The Houston Big Game Fishing Club hosted the 5th Annual Houston Invitational Billfish Tournament on June 25th to June 27th. Ideal weather conditions greeted the fleet of sport fishing boats as they departed Galveston, Freeport and Port O’Connor, Texas for the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Participants were allowed to begin fishing at 12:00 am on Friday, June 26th and the calm seas allowed the majority of the boats to get to deep water for night time tuna fishing at the start of fishing time. The tuna bite was on at the deep rigs with numerous boats reporting solid tuna in the 100 lb range. The good tuna fishing was a sign of the billfish action to come on day one.
“Booby Trap”, Brett Holden’s 52 Viking got things started early on day one and kept the pressure on all day. By dark the “Booby Trap” had reported an amazing tally of 2 blue marlin, 1 white marlin and 2 sailfish releases to establish a solid lead. Reel Bounty, a 64 Hatteras owned by Tony Annan was in 2nd with 2 blue marlin and 1 sailfish followed by Mike McLees’ 33 Grady White “Michelle Rae II” with 2 blue marlin. In the hunt after day one were several boats with blue marlin releases including “ Paparda Rey”, Randy King’s 54 Bertram; “Nereus”, a 60 Hatteras owned by Michael Thorn-Leeson; Ed Bass’ 74 Halter, “Akela”; “Team Venture”, Wes Tumlinson’s 38 Venture; and “Ocean Oasis”, Debbie Conway’s 48 Ocean all releasing blue marlin.
The “Booby Trap” crew not only had a solid lead but had caught and released a grand slam, all by Angler, Travis Joyce. Having pursued the elusive super slam of 4 billfish species in the same day for several years, “Booby Trap” could not resist the chance to pick up a swordfish even though swordfish would not add to their tournament points. As darkness fell, they ran to a productive swordfish spot and at 9:30 PM on June 26th the crew released a swordfish to accomplish one of bill fishing’s rarest achievements; A Super Slam for the crew and all caught by the same angler, Travis Joyce. The “Booby Trap” team stayed on the swordfish spot into the morning and released an additional swordfish for angler Charles Stetzel, which was his first ever. As day 2 began word spread quickly over the radio of the Booby Trap’s catch; an amazing 2 blue marlin, 2 swordfish, 1 white marlin and 2 sailfish. In less than 24 hours they had actually caught and released a double grand slam (3 billfish species) and the elusive Super Slam.
The hot fishing from day one did not continue on day 2 as the billfish releases became few and far between allowing the day one leader board to stay the same except for “Nereus” picking up a sailfish release to move into 4th place.
The weigh station stayed busy on Saturday evening, especially with wahoo and tuna and the spectators were greeted with some exceptional catches.
The wahoo division was swept by noted wahoo experts, the crew on Kevin Harper’s 54 Bertram, “Contigo” as they weighed the first place fish weighing exactly 101 pounds caught by Randy Stiba and also the second place wahoo weighing 56.4 pounds caught by Jeff Nesmith. 3rd place wahoo went to Mike Dowler with a 52.7 pound fish caught on his 45 Bertram, “Six Chicks”.
The tuna division was very competitive with five teams weighing tuna over 100 pounds. The Nereus took 1st place with a 130.4 tuna caught by Johnny Timmons, followed by Mike Hopkins' 50 Viking, “Pass It On” with a 115.1 pound tuna caught by Bill Cannan. 3rd Place went to Kenny Rogers fishing on Shane Babich’s 42 Don Smith, “Minnesota” with a 105.9 pound yellow fin.
The big dolphin did not show this year but numerous dolphin were caught and weighed in. 1st Place went to angler Greg Cullum with a 34.0 pound fish caught on the 52 Hatteras, “Big Advantage” owned by Billy Dills, followed by Richard Richardson’s 29.7 pound dolphin on the 56 Viking, “Legacy” owned by George Gartner. 3rd Place was won by Shane Harwell on the 58 Viking “Gringo Honeymoon”, owned by Mike Miller with a 27.4 pound dolphin.
Top Female Angler was captured by Tracia Dills on the “Big Advantage”.
This years Houston Invitational set new marks with a total of $285,000 in cash payouts and a total contribution to the Houston Big Game Fishing Club’s Scholarship and Charitable Programs of $13,500.00.
The Houston Invitational Billfish Tournament is sponsored by Galati Yacht Sales and MarineMax Yachts and Brokerage and the host facility is Surfside Marina.
