Billfish Bonanza 2012 In The Books!

[Nelly]

A great day on the Dragin' Fly as Kathy Nelson broke the ice with this 90+ pound sailfish

IMG_0481.jpg (47.25 KiB) Viewed 10418 times

Followed quickly by my first sail of the trip...I couldn't believe the height of his dorsal fin!

IMG_0569.jpg (43.44 KiB) Viewed 10418 times

Larry Stauffer was up next and caught our dinner! A beautiful 45 pound dorado!

IMG_0604.jpg (50.36 KiB) Viewed 10418 times

Not to be outdone, Larry's wife Dana finished out our day with a very large sail that treated us to several aerial displays!

IMG_0669.jpg (52.07 KiB) Viewed 10418 times

Everyone is playing catch-up to Team "Bite the Big One II" with their 5 sailfish outburst today. It must be nice to be on top of the leaderboard but with two days of billfishing left, it's anybody's tournament!

[Bucket]

That Kathy Nelson gal has got to have earn'd "angler" status just for puttin up with you Nelly!

[Nelly]

What can I say Bucket... I married up!

[Canyon Man]

"I married up"....understatement of the year right there!!! Lol

CM

[Rock]

Larry! One heck of a suprise to see Larry on this. Went to WSU with his son Keith. Have had some good times with those two on Dad's weekends.

[Jadeo]

Nelly
It sure is hard to beat a day on the water with the wife (every now and then).

[Robbo]

As marlin fishing goes there was quite a few marlin hookups out there today. I was with Team Lowrance today and we headed straight to the spot where The Bite got into the sails yesterday only to watch the paint dry for a few hours. Soooo, our capitan Johnny trolled off to the west and low and behold we ran into a marlin bite 16 miles later.

We had a black marlin blow up one of our teasers and then Kester of All Star Charters fame landed a 250 pound blue shortly thereafter. Waaaaay cool Jr.!

It wasn't long before the boats converged on us and pretty much every boat around us was fighting marlin, jumping marlin, or raising them. The marlin bidness lasted for about an hour or so...pretty damn cool if you axe me. Then the Do-Do's rolled in and Kester did it again landing a gagger dorado of 50 pounds. Team Lowrance landed two more Do-Do's and two sails, including one in the 140 pound class, before the bite ended.

The Bite, fishing nearby, was also into the action landing 3 sails and a GAGGER 70 pound dorado! They also tripled up on sails at the end of the day, only to have them all snap off in mid air. Wow!

The Dragin Fly ended up with 3 sails to the boat today and the Sunny One and R&J had one sail apiece. Hoping for a better day for those two boats tomorrow. More later....life is good

[Salmonhawk]

Those are some monster dorado! I caught my biggest out of Los Suenos about 6 years ago, a monster 60lber. I hope days two amd three are as productive as the first. I am heading offshore for king mack's down here in Fl. We'll report back.

[Nelly]

The 2012 Outdoor Line Billfish Bonanza is in the books and it was one to remember!
For the first time, three marlin were landed and an amazing 42 (that's forty-two) sailfish caught and released over the three-day event.
In the 2011 event, several yellowfin tuna were taken and while the tuna pulled a dissapearing act this year, quite a few dorado were taken and appeared on several Los Suenos barbecues!

Topping their last-place-to-second-place finish last year, Team "Bite the Big One" took home the first place trophy and the Grand Prize Lowrance package for over $4000 in cash and prizes! Left to right: Team Captain Lee Andersen, Doug Stough, John Hjores, Rocky Arnt, Tourney Host Tom Nelson, Tim McGuire and Tourney Host Robbo Endsley.

IMG_0867.jpg (40.83 KiB) Viewed 10197 times

We're planning for the first week of March next year so start planning to escape the "wonderful" Pacific Northwest weather next year for The Outdoor Line Billfish Bonanza 2013!

[Jadeo]

That trip is on my short list for things to do next year.