Tournament Fishing in The Bahamas

From local blue runner jacks to massive wahoo, there’s more than one way to see tournament fishing in The Bahamas.

Blue runner jacks might be a common fish in The Bahamas, but there is nothing common about seeing 5,000 of them sprawled on the beach after being hauled in by a team of fishermen. While this may be an informal example of tournament fishing in The Bahamas, it draws a crowd.

Every July in Green Castle, a southern settlement on Eleuthera, the community gathers for the Green Castle Hauler Fest. They haul the jacks with nets and then bail them to the shore as if plucking small fish from a fish tank. At this time of year, jacks school in large numbers around South Eleuthera.

A team of boats heads out to haul the fish. On their way back, there is a sprouting of the local grapevine—from house to house, word spreads in the community that “they hauling.” A mother calls her son. The son chats up his girlfriend. The girlfriend tells her best friend and before you know it, the community is gathered by the beach to buy or beg for their share of fish.

Haul ’em

Blue Runner Jacks support local fishermen (and fill hungry bellies).

In Green Castle, the tradition of hauling fish is intergenerational. Fishermen sell their fish on the island and in the capital, Nassau. There is an overabundance of supply during the festival that fishermen give much of their haul away to the community.

In fact, fishermen who don’t give enough away are occasionally accused of stinginess. And community members who don’t buy, which covers fisherman’s’ costs, are considered cheap. These colorful anecdotes aside, the event naturally draws the community and is a celebration of a longstanding fishing tradition that carries locals from childhood to adulthood. Onshore, activities also include live band performances, Bahamian crafts, food, and drinks.

Blue Runner Jacks are oily, dark meat fish that are relatively inexpensive in The Bahamas; however, they are common frying fish that locals either love or dislike. For those who have an appetite for the jack, orders are welcome in Green Castle. The Green Castle Hauler Fest is one of many fishing tournaments across the Islands of The Bahamas and takes place during the Bahamian Independence celebration (July 10th), and runs this year from July 10-14. bahamas.com

Tournament Fishing in The Bahamas

In the average calendar year, there are over a dozen fishing tournaments in The Bahamas that range from large World Cup qualifiers to small, community-based tournaments like the one in South Eleuthera. The country has a long history of competitive fishing. The Bahamas Billfish Championship, with over forty years under its belt, is the oldest billfish tournament series in the world. The event was held in five different locations during the spring and early summer but is off for this year.

The country’s waters are rich with schools of billfish, wahoo, dolphin, tuna, and kingfish. This is largely thanks to its geographic location which makes it a migratory pathway for big fish and fishing tournaments. They filter through the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and bring much record-setting fish, including the 1,119- pound blue marlin caught by the team of Double Dog when they broke The Bahamas record in 2011 after a three-hour fight to land it off Treasure Cay, Abaco. The bottom line for fishing enthusiasts is that choices abound throughout The Bahamas.

The Highest Paying Fishing Tournament in The Bahamas

Every November, MEAT MAYHEM and Resorts World Bimini host the Bimini Wahoo Mayhem Fishing Tournament, a favorite for serious tournament hoppers because it has the highest grand prize for Wahoo tournaments. In 2018, the tournament winner was guaranteed $40,000. Entries are capped at around 40 boats each year. Teams head out in the peak of Wahoo season. There are no boundaries in the tournament, so anglers can roam freely within the waters of The Bahamas in search of a prize-winning catch. The event is November 14-16, 2019.

World Cup Qualifiers

The best fishing teams around the world have their eyes set on competing in the prestigious Offshore World Championship Series. To make this happen, they first need an invitation to apply to compete. There are two qualifying tournaments in The Bahamas that grant automatic invitations to their winners, the Lyford Cay Offshore Invitational and the Harbourside Marine Bahamas Rotary Tuna Classic.

Harbourside Marine Bahamas Rotary Tuna Classic

This qualifying fishing tournament includes two days of fishing, basically anywhere in The Bahamas. Weigh-in stations are distributed across six islands and include Spanish Wells, Great Harbour Cay, Freeport, Abaco, Nassau, and Bimini. This gives teams many options to spread out in search of the targeted fish: tuna, wahoo, and dolphin.

The grand tournament prize is for the heaviest tuna. Proceeds from this event go to charitable programs supported by the Rotary Club of East Nassau, an active non-profit operating in the capital. May 24-25, 2019.

Lyford Cay Offshore Invitational

The Lyford Cay Tournament runs for two days and took place this year from May 9-11 with about 20 boats competing, many from local waters. Winners of the Lyford Cay Tournament have typically fared very well at the world championships and secured runner-up status on several occasions. In 2013, the Lyford Cay Offshore tournament team produced a winning performance for The Bahamas, squeaking by 66 other teams.

By Noelle Nichols, Southern Boating June 2019

Want more on The Bahamas? Check out the images from our Bahamas Photo Contest!

Welcome to Swollfest

Years ago as a TV news anchor, I cringed when news managers carelessly tossed around the notion that boating was a rich man’s sport and thus rarely made daily broadcasts about the subject. As a boat owner, I knew better. The majority of boats sold were less than 25 feet, and more affordable used boats outsold new models 80:1. When you did come across a yacht owner, they were your “go-to” people for charity events.

As summer season kicks in along the Gulf Coast, in each community from Texas to Florida, you’ll hopefully see news about local fishing tournaments, or as they say in Grand Isle, Louisiana, rodeos. The annual Swollfest Rodeo, staged out of Sand Dollar Marina, will celebrate 19 years of charitable work this June. As their simple website banner says, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Local dentist Dr. Nick Rauber launched the concept as a teenager and nurtured the fishing rodeo’s growth to some impressive numbers: 600 registered anglers, hundreds of sponsors, 75 volunteers and thousands of attendees who descend on Grand Isle the first weekend of June every year.

This year’s charities are Children’s Hospital at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge and the Outdoor Wish Foundation (OWF). OWF finds recipients and, unbeknownst to them, learns of their background and begins developing a unique experience for that individual. There are two recipients chosen each year, and one hundred percent of the cost is borne by the all-volunteer OWF.

When you think of some billfish tournaments, large boats come to mind. However, Swollfest’s variety of categories include kayak anglers, children 12 and younger, a women’s division, and the best boat in shore and best boat off shore. These categories help unite all anglers who have a love for ecological conservation, a passion for the competition and a heart to help those in need.

You don’t have to speak with a Cajun accent to compete, but it does help to explain how the rodeo got the name Swollfest. It’s a whimsical take on swell, competition and catching the biggest fish. The fishing tournament takes place June 7-10 and includes nightly musical talent.

Panama City Marina District redevelopment

Nine months after Panama City selected a developer to revitalize the marina and aging downtown district, the city finally has a plan to review. Some of the most notable changes involve partnerships. Bellingham Marine, one of the world leaders in marina construction, is replacing local favorite Legendary Marine and joining lead designer Sonnenblick Development. Together they envision new environmentally friendly docks, two hotels, a public fishing pier (built with oil spill money), an event lawn, a 10-plex movie theater, two parking garages, restaurants with outdoor dining along the T-dock, residential high-rises, and a lighthouse. Artist renderings also show a boat ramp, but its precise location is expected to be somewhat fluid.

The marina plan includes room for transients with an eye toward tourism. A dedicated water taxi area for transportation to popular nearby St. Andrews Marina will also be included. The plan now goes before several review boards with construction expected to begin after this year’s boating season.

Tournament Fishing: Texas Style

Everything is bigger in Texas and this includes fishing tournaments. With more than 367 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico and along the famed Laguna Madre with charters running from Galveston to Corpus Christi and all the way south to the Mexican border in San Isabel, Texas can satisfy your need for deep or near-shore saltwater fishing.

One of the largest tournaments, the Texas Star State of Texas Angler’s Rodeo run by the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) lasts a solid three months. This tournament with more than 45,000 participants is unusual in that tagged species of fish are specifically released throughout the coast for the purpose of the tournament. Registered participants have the entire summer to reel in those tagged reds and trout. Successful anglers can reel in their share for more than $1 million in prizes and scholarships. ccatexas.org, startournament.org

Chandeleur Island Fishing off Mississippi Motherships. Photo: Troy Gilbert

Down the coast in Matagorda, the Matagorda Bluewater Challenge is another monster multiple species tournament with boats allowed to leave from several ports. The tournament also includes a small boat (under 25 feet) class. The big action is offshore where winners are decided over the combined weight of multiple and specific species hauled in. This two-day event brings out the Who’s Who of Texas fishing and novices who charter vessels with groups of friends and try their luck at bringing in the largest kingfish, ling, and dolphin. Winning isn’t everything, but two days spent offshore is a perfect recreational investment for men, women, and children.

Not to be outdone and celebrating its 19^th anniversary on the legendary Louisiana barrier island of Grand Isle, the Swollfest Fishing Rodeo kicks off June 8-12. Headquartered at the Sand Dollar Marina on the easternmost reach of Grand Isle, this event has exploded from its humble beginnings as a group of eight guys going out fishing one weekend to one of the largest fishing rodeos in Louisiana.

With world-class offshore and inshore fishing throughout the waters of Louisiana, Swollfest was among the early to recognize and adopt the growing trend in spear and kayak fishing and have adopted them as classes alongside the standard fishing rodeo classes. Kayak fishing is ideal in these estuaries of southeast Louisiana with kayaks able to navigate all of the shallow coastal marsh and find those hidden and previously unreachable honey spots.

Located at the edge of Barataria and Caminada Bay and the deep-water oil platforms of the Gulf of Mexico that serve as incredible artificial reef habitats, Grand Isle is known for hosting multiple world-class fishing events. The species of fish from the multiple habitats are far too numerous to list, but there is a definitive reason why southern Louisiana is known as the “Sportsman’s Paradise.”

By Harlen Leslie, Southern Boating Magazine April 2016