Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament

Bay Point Invitational Underway!
July 10, 2008
As reported by Tim Owens, story reproduced by permission of WJHG-TV 7.

Watch Video (Video files are available for only a short time after the event.)

Po' Monkey kicks off the entertainment on the main stage.

The 2008 Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament is now officially underway; the party here at the Bay Point Marina is cranking up.

Everyone is looking ahead to two nights of dockside parties here, then it's two days of fishing for the tournament fleet.

They'll weigh in their tuna, wahoo and dolphin as they've always done Friday and Saturday night, from 6 to 10PM.

However, it's all catch and release in the billfish categories including for the first time ever, blue marlin.

The teams can still haul in a six figure payout by accumulating the most catch and release points. Those points verified by video systems onboard these boats. So, we won't see blue marlin weighed in, but we will see the fights to bring them close to the boats, on a 27-foot JumboTron set up here at the marina, and that adds a whole new perspective to the show!!

Crowds gather to watch the firing of the cannon.

Crowds gather to watch the firing of the cannon.

Tournament co-director Scott Burt said, "A lot of people you see their boat on the dock; you see the crew, you see all this expensive gear, you see everything. You say the fish don't stand a chance, there's no fight here, but when you watch that video on that screen and see what the boat goes through as it backs down aggressively, as the cockpit fills with seawater, the mates struggling, the anglers straining and literally, it was a fight; it's just getting hammered and sometimes it goes on for hours at a time. It brings a new appreciation and I watch people when they watch these videos in the parking lot and their just enthralled by how aggressive the fish are and how difficult they are to catch, and, how so many times they don't get caught and even when we do catch them, now they’re never brought out of the water. They’re never harmed; we don't even tag them anymore. We simply film the fish quickly in the water. We use a designator to prove the video is valid and the fish is released and shown swimming away. It’s incredible; I love it."

There is plenty of action on the JumboTron to watch and plenty of action at the scales.

There are parties Thursday, Friday and Saturday night; the boats depart under the fireworks Thursday night around 8PM.