BILLFISH
TOURNEY: A LEISURE OF LOVE
Key West Citizen Sports June
19, 2001
Even
before the charter boat Erica left Key West bight, Captain
Jim Butters announced, “We’re not going to Cuba to fish;
we’re going to Cuba to win a fishing tournament.”
Compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake in
other fishing tournaments, the first-prize gold medal and
hand-carved swordfish bill for winning the 51st
Ernest Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament is
hardly reason enough to start an engine, let alone risk the
possible wrath of the US Treasury Department.
But
the competition among world-class anglers from 46 lean, mean
fishing machines registered in this year’s tourney is a lure
greater than a bull moose roar during the rut.
"There’s some prize money put into a pool collected from the
fishermen themselves,” said Drew Santoro, the attending
captain on Erica, who flew into Key West from New Jersey to
participate on Butters’ four-man fishing team. “But
even if we win, it won’t cover expenses for a boat like
Erica.”
Captain Butters’ 43-foot Viking Sport Fisherman with twin
800 horsepower engines makes the 90-mile crossing from Key
West to Hemingway Marina, which is 18 miles due west of
Havana, in just three hours. Twelve fishing rods and
reels with more miles of lines than Cuba has roads are
greased and trembling with the excitement of the first
Bimini Start on Tuesday morning.
“It’s
something to see; all those pristine, big boats lined up as
far as you can see from the Malecon. Then all at once,
they gun their engines and spray flies,” said the US
Marine’s Regional Security Officer at Friday evening’s
“Marine House” happy hour.
This every-other-Friday evening gathering of the Marine’s
who secure the US Interest Section in Havana is unrelated to
the Hemingway Fishing Tournament – and none of the Marines
participate in the event, of course – but their compound is
located near enough the water to observe each morning’s
rooster-tail spray from the fast start.
An appreciative toast is made in honor of the anglers.
A bit later this same Friday evening, Cuban fishermen host a
dinner at Hemingway Marina to honor their international
competitors. With only one day left in the tournament,
standings are posted and captains of fishing boats from as
far away as Spain, Nicaragua or Mexico plot tomorrow’s
strategy.
Erica is in fourth place, right up there with the mostly
North American fishing fleet, which boasts at least 30 of
the boats in the tournament. The 180-pound blue marlin
that Matt Thompson tagged and released in only 20-minutes on
the first day has held Erica’s place near the top of the
pack. But before Thompson caught his fish at 11:30
a.m., a mate on Crisdel, a boat out of Brielle, New Jersey,
caught a smaller white marlin, and first-in counts more than
size.
“There are daily trophies for whoever catches the
first fish for the day, but the overall number caught
determines the winner,” said Captain Santoro. “Right
now, Crisdel is in first place because that crew caught a
second white marlin Wednesday, which underscores that so
far, the fishing sucks.”
Captain Santoro says this is a “well managed, well run”
tournament, but “8 a.m. to 6 p.m. is a long fishing day,
even when you’re catching fish.” The hour it takes to
go through Cuban Customs in the morning and in the evening
elongates the fishing day, typically from 9 to 4 in other
tournaments: “Throw in the time it takes to clean the
boat and gear at the end of each day, there’s just enough
time to have a drink then go to bed,” he said.
The competitive edge on a fast moving boat like Erica is
softened when the sport becomes a trolling match.
“There’s a lot of stress in competitive fishing, and it only
gets tougher when there are no fish to catch,” said Captain
Butters, who previously, has placed second and third in
Hemingway Tournaments. “The Cubans time this
tournament for tag and release of male marlins, and to win
this one, we only have to catch two tomorrow.
“Two is standard stuff in most tournaments…a simple task,”
he said before he throws in the punch line, “If you can find
them.”
On Saturday, two other boats, Relentless and Tyson’s
Pride, find their marlin, which increases their catch to two
each. Erica did not. Her crew, with only one
catch for the four-day event, is bumped back into 6th
place. The winning team aboard Crisdel takes the 51st
Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament with just two
white marlin, and significantly, one of those marlins was
the first fish caught on the first day of the tournament.
Being first in Cuba counts almost as much as a chad counts
in Florida.
©
Barbara Bowers 2001 |