Just about all over for another year! Billfish can move on over into the back seat after occupying the limelight and most of the headlines. After a month of concentrating on the deep blue water and the big fish, things will start to return to normal with more traditional fishing again becoming the norm. Not that the month of July was home to anything other than considerable excitement.

The suggestion that it might be a close finish to the Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament was an understatement in the most outstanding way! With about only an hour to fish on the first day, Capt Rob Moore’s Fa-La-Me hooked into a blue marlin, which was later released, putting them on the scoreboard. At that stage it was wide open and anyone’s to win.

Weez In The Keys, skippered by Capt Chris Zielinski, brought a qualifying fish to the dock, which weighed 598lb and would go on to win the Largest Blue Marlin Jackpot.

That took on a completely different complexion on day two when Fa-La-Me released four more blue marlin, giving it what appeared to be an unassailable lead.

But it’s never over until it’s over. Weez In The Keys made a late run, releasing two blue marlin on the final day, moving into second place with 1,598 points. Somehow avoiding any more marlin, Fa-La-Me managed to catch a 52.8lb wahoo to win the largest game fish award. But when the end finally came, it was Fa-La-Me hanging on to win with a total of 2,500 points.

The fishing was rather slow on the third day and this probably helped the leader to maintain its margin, largely because the nearest competitors were also hard-pressed to find fish.

Although only 29 boats fished in the Sea Horse event, they managed to catch 35 billfish, 28 blue marlin, five white marlin and two spearfish. This equated to 1.21 billfish per team over the three-day event and compared favourably with the 1.08 for the Classic and was not far off the 1.41 set by the Blast. This means that, statistically, each team should catch at least one fish during each tournament.

In the overarching Bermuda Triple Crown Series, which started on July 3, and 156 billfish later, this year’s championship went to Capt Rob Moore’s Fa-La-Me with a grand total of 3,300 points. Now, this was no runaway result. Fa-la-Me narrowly beat Capt Eric Soderholm’s No Vacancy into second place as the latter amassed 3,273 points. Third place was less than one blue marlin release away, with Que Mas scoring 2,900 points. Six other boats also scored in excess of 2,000 points, showing that the competition as close not only in the individual events, but also on a cumulative basis.

As expected, it was the blue marlin that dominated the proceedings, although the white marlin had flurries when they were more prevalent. In the final tally, 95 blue marlin were caught, an almost 2:1 ratio ahead of the whites, with just 56. Most surprising was the five spearfish that added a dash of variety to the proceedings.

Spearfish are a conundrum in themselves. They are not commonplace anywhere and are probably often misidentified as white marlin. With most whites being released here nowadays, there are probably a few spearfish that are wrongly categorised as such. Not only do they occur here on occasion, but there are, in fact, four species of spearfish; three of which are found here in the Atlantic. The shortbill spearfish is limited to the Indian and Pacific oceans and need not trouble us.

Size-wise, the spearfish are all somewhat similar to the white marlin as well. Record-size whites do get larger, but when you have a fish by the bill alongside the boat, it is unlikely that you are going to look into the fine details. Probably the most obvious difference is that the spearfish’s dorsal fin is a bit expanded, not unlike a sailfish’s, although it is nowhere near as high. Over here, we can expect to encounter the longbill spearfish, the record for which is 127lb from the Canary Islands; or the Mediterranean spearfish, the record for which confusingly comes from Madeira, a good hop from the Mediterranean at 90lb; and the roundscale spearfish. The record for the latter comes from Maryland, in the United States, and stands at 70lb.

So they are about the same size as a white, look like a white and are likely to run with other species such as wahoo. Not surprising that they are probably taken to be whites and remembered as such. Although they are uncommon, it may just be worth a look next time you go to release a white marlin; it might just not be. Of course, if it looks to be a monster specimen, then you may really want to give it a closer look. It usually takes an expert to tell the difference between the spearfish species, so if it has the potential to be a record, it will probably have to be boated.

The only Bermuda record for the species is the 30lb test category that is held by a 37lb fish caught by Robert W. DeSilva in 1988. Rather than try to separate the species, the Bermuda Game Fishing Association elected long ago to group the three species together, so there is probably some potential for a local line-class record, should one be caught and landed.

Given what seems to be the maximum size for any spearfish, applications for Bermuda records will be considered only when catches are made on the lighter classes of tackle. After all, that is what it takes for the spear to provide the best in Tight Lines!!!