J-Mann Blog for 8.5.09
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Well, the WMIT2010 is just around the bend. Ok, so maybe it’s real big bend but staying the course will get us there in nothing flat.
With that in mind, this year’s awesome directorate of Nicole and John F. are already thinking of ways to keep the awesomeness going strong into 2010. That’s quite a commitment since the two of them were going nonstop into the wee hours to keep the WMIT2009 on the straight and narrow. Hell, I saw Nicole doing everything from organizing technical fish weigh-in data to bussing food area tables to implementing on-site ironing techniques upon John’s very cool new shirt. It would be easy for both of them to run for post-tourney cover.
I’m involved with a slew of events on LBI, including the 8-week fall surf fishing Classic, and I’ve learned that the very best way to parlay a great year into another great one is to quickly gather observations of a just-done event and come up with tweaks and turns for the next. You’d like to think those insights would hang around until some future meeting. They don’t. You gotta grab them when things are fresh in everyone’s minds.
Admittedly, this year’s WMIT ran up against traumas and tribulation (virtually all of them weather-related) and still came out smelling like a sea rose. (Hey, if there ain’t such a plant, there should be -- just for literary reasons.)
All that said, the tourney folks are looking into any suggestions and/or, dare I say it, critiques. I had a blast this year -- Just the right amount of folks at the clubhouse and a real doable flow of weigh-ins. The suspense was a bonus above and beyond.
I’m hard-pressed to suggest any major changes. I even opt for permanent annual pink t-shirts for the weigh-in guys.
I’m not sure of the best way to offer suggestions and such for WMIT2010 but I’ll pass on any comments coming via jmann99@hotmail.com. Also, my website readers are all but mesmerized by offshore fishing, something very few of them can do. If you could throw me an occasional here’s-what-we-caught report, I’ll hype a boat’s name (helpful for charters) and send out an occasional brand new Cadillac Escalade, finances permitting. .
Day Four: Final push.
Wow. Just plain wow.
And that’s a lot coming from someone like me who generally throws words around by the truckload.
The final day of WMIT2009, was something out of the annals of the “World’s Finest Forth Days.” At least I think there are annals to that effect.
Firstly, the flotilla I had announced wouldn’t be heading out for Day Four, headed out like gangbusters. Over 40 boats took advantage of the additional day – and damn decent weather.
Back at the tourney’s kick-off, it was figured that Day Four would be this timid little also-ran offering – maybe a dozen boats with little to show. Big misread.
Before getting to the fireworks at the Day Four scales, I’ll note that this tourney left no doubt it will go down as one of the wildest weather rides in the event’s recent history. (Truth be told, not much is known of the exact details of early-year WMITs). You can check my blog archives to read about the wind/wave/rain insanity at the canyons on the first two days of the event -- rounded out by Day Two late-day T-storms that moved out of the west like sky locomotives – whatever in the hell they are. With Saturday’s utter-perfection weather, the threat of sky junk for the rest of the tourney seemed to melt away. Again, big misread. As boats were heading in on Sunday, as nasty a line of T-storms as you wanna see headlonged in from the west. Though fast moving and lacking the wicked winds of Day Two’s storms, these buggers were free-firing lightning bolts of the fiercest breed: Cloud to ground with high voltage. Yes, lighting bolts can pack greatly varying degrees of electricity. These storms were packing heavy ordinance. If you’ve never been at sea when bolts begin raining down, it isn’t that far from facing incoming enemy fire. You just hope one doesn’t land in your lap.
Now to that wowness.
The day’s first weigh-in was preceded by word that there was a white marlin onboard the arriving Angie-Sea, with Captain Chrebet at the helm.
Secured at the dock, the boat decided to play the suspense build-up card by first weighing in two 14-poundish mahi. Then came the feature presentation: a marv marlin.
The boat’s eyeful marlin first met the dockside public as it underwent the obligatory layout on the walkway boards to assure it was of suitable length. The fish had measured 71 inches at sea. The official tale of the BHM&TC tape showed it at 70.625 inches. The Moonshadow’s leading marlin had been bested. Or had it? It ain’t the inches but the ounces that matter. The scales told the rest. The newly arrived fish weighed 61.9, besting the Moonshadow’s 58.5. It went straight to the head of the class.
The Angie-Sea’s marlin was a pure looker. A striking specimen. I, like many, pegged it for way bigger than the leader. But, it actually wasn’t that much heavier. Despite its comeliness, it clearly came up on the lighter-than-expected side of the coin. And that would matter in a huge way. But it’s too early to go there just yet.
The new leading marlin needed to undergo that mainly-for-show ID thing. Is it a hatchet or a white? While the club doesn’t care which it is, the info could prove useful to some of the studies currently being done. In fact, I’m kinda keeping rough tabs on hatchet marlin for a scientist monitoring them down in Virginia. But ID’I the Angie-Sea fish couldn’t be done instantaneously. Billfish inspector Bill F. was running late, after having gone out for a very successful blue fin tuna trip with his son. We call that a justifiable dereliction of duty. The marlin was placed dockside in an iced tuna bag. However, before the Angie-Sea pulled away, Bill arrived and went though various magical moves to conjure up a call as to whether it was white or hatchet. And it was a hatchet, best established via close inspection of the base of the fish’s scales – and that feathery look and valley shape hatchet’s have. Sure it was purely academic but more than a few folks were passing word to friends that it was “a hatchet.” Makes for fun chatter. My read: Is a hatchet just a type of white marlin? I reference that famed quote: If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a hatchet duck.
Sidebar: Yesterday, the Angie-Sea hooked and landed a blue marlin in the 500- to 600-pound, bringing the monster boatside before realizing it was actually too big to safely hoist and handle. It was released -- in just-fine condition. Hopefully some photos of the blue marlin being fought will be coming my way.
As you likely guessed, that Angie-Sea’s eyeful marlin was just the buildup to what would become a back-to-back clash of the titan weigh-ins.
After the Caitlyn Taylor measured a couple yft, 43.9 and 49.8, the Paula Lynn pulled in with its white marlin flag flying. Was the just inked in Angie–Sea marlin already in jeopardy? It didn’t seem likely since word had leaked out that the marlin aboard the Paula Lynn was just squeaking in above the 68-inch size minimum – and that was an at-sea taping.
Much like the Moonshadow’s marlin measuring, there was a serious hushedness over the Paula Lynn crew as it waited to hear if its fish made the grade. It was found acceptable – and, amazingly, was the exact size of the former leading marlin at 68.25.
So, at that barely-there length, it must be sub-par when compared to the leading Angie-Sea marlin? Well, I’m 5-9 and weigh about 180. There are football players at 5-9 weighing 205. You see where this is going. The newest marlin was hauled to the scale and even though it really seemed, visually, to be smaller than the Angie-Sea marlin, the announced weight told it all: 62 pounds. An explosion from the Captain Scott H. Sari and the boat’s crew! Its hatchet marlin (confirmed by Bill to be such) was atop the heap with only an hour left in the event and no other arriving marlin being reported. By the by, Captain Scott also fought and landed the marlin.
And what a case of fame being fleeting. The magic marker ink showing the Angie-Sea’s lead was still moist on the leaderboard as it was being erased to mark the new top marlin.
Thereafter, a goodly load of tuna began showing dockside. It was surely a fun watch for a sizeable Sunday crowd at the club. Also, the cyclone fence people were really packed in over in Morrison’s lot -- had to be 50 or more, all straining to get a gander at the goings on.
Of further weigh-in note was a bag limit of tuna aboard the Sun Runner -- 60.3, 59.6 and 65.2.
Alyson Rose came in during the final hour and bagged final bragging right to the mahi division – a personal favorite – offering the scales a 24.5 model.
(Here’s to mahi (dolphin). They’re a bit like our nearshore bluefish in the way they often save a trip from skunkedness. And as for a light show, no other fish on the planet displays like a hooked mahi, none. And this year the water from nearshore outward are loaded with them. Fun on the hoof when you come across some open sea flotsam. Hey, fishing life goes on after WMIT. )
Even as the clock wound down on WHIT 2009, the day’s suspense was not yet suspended. It’s not a WMIT without hearing from MJs. The younguns upon that vessel once again gave the tuna board a last-instant run for its money. Offering a tuna threesome for weigh-in, the crowd watched as MJ’s showed a 59.1 first fish that was quickly dwarfed by a 129.2 big eye. Then, in typical best-for-last style, a 145.4 big eye was hoisted. Though falling short of the dazzling big eyes entered earlier in the tourney by First Light, MJs managed what I reckon was a third – and were surely in the calcutta money.
The final leader board will soon be up on this WMIT site. I’m not going to bandy about any Calcuttas money amounts right off the bat. They’ll be up, officially, within 24 hours. I did hear that First Light was looming as very large winners – possibly six figures. Make sure to check back when the numbers are all in and finalized.
In wrapping up WMIT2009, I have to say it was not only the most exciting one I’ve covered but was far-and-away the most challenging to the folks behind the scenes. Economy crunches, wild weather at sea, lost vessels (communication-wise), wicked storms hitting the clubhouse, first-ever rain delays at weigh station, feeding folks during the extra day -- you name it. WMIT2009 had it all and still John Fitzgerald and the entire crew simply nailed it. Proud to be part of it all. The only thing I’m glad I wasn’t called upon to do is name the prettiest baby at the clubhouse. Boy, there were some Gerber moments thereabouts. The future looks mighty bright based on those far-future anglers.
If I get any added info on WMIT2009, I’ll blog them in here.
