BIG FISH DOESN’T MATTER AT DRAMBUIE KEY WEST MARLIN TOURNAMENT
KEY WEST, Florida Keys – Captain Marco Gaona led his angler Jim O’Malley to a catch and release of a blue marlin estimated to weigh 550 pounds Saturday, but despite the huge fish, his Shockwave fishing team missed winning the Drambuie Key West Marlin tournament by less then three points.
Gaona, of Elberta, Ala., began Saturday’s final day of the three-day tournament well out of the lead. The only fish they had on the results board was a 21.45-pound dolphin that Javier Celis caught on Friday.
“We went back to the same area, we fished the first day when we missed two marlin,” said Gaona, of a region about 25 miles to the southeast of Key West known as the East Crack, a deep drop in the ocean floor where marlin and other pelagic species are known to congregate.
Trolling a mylar-skirted balao, the big marlin bit just before noon. But because O’Malley, a Tampa resident, was using 40-pound test line, it took three-and-a-half hours before the fish could be reeled in and released.
The tournament ended at 3 p.m., and although the blue marlin counted as a 400-point release, Gaona’s crew could not fish anymore and had no chance to add a dolphin or other “fun fish” to their score.
“We wanted to catch that is and go in shallower to catch a ‘fun fish’ (dolphin, wahoo or tuna) to put us over the top,” said Gaona, who won the Drambuie in 2000. “But the fish fought it out to the very end.
“We had our chance the first and even on the second day when we lost a 45-pound dolphin,” said Gaona, who’s team won the second-place prize of $15,000. “You have to appreciate what you get, when you get it.”
Cudjoe Key, Fla., veterinarian Rene Cruz, on the Doc Cruiser, won the tournament’s top $25,000 prize with a a 23.05-pound dolphin caught Friday and blue marlin released Thursday.In third-place was Cracker, skippered by Mark Schultz of Fort Myers Beach, Fla. Cracker's angler Maurice Gibson of Alva, Fla., caught a 17.8-pound dolphin Friday and released a blue marlin Thursday.
The 53-boat, 390-participant tournament was staged in conjunction with the island’s Hemingway Days festival, an annual salute to author Ernest Hemingway, who lived, wrote and fished in Key West during the 1930s.
Dates for the Drambuie in 2010 are July 21-25.
View more photos of this year's tournament at blu-image.com.