The team aboard Pescador finished the 50th Anniversary July Open Billfish
Tournament right where they started, in first place, nailing down the Top Boat title Sunday.
Stephen Deckoff Sr., the St. John-based owner/angler of the 60-foot Rybovich, caught his fifth blue marlin Sunday and his son, Stephen Jr., got his third to give Pescador a total of eight blue marlin releases for the tournament, which is hosted by the Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club.
"We stayed consistent by releasing four the first day, two the second and
two the third," Deckoff Sr. said.
Deckoff fished extensively before moving to the Virgin Islands two years ago and has angled with his current crew for about a year.
This is the first Virgin Islands tournament Deckoff, Sr. has entered.
"We live here, it’s a big tournament, and we’ve decided to get more serious
about our fishing, therefore we entered," he said.
Deckoff Sr. was the first to release five blue marlin and thus win the top-angler prize, the Capt. Johnny Harms ‘Give Him Line’ Trophy. Only two anglers have reeled in this honor twice – the late Howard Crouse in 1965 and 1988, and Puerto Rico’s late legendary angler Ralph Christiansen in 1973 and 1984.
Pescador was formerly owned by Christiansen, who died in a 2009 plane crash while returning from a weekend of billfishing in the Dominican Republic. Christiansen likely left a little luck behind in his vessel.
"It put some pressure on us knowing the boat and Christiansten’s history,"
says Deckoff Sr. "I hope we made him proud today."
Team Free Spool, fishing aboard the 70-foot Tribute, Nemesis, released five
blue marlin and one white marlin to finish in second place. It was a great
ending compared to an uncertain beginning.
"We went from broken down the day before the tournament when the boat (Free
Spool) got hit by lightning out on the Drop, to getting ourselves fully
prepared, to seeing fish to placing," explained Capt. Kevin Haddox. "The
white marlin we released the second day gave us an advantage and ultimately
it made the difference between second and third place."
In third place, Florida’s Jeff Cohen, owner/angler aboard the 61-foot
Spencer, Da Bait, and his team released a total of five blue marlin.
"We had an uneventful day today. Ten minutes of action, one release, and
that was it, compared to yesterday when we had four bites between 3:30 and 5
p.m.," says Cohen. What did make the day special for Cohen was sharing
it with his 6-year-old son, Bruce, who rode along in a tournament for the
first time.
The 11-boat tournament fleet released a total of 41 marlin – 39 blue and 2
white – in the three days of fishing.
IGFA trained Observers, all members of the International Game Fish
Tournament Observers, rode aboard each boat throughout the tournament to
verify the releases.
Proceeds from the tournament benefit the Boys & Girls Club of the Virgin Islands.
Further information is available online at www.vigfc.com or by calling 1-340-775-9144.