2008 Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament Results

I arrived back in town at the tail end of the 2008 Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament; just in time for the final weigh-ins tonight. No records were broken, but some big fish came in nonetheless.

Click the more link for pictures and the final results from tonight’s weigh-in.

This was the first year that the actual billfish fishing competition was a “catch and release.” In an effort to become more eco-friendly, St. Joe (the new owner of the Bay Point Marina) opted to release all sailfish and switch to a points system for prize money awards. Verification of the catch and release was done with video and the tapes turned in tonight. Video and results should be available tomorrow of Monday. 600 points were given for each Blue Marlin, 250 points for each White Marlin, 250 points for each Sailfish and 100 points for each unidentified sailfish.

The final Leaderboard for Tuna, Wahoo, and Dolphin are as follows:

Tuna:

FIRST PLACE – Boat: Windsong | Weight: 105.5 lbs

SECOND PLACE – Boat: Seaspray | Weight: 54.7 lbs

THIRD PLACE – Boat: Seaspray | Weight: 50.8 lbs

Wahoo:

FIRST PLACE – Boat: Traders Hill | Weight: 72.3 lbs

SECOND PLACE – Boat: Maverick | Weight: 61.6 lbs

THIRD PLACE – Boat: Restitution III | Weight: 56.8 lbs

Dolphin:

FIRST PLACE – Boat: Miss Mandy | Weight: 51.5 lbs

SECOND PLACE – Boat: Tar Baby | Weight: 49.9 lbs

THIRD PLACE – Boat: The Rainmaker | Weight: 48.6 lb

Honestly, this is the first year that I’ve actually spent some time at the event. They had a pretty neat set up with a roaming video camera, a video camera on a huge boom and a camera on a tower. I heard an announcer say that 8 million people were watching the tournament (sounds lofty, but what do I know!). Scott Burt of Galati Yachts said that they should have the technology next year to stream video live from the boats as the Marlin are caught and released.