The Buckskin Billfish / South Carolina Governor’s Cup
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Now that we’re out of the holiday season, it’s time to get ready to fish your favorite tournament. Teams from around the world are finalizing their schedules for the events they want to fish in 2024, working out the final details, and marking their calendars for what lies ahead. It is always exciting for professional crews to be a part of this planning process.
At the start of the sailfish season in Florida and Costa Rica, houseboats get their live baits for those tournaments, which have become an industry unto themselves in the past decade. Trolling boats buy their bait-rigging materials so they can start rigging thousands for their hook baits and dredges. They also have to make sure 10 to 20 sailfish rods and reels are ready for use, with fresh line and fresh oil on the reels. Each rod is inspected for nicks in the guides, and the reel seats are also inspected. Then it’s on to the outrigger halyards and teaser reels, and a complete inventory of all the spare tackle and extra line in the storage lockers. No one wants to run out midseason.
After the sailfish season, it’s time to prepare for the marlin tournaments. That means putting away all the sailfish gear and putting away the baitwells for the season. Then all those rods and reels need to be respooled and that too carefully. It’s a never-ending cycle of maintenance, but if it prevents one lost fish, then it’s all worth the trouble.
Once the captain and boat owner agree on their plans for the season, it’s time to start calling marinas and making slip reservations—dockage fills up faster than ever these days. Moving a boat from port to port every week or every other week is not easy, with the logistics of fuel and weather being the most important part of the puzzle as the operation moves up and down the coast this time of year.
The spring marlin tournament season usually begins in the Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico, from Pensacola to South Padre Island in Texas. There are some big blue marlin—and some big bucks—in those Gulf Coast tournaments. June kicks off the Triple Crown season in Bermuda, then the East Coast swing of Big Rock, White Marlin Open and MidAtlantic, and more up and down the coast. Farther south, there are some great tournaments in the British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to Grenada and Trinidad. Meanwhile, the men in Costa Rica will be moving around and preparing for sea trips as soon as their tournament season ends. Offshore, they can average 10 to 15 blue marlin a day on those multiday trips—a lot of fun as well as good training for the anglers and crew. In the fall, things usually slow down, but then there are still big-money tournaments to fish in Mexico, including events in Los Cabos and Bisbee.
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One place that everyone loves to fish in the fall is Australia, where the black marlin season on the reef usually runs from September to the end of November. There are some contests, but once you get there, it’s all about you and shooting a potentially bigger black when you put the baits in the water.
Competitive fishing isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy the thrill of going head-to-head with others with a similar passion, it’s hard to beat. The camaraderie is like no other, and winning a big tournament is the icing on the cake. Good luck this season—I hope to see you on the docks.
