breaking sonic tagging of caught and released sailfish to document survival. The sonic tagging study was too expensive to have been accomplished with only state resources, so the WPBFC helped fill the void. WPBFC members and Derby participants have tagged thousands of billfish.  In 1970, the WPBFC convinced Florida’s State Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg to establish an east coast research field laboratory initially inside its clubhouse premises, rent-free, to evaluate the biological status of this critical sport fish.  Later the WPBFC became an early advocate for the use of non-offset circle hooks when fishing for sailfish and required their use in the tournament prior to the National Marine Fisheries Service mandate.
Today the sailfish remains abundant in our western North Atlantic region, while in other areas and oceans many billfish are less abundant and overfished. The WPBFC’s long civic role, enthusiastic angling participation, experimentation and outstandingDerby catch and release ethics has made it one of the most unique institutions of its kind.  Along with its 1,400 members, allied businesses, educational, scientific and conservation organizations, and its charitable affiliate, the Palm Beach County Fishing Foundation, this entity continues to contribute especially to children’s education and Palm Beach County’s unique environmental needs. In recent years the WPBFC has been honored by the American Fisheries Society, The Billfish Foundation and the Florida Wildlife Federation for its conservation contributions.  The WPBFC, located in downtown West Palm Beach on the corner of 5th Street and North Flagler Drive, became one more of America’s significant National Historic Sites in 2016 when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Big game fishing historian and author Mike Rivkin chronicled the club’s and theSilver Sailfish Derby’s storied history in his book,The West Palm Beach Fishing Club: A 75-year History.