2008 ABC/WORLD DIAMOND SOURCE BILLFISH CHALLENGE Results

Total # of Boats – 71 Total # of Releases – 260

The Sailfish bite in the last 3 years of the ABC/World Diamond Source Billfish Challenge presented by D&D Welding has been hot, to say the least. Again this year, the contest held Saturday, February 23rd, posted good numbers of sailfish releases. In fact, the tournament set a new record for the event as 71 teams posted a total of 260 releases by day’s end.

Whether it’s timing or a little luck or both, hot sailfishing action seems to be the way for the Billfish Challenge. In the three days of fishing over the last three years of the one-day tournament, all told, teams have combined to release a staggering tally of 694. That’s a per-day average of about 230 sailfish releases, which is a pretty high caliber, world-class figure. “We were in the company of some of the best sailfish teams in the sport and once again the bite was something that our teams will talk about for a long time to come,” said Jamie Bunn, director of the event.

Within minutes of the 7 a.m. lines in the water announcement, the releases began to pour in to the tournament radio room. Doubles, triples, quads, some teams even had 6 fish on at a time. It was absolute pandemonium on the water. While the fishing appeared to be good up and down the coastline, the hottest action was in the vicinity of Haulover Inlet. In the center of it all was the Miss Costa team, captained by Ray Rosher and his crew - Bill Danko, Rick Murphy, Alex Castellanos and Charmain Rosher.

By late morning, Rosher’s team had capitalized on 9 releases and were sitting in 1st place. However, the leader board was extremely tight – 4 Aces and Weez in the Keys had also pulled even with Miss Costa at 9 releases a piece, and several other teams were knocking on the door with 7 and 8 releases as well. By midday, Rosher elected to pick up and run to the south of the field and followed the edge they had been fishing all the way into around 80 feet of water. That proved to be a wise decision. As quickly as they began deploying baits, the sailfish were devouring them behind their boat. “We literally could not even get out a complete spread,” said Rosher. Within 30 minutes, Rosher’s team had added another 6 releases and secured their 1st place position with a final tally of 16 releases in the one-day tournament, earning them nearly $75,000 in prize money.

Second through 5th place in the tournament were all decided by time. Each team had 10 releases a piece. Captain Joe Turner and his 4 Aces team finished in second earning $41,100 in prize money, followed by Rock Star in 3rd, Priceless in 4th and Weez in the Keys in 5th. In the funfish division, Brian Rifkin and his teammates on In the Box earned an extra $9,200 for the heaviest funfish weighed in the tournament – a 43.1 pound Kingfish. The tournament paid back over $170,000 in prize money, also a new tournament record.

1st Place – Miss Costa – 3200 points - $74,800 2nd Place – 4 Aces – 2000 points – $41,100 3rd Place – Rock Star – 2000 points - $12,640 4th Place – Priceless – 2000 points - $1,250 5th Place – Weez in the Keys – 2000 points - $20,000