Here is our Grenada Story of the 2008 SIBT

It started with our trip from Tobago to Grenada. The seas were good and we fished for about two hours of our seven hour journey. We did manage to hook a small Blue Marlin about 25 miles east of Grenada but shook her off very early. We got to St. Georges about 2 pm on Monday the 15th Jan and spent the next day and a half rigging the boat and tackle.

Day one of the tournament. After the 7.00 am Bimini start we went to our usual hole about 15 miles west of St.Georges and found that the water colour was quite green. I decided to continue heading West in search of blue water. I guess that was my big mistake on that day but it was a very logical decision. We found ourselves 40 miles West of the island in beautiful blue water but no signs of life. Our day one result was nought for two on billfish and nought for two on large Yellowfin Tuna. No fish, no points on day one. We got back to the dock at about 6.00 pm with news of boats having good action in the green water with some teams releasing up to four billfish. I thought that we were on another planet.

Captain Frothy De Silva of Hard Play II

Day two. With the information gathered at the dock the night before we decided to go to the North West about ten miles offshore and troll downsea on a starboard quarter. We ran lures rigged with Flyers and Ballyhoo trolling at about 6 1/2 knots in what was really nice seas of about three to five feet- just the right set up in the prevailing conditions. The spread looked awesome and we were all jacked up looking for that first bite. Not before long we had a double strike on Whites but they were very small and we missed them both. We saw lots of Whales and Yellowfin Tuna jumping right at the tip of the Whales noses. We did manage a few really close passes but had no strikes from the YFT's.

I decided to leave the Whales and continue downsea. Not before long we had a huge swirl on the short rigger and no hook up but two seconds later the fish took the long corner and we "got em on". That first fish of our tournament a Blue Marlin was estimated at 375 pounds. Our Angler Gregroy Mendez made short work of that fish bringing the her to boatside in just 20 minutes on 50 pound tackle for a quick and healthy release. We had our first points on the board and now we were in hunting mode. About one hour later, I saw what could be the largest Marlin that I have seen in the Caribbean. She came up short and she was so big that I just yelled "Grander", that was all that came to my mind. This monster fish was so agile that with a kick of her tail she went from looking at the short corner bait to looking at the long corner bait then she ate a flat sitting just in the middle of the two corner baits. We hooked up what I knew there and then was a fish that at best we had a 10% chance of bringing to the boat.That 10% chance lasted about 2 minutes due to angler mess up and yes, I lost my cool. We have spent our lives searching for that fish and we messed it up in just two minutes. I was truly devastated and thought of calling it a day. I went inside and had a little lay down wiped a few tears from my eyes and sneaked back up into the tower without saying a word. Our team came back to life very shortly after with a double on sails of which we managed to score on both fish. Later that evening we release another Blue Marlin, the first Marlin for crew member Mark de Gannes and at that point I guess that we all felt somewhat better but still a little sore from losing the dream fish.

Hard Play II fishing

Next day food and rum in abundance at the SIBT Caribbean cookout lay day. Good food, good friends and good Rum (also a good means of drowning ones sorrows). We heard all of the fish stories and that was when our team tried to make some decisions based on what we heard from other anglers and plan for our final day. Andrew Llanos has been fishing with the Hard Play team for more that 20 years and he was the first to say "lets stick with the same plan as yesterday", so we all agreed and continued to sip the sweet rum. Later that day the day two results were posted and to our surprise we had jumped from last to fifth place and within striking range.

Final day we set out as planned long downsea starboard quarter, however, the seas were a lot worse than day two, six to eight feet with 20+ knots of wind which had us pushing too fast on the downsea tack at the same rpm that we were running at on day two. I ran the boat about 200 rpm slower which seemed to worked fairly well. We had one sail released quite early in the day and a very small Blue Marlin just after midday. We knew that the bite was off on the final day as we were not hearing much reports from the competing boats to tournament control I had a gut feeling that we could win it but I also felt that we needed one more fish. Fortunately we had our final sailfish just before lines up and we were now hopeful of a possible win. We knew that we would improve on our day two score but you really never know by how many places until you reach back to the dock. On our run back to the dock we felt confident but still a bit uncertain. Our dock space was next to veteran big game skipper Ray Thompson of Trinidad & Tobago and as I backed the Hard Play II to the dock Captain Ray called out "Congrats" and he gave me a big smile. I said, “Are you sure?” and he said, “Yeh, well done mon”. More sweet rum.

We had yet another great year at the Spice Island International Billfish Tournament finishing with four Sailfish and three Blue Marlin releases during two of the three day event. I would like to thank the crew of the Hard Play II Andrew, Mark, Ronald and Gregroy for excellent teamwork and a ton of fun.

The Anglers of Hard Play II Celebrate

A victory for all teams at the SIBT was the launching of the Southern Caribbean Billfish Circuit. This circuit includes six major southern Caribbean Tournaments which includes Grenada, TTGFA (Tobago), TIGFT Tobago, Barbados, St. Lucia and Martinique. Teams would be judged on their three highest scores in any of the six circuit events. We hope that the circuit would bring us sport fishermen closer together and raise and improve the standard of the sport that we all love

Keep Catching.

"Frothy"