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1st place Tease Em

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2nd Place Anita Jean			3rd Place Reel Lax	4th place, Elaine Jones Top Lady Angler and Spencer Watson Top Jr. Angler

A fleet of 23 boats headed out in Bermudaful sunny weather and light winds to fish the 36th Annual Seahorse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament.  Capt. Cragin Curtis' Reel Addiction hooked-up with a decent blue marlin at 9:25 am and eventually scored the release at 10:21 am - it was a 450 lb+ fish that put on a good battle, but it was not close enough to risk taking so early in the tournament and therefore the release decision was relatively easy.  While they were doing that, the first points were scored by Fish On with a white release at 10:04 am. Visiting boat Tease Em then scored a blue marlin release at 10:33 am and immediately hooked-up again with a white and scored that release at 10:44 am to jump in front with 700 points.  Later in the morning, Smooth Operator released a white. In the afternoon, Never Enough, Queen of Hearts and Mama Who
scored blue marlin releases. The blue released by Queen of Hearts was estimated to be right around the 500 lb mark.  Afternoon white releases were registered by Bree, Over Budget and Triple Play.  So Tease Em had the tournament lead but were not entered in either of the release jackpots, and therefore the Day One Release Jackpot worth $12,667 went to Reel Addiction.  There were no blue weighed so the Day Two Blue Marlin Jackpot doubled to $28,000.Day One tally is 5 blue marlin releases and 6 white releases and the standings are as follows:

Day Two saw a pretty good bite. The 23 boat fleet scored with 11 blue marlin releases and 5 white releases.  However, two boats outclassed everyone else - first Tease Em added to their Day One catch of 700 points by securing two more blue marlin releases and another white release to reach an impressive total of 1,900 points.  This kept Tease Em in first place with a 700 point cushion.  Anita Jean also gained two blue marlin releases and a white release on Day Two to reach 1,200 points and this is good for 2nd place and also won them the Day Two Release Jackpot worth $12,667.  Capt. Allen Desilva and team on Mako released a nice blue marlin (450 lb+) and a white.  Also on Day Two, blue marlin were released by Wound Up, Queen of Hearts, Profit Margin, Triple Play, Reel Lax and Treasure Isle, while whites were released by Never Enough and Fish On.  Over Budget brought in a 55 lb wahoo that currently led the Gamefish division.  There were no blue marlin brought into the scales so the daily blue marlin jackpots rolled entirely into the third and final day.  The biggest eligible (500 lb+) blue marlin on the dock on the final day is potentially worth $78,000. 

Day Three of the Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament was one of those GREAT days in the global sports calendar - so much is on the line with the outcome of the tournament and the whole Bermuda Triple Crown Billfish Championship hanging in the balance...........and 2009 did not disappoint in terms of drama.  Visiting boat Anita Jean started the final day in 2nd place in both the Sea Horse and the overall Triple Crown, and they did their part to make both leaders very nervous when they released a blue marlin at 9:45 am to pull within 200 points of Tease Em in the Sea Horse and to within a mere 58 points of Bree in the Triple Crown. A little white release could now spring them into the prestigious Triple Crown lead.  However, Anita Jean was unable to register any more points and they ultimately finished 2nd in the Sea Horse, which added $6,900 of cash winnings to their haul.  At 11:26 am, Never Enough hooked into a solid blue marlin and after a 42 minute tussle they boated the big fish at 12:08 pm.  They headed to Barr's Bay Park early and the blue marlin tipped the scales at 674 lbs and earned them a sweep of the Daily and Largest Blue Marlin Jackpots which aggregated to $78,000 of cash winnings - big congratulations to Captain Trevor Cockle as it was his first time fishing Bermuda waters this year.  In addition, owner and angler Walter Shikany aboard Never Enough won the High Point Angler award with all of the boat's 1,374 points (which included a blue marlin and a white release in addition to the 674 pounder) - that added $2,300 to their winnings.  In the early afternoon, Reel Lax released a big blue marlin after a battle of over an hour - this blue was estimated to be over the 500 lb mark and probably closer to 600 lb. Then at 3:29 pm, Reel Lax hooked into another big blue marlin of similar size and scored the release at 4:03 pm.  What a great week Captain Dave Cilk and angler Chris Petracca have had after letting go that 1,000 lb+ marlin before the tournament.  The two blue marlin releases pushed team Reel Lax up to 1,500 points which gave them 3rd Place overall worth $4,600. So, in the end Tease Em finished as worthy winners of the Sea Horse.  Their 1st Place finish was worth $13,800.  This is a top notch team as they finished 3rd in the 2008 Sea Horse and they caught more blue marlin in last year's Triple Crown (8) than any other team. I'm quite sure that they thoroughly deserve their win in the 2009 Sea Horse and invitation to the IGFA Offshore World Championship 2010 – Big Congratulations to Captain Travis Inmon and teammates Joey Dimartino, Justin Liane, Roxy Inmon and Robin Van Sickler on TEAM TEASE EM !!!!

The final day was made even more interesting by virtue of the unusual circumstance that the aforementioned top three boats were not entered in many of the jackpots.  Que Mas scored a blue marlin release and a white release in the afternoon that won them the Day Three Release Jackpot worth
$12,667 - this team has won a cash award in six of the past nine Triple Crown tournaments (as well being the 2008 Triple Crown champion and 2007 Triple Crown runner up) quite astonishing level of consistency!  The team aboard Queen of Hearts (another boat with an incredible track record) were undoubtedly surprised and delighted to find that they won the Overall Release Points Jackpot with 1,000 points, and this was worth a cool $32,000.  The 55 lb wahoo taken by Over Budget on Day Two held up for the Game Fish award worth $2,300.

The final overall count for the 23 boat Sea Horse fleet was two blue marlin boated, 20 blue marlin released and 18 whites released.  Of the 20 blue marlin released, at least seven were estimated to somewhere in the range of 400-600 lbs. The final Sea Horse standings are as follows:

1.   Tease Em - 3 blue releases; 2 white releases - 1,900 points and cash
winnings of $13,800
2.   Anita Jean - 3 blue releases; 1 white release - 1,700 points and cash
winnings of $19,567
3.   Reel Lax - 3 blue releases - 1,500 points and cash winnings of $4,600
4.   Never Enough - 1 blue boated 674 lbs; 1 blue release; 1 white release
- 1,374 points and cash winnings of $80,300
5.   Wound Up - 1 blue boated 590 lbs; 1 blue release - 1,090 points
6.   Queen of Hearts - 2 blue releases - 1,000 points and cash winnings of
$32,000
7.   Reel Addiction - 1 blue release; 2 white releases - 900 points and
cash winnings of $12,667
8.   Triple Play - 1 blue release; 1 white release - 700
9.   Mako - 1 blue release; 1 white release
10. Profit Margin - 1 blue release; 1 white release 11. Que Mas - 1 blue release; 1 white release - 700 points and cash winnings of $12,667 12. Mama Who - 1 blue release - 500 13. Treasure Isle - 1 blue release 14. Fish On - 2 white releases - 400 15. Smooth Operator - 1 white release - 200 16. Bree - 1 white release 17. Over Budget - 1 white release - 200 points and cash winnings of $2,300 18. Won Buy Land - 1 white release 19. Mega Bucks - 1 white release 20. Lisa - 1 white release

TRIPLE CROWN FINAL DAY DURING SEA HORSE
The race for the Triple Crown came right down to the wire.  At 3:17 pm, Capt. James Robinson's Wound Up hooked into a big blue marlin which they stayed close to and had the leader extremely quickly.  At the first opportunity a gaff was sunk, and at 3:45 pm Capt. James reported that the blue was in the boat. It had a 120 inch short-length but it was not fat.
The team knew they had a fish near the 600 lb mark. At lines out, Wound Up was headed to the scales and trailing Bree by 593 points.  At Barr's Bay Park the anticipation was very high as the big blue was hoisted - it tipped the scales at 590 lbs.................and the celebrations began across the bay aboard Bree.  For the fifth consecutive year the trend continues that the Classic winner also takes the big cake.  The three point margin of victory is by far the closest that we have ever had, and no prior team ever won the Triple Crown with less than 3,500 points.  It was tough on Wound Up, but they won the World Cup and Blast and we all expect Capt. Robinson to get his Triple Crown ring one day.  So, MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS TO CAPT. BRYCE GARVEY AND THE 2009 TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONS - BREE TEAM !!!!!  As I have said before, the entire fleet was delighted for the Bree team because they are a classy group of people and have always been so gracious and welcome here (and the boat itself, a 72'
Merritt, is simply breathtaking),

The top ten boats in the 2009 TC standings were as follows:

1.  Bree - 2,958
2.  Wound Up - 2,955
3.  Anita Jean - 2,900
4.  Off Piste - 2,300
5.  Mama Who - 2,300
6.  Reel Lax - 2,200
7.  Queen of Hearts - 2,000
8.  Tease Em - 1,900
9.  Mako - 1,900,
10. Reel Addiction - 1,900