How near and yet so, so far. That was how the Blue Marlin World Cup shaped up this year. Not to mention the rollercoaster ride of emotions that flowed along with the various developments that all took place in a single 24-hour period on the Fourth of July American holiday.

Fishing started while Bermuda was still well into darkness when the sun shone down on the lands of the Southern Pacific Ocean. Although most locations enjoyed favourable fishing conditions, the participants that elected to fish there were unable to catch any qualifying blue marlin. As their day wound to a close, the Indian Ocean locations commenced their day and that, too, was unable to post an eligible catch on the leaderboard. Mere hours later, the sun broke over the highly prized marlin hotspots of the eastern Atlantic. With great expectations, the boats fishing there hoped for a continuation of the productive angling that they had been enjoying for the past few weeks.

Three hours and several time zones later, Bermuda began fishing with 39 boats trying their luck in this preferred section of the western Atlantic. While the majority of these comprised the 52 that were also fishing the Bermuda Blue Marlin Blast, there was a little less urgency in the need for a fish over 500 pounds, as all the billfish caught would at least accrue points in the three-day local event.

As it turned out, the fishing was rather slower than expected, with the first day’s tally a mere 28 blue marlin — a far cry from previous such events. But that was not the big story being shared between the boats and shore-bound followers of the World Cup. The word was that a fish had been boated in the Cape Verde Islands, a hotspot for big blues. After much speculation, it transpired that the fish had gone down and died, and was being taken not as a tournament entry but to feed the local population. With this revelation, things went very quiet as each boat looked to finish the day out.

Just as the so-called fat lady was about to sing, Captain Adam Hines’s Legacy reported that it had boated a fish with a length of 116 inches and a girth of 60 inches, and was headed for the scales where it weighed in at 556 pounds — the day’s first qualifying fish. Breaths were held, as there was still a lot of ocean to fish. Next came a report of a possible qualifier from Costa Rica, but that failed to materialise. Then a report of a qualifier from the Gulf of Mexico, but sans details, leaving hopes reduced but very much alive.

As the hours almost interminably edged on and the time window began to close on Hawaii, an unlikely entry from virtually the last place on Earth left to fish, hard up against the eastern edge of the International Date Line, the French Polynesian island of Tahiti came up trumps. Captain Tom Francis’s Ultimate Lady had indeed pulled off the day’s ultimate catch — a 689-pound Pacific blue marlin that not only took the cash pot in the World Cup but also the rather lucrative Big Blue Challenge, a secondary pot. This massive disappointment to the Legacy crew was somewhat eased when the Gulf of Mexico fish turned out to weigh 609 pounds, nice but like Bermuda’s fish, a non-runner.

But the sun insisted on rising a few hours later and the Bermuda Blast was again into full swing. The fishing improved with another 32 blue marlin being caught. All but one were released when the team of Captain Peter Rans’s Overproof elected to boat a fish that narrowly made the minimum measurements for a qualifying fish. In the knowledge that an undersized fish would involve negative penalty points, this had to be a calculated risk. And one that paid off. The fish qualified at 501 pounds and would be the only blue marlin brought to the dock in the Blast, thereby winning a great deal of money for that team and showering the honours on a Bermuda boat that had taken on some of the best and won.

Plenty of other monies were also at stake for the release aspect of the tournament. In first place, with 2,500 points from five blue marlin releases was Captain Jimmy Sullivan’s Kicking Tires. In second and third, respectively, with 2,100 points were Mama Seata and Builder’s Choice, with time being the factor separating them. The top local boat was Captain Kris Cameron’s Reel Priority with 1,500 points in a very respectable fifteenth place out of 52.

All in all, over the three days, the fleet caught and released, bar one, 85 blue marlin, 27 white marlin and a lone spearfish. The points scored by each boat accrue for the Bermuda Triple Crown with the Bermuda Big Game Classic the central event this weekend.

This is the 25th anniversary of the classic, which is the competition that really put Bermuda firmly on the big-game billfishing circuit and is the focal point in the Triple Crown. Despite the points already scored, three days of angling in what look to be near-perfect conditions could easily see standings swing wildly. Many anglers swear by the full moon, which this month was on Thursday making the next few days choice for billfishing.

Rest assured that the competition will be fierce as a flotilla of highly talented sportfishermen work their chosen sectors of the productive deep waters that surround the island. At this stage, with calm seas, the only negative to a great tournament could be the masses of seaweed that make effective trolling hard work. As long as that fails to materialise to any great extent, there will indeed be some very exciting Tight Lines!!!