By Capt. Dave Lear, pcbgt.com
In all honesty, by normal Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament standards, fishing was a tad slow on the first day of the 41st annual event. A total of 45 billfish were released on Tuesday among the 77 boats competing. But in fairness, conditions haven’t been great and everyone is a little rusty from a long lay-off due to recent bad weather. Things will improve. This is the Outer Banks in August, after all, and there are still three days left to fish.
Viking 82, the factory boat with Viking Yachts president Pat Healey and his son on board, jumped to the top of the leaderboard with 700 points. The boat quickly released double-headers of blue marlin and sailfish by mid-morning.
“We made a right turn out the inlet and a couple more right turns once we got there. It was our time today, that’s all,” Healey explained as he wiped down the boat back in the slip. He said they saw some birds and a lot of bait, which is a good sign. Ryan McKenzie caught one of the sails, along with a contending wahoo.
“The pressure was on since we were on a good bite,” McKenzie explained. “We could see it was a wahoo so we wanted to get it in. But I was on 25-pound test tackle and it was a little bit of a battle.” That wahoo was just a little shy of the board at 34.6 pounds. The Viking 82 was trolling off Hatteras with several other boats in the vicinity. It earned the top score and daily jackpot in the Omni sonar division with its tally. Capt. Sean Dooley runs the 82-footer.
In the non-Omni directional sonar division, Annie-O, a 60 Guthrie based in Morehead City (Capt. Nate Newlin), was the top boat with a blue and sailfish release. Annie-O also won the daily.
“The weather was beautiful,“ said Annie-O owner Brad Sutton. He has been competing in the PCBT for nine years. “We’re very fortunate for such a slow day of fishing. We had another sail on and were unable to keep it hooked up. We marked and saw some bait but few birds. We were due east in about 40 fathoms. When we pulled lines in we were 31 miles from the sea buoy.” Sutton also said there were a few other boats around and the water was green. Annie-O is planning to fish again, probably for the next two days straight. A swell is expected to build as Hurricane Ernesto moves north later in the week. Boats in the PCBT fish three of four days with one lay day of their choice.
In the game fish divisions, Gary Fitch boated the heaviest dolphin at 24.3 pounds aboard A-Salt-Weaponwith Capt. Darrin Callahan at the wheel. A 43.5 pound tuna is leading in that category. David Logan, fishing on Low Profile, a 72 F&S with Capt. Jim Garrett, was the angler. Elizabeth “Lizzie” Montague is the early leader in the wahoo division after besting a 39.2-pounder aboard Bank Walker, a 60-foot sportfish built by the legendary OBX builder Omie Tillet.
The bulk of the 84-boat fleet will motor through Oregon Inlet again early Wednesday morning in search of more bites. The first day’s outcome wasn’t dazzling. But the real fishing is about to begin.
A full rundown of the days events can be seen below:
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