Rum Bum Wins Big in San Juan
The San Juan International Billfish Tournament is the longest consecutively held international billfish tournament in the world. On August 28, 2009 the tournament began for the 56th time. It was quite an honor to be able to join Luis Bacardi and team Rum Bum for a great week of fishing. Captain Baxter Still drove for the week, while Brendon Day and Dave Withers rounded out the team as deckhands.
The Rules of the Tournament
The tournament has an interesting format, in that every day a different visiting angler fishes with each team. Whatever fish these anglers catch count for the boat, but also for that individual's overall score. The rules allow for one lure or bait with a hook in it per angler, and a maximum of four lures or baits without hooks used as teasers.
With Luis and me representing team Rum Bum as anglers, we trolled only three lures in the water that had hooks, two for us and one for the visiting angler. Every hour, we would have to switch rod assignments to give each angler equal time with each lure. One of the lures controls all four teasers, which means when a fish is raised on a teaser, whomever's turn it was on the designated teaser rod could try to catch that fish. It sounds much more complicated than it actually is, but for prizes awarded for top anglers as well as top boat, this format gives everybody an equal chance at catching a fish. (Of course the fish have to cooperate too.)
Team Rum Bum Gets its First Bite
The wind was still and the seas were flat and calm the morning of the first day. Everyone was in a great mood, enjoying the weather, Puerto Rico, and just being out fishing. Shortly after ten in the morning, the left long, my rod position for that hour, got a strike. It was small blue marlin, maybe less than a hundred pounds. The fish had hit the lure, but didn't get hooked. Immediately it came back and grabbed it. "He's on!" I yelled as I picked up the rod and headed for the chair. The marlin ran out a few hundred feet of line, and then dropped it again. "He's off!" I yelled. I quickly reeled the lure back into position, then I felt the fish strike again.
I could see the marlin's bill slashing back and forth whacking at the lure. "He's still back there!" I tried a quick drop back, teased it back up, and tried again. Finally I felt a solid tug against the fifty pound line. "I got him now!" But I spoke too soon. The marlin stuck its' whole head out of the water, shook back and forth, and sent the lure flying. He was done after that. I had missed our first fish of the tournament...five times!
Then, a Double Header
My disappointment didn't last long. A half hour later, the right side lure got bit. This was Luis' rod. Immediately the line screamed off the real with a solid hook-up. A nice two hundred pound blue marlin got airborne as it jumped out of the water trying to toss the hook. Luis calmly walked over, picked up the rod, looked at me and said, "See how easy that is?" We were laughing as we cleared the other lures getting ready to chase down Luis' marlin when Captain Baxter starting yelling that there was another marlin behind the boat.
The Rum Bum had nearly stopped all of its forward momentum, and I had just lifted my lure out of the water when I saw it. Another small blue, about a hundred pounds and it was only about five feet from the back of the boat. I simply tossed my lure at it, picked up my rod, jigged it twice. The marlin pounced on it. We were hooked up to a double-header! "Just like that Luis?" I joked. After about a twenty minute fight, which included me having to walk around to the front of the boat so Captain Baxter could back up on Luis' fish, we released both marlin.
Day one ended with team Rum Bum in third place with the two marlin that we caught, trailing the first place boat by two fish.
Team Rum Bum Takes the Lead
On Day two, we opened up the proverbial can of whoop-ass. The weather was perfect again, flat calm seas and plenty of sunshine. Our first bite was about the same time as the day before, around ten-ish. Luis made short work of a nice three hundred pound blue that we raised on a teaser. Then, our visiting angler caught one, then the next two marlin bit on my designated rod, and this time I didn't miss either. We were a perfect four-for-four. The day ended with us in first place with six blues, and the second place boat trailing behind with four.
Rests Right Through "Lay Day"
On day three, the tournament has what is called a 'lay day', which is basically a day off to rest, nurse hang-overs, do tackle, or just enjoy the island. We did all of that, including taking a tour of the Bacardi factory in San Juan. This is where 80% of the rum served in the states comes from. We learned the history of the family, as well as the process of how the worlds best selling spirit is made. Of course, my favorite part was the free samples.
And Finishes Strong
The last two days of the tournament were totally uneventful for us. A tropical storm passing by the island turned the weather nasty and caused the fish to stop biting. In fact, we never even raised another marlin, but it didn't matter, our six fish were enough for us to hang on to first place. Team Rum Bum won the 56th annual San Juan International Tournament! I ended up with the award of Top Visiting Angler, and Luis with Second Place Visiting Angler. Besides some beautiful trophies, we qualified to take part in the world's largest offshore tournament series, the IGFA Offshore World Championship in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico next May.
All in all, it was an amazing week. Many thanks to Luis, the Rum Bum crew, and the great folks that put together one of the world's most prestigious tournaments. I can't wait for next year to go back and defend our title.
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