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84 Years of Sailfishing off the Palm Beaches

December 30, 2020 By InTheBite Digital Editor

Photo courtesy West Palm Beach Fishing Club

West Palm Beach Fishing Club, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020—The venerable West Palm Beach Fishing Club (WPBFC) will again host the ‘World’s Oldest Sailfish Tournament’, the Silver Sailfish Derby on January 7th and 8th, 2021. The prestigious offshore tradition attracts some of the best anglers, captains and crews in the sport to the Palm Beaches each sailfish season. The tournament fleet is limited to 50 boats.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Fishing, Tournaments Tagged With: offshorefishing, sailfishing, Silver Sailfish Derby, West Palm Beach Fishing Club

2019 Silver Sailfish Derby Final Results

January 15, 2019 By InTheBite Editor

Congratulations to Captain Joe Garberoglio & the Fragrant Harbor crew! The champions of the 82nd Annual Silver Sailfish Derby with 13 releases overall and being Top Boat Day 1.

There were 43 boats in the tournament. The total number of sailfish released in the two days of fishing was 201. 

 

Filed Under: Featured Stories, General News, News, Tournament Results Tagged With: catch and releaae, final results, Fragrant Harbor, InTheBite, magazine, Sailfish, Silver Sailfish Derby, South Florida, sportfishing, tournament updates, West Palm Beach Fishing Club

Annual Silver Sailfish Derby to Celebrate 82nd Year

December 28, 2018 By InTheBite Editor

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:
http://www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org/silver-sailfish-derby.php

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.

Filed Under: Featured Stories, General News, News, Tournament Results Tagged With: american fisheries society, Annual Silver Sailfish Derby, billfish, Captain of the Year, catch and release, Celebrating 82nd Year, conservation, contender florida division, Florida, Game Fish tagging program, InTheBite, magazine, Palm Beach County, sailfish tournament, sportfish, sportfishing, The Billfish Foundation, West Palm Beach Fishing Club, WPBFC

Pretty Amazing! The Silver Sailfish Derby 80th Anniversary Approaching

December 9, 2016 By InTheBite Editor

1939-laddie-sanford-rea-winner

1939 Lady Sanford Rea Winner

Sailfish Derby to Celebrate 80th Anniversary

December 9, 2016 (images courtesy of West Palm Beach Fishing Club)The West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s (WPBFC) venerable Silver Sailfish Derby, headquartered out of the Sailfish Marina on Singer Island, will set sail January 4th through 7th, 2017.  This will be the club’s 80th running of the prestigious event.  Established in 1935, the Derby is recognized as ‘The World’s Oldest Sailfish Tournament’ and continues to attract some of the best sailfish anglers, captains and crews in the sport.   [Read more…]

Filed Under: General News Tagged With: Silver Sailfish Derby, West Palm Beach Fishing Club

West Palm Fishing Club Champs

November 20, 2014 By InTheBite Editor

buccaneercup-horizontal_banner 2015

Sponsor Advertisement

West Palm Beach – The venerable West Palm Beach Fishing Club (WPBFC) has announced the overall champions of its 2014 Summer and Winter Fishing Contests.  The club has also recognized its top Junior and Pee Wee anglers for the 2014 angling year.

Jay Young of Jupiter has won [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dock Talk, General News Tagged With: West Palm Beach Fishing Club, West Palm Beach Fishing Club Awards

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