Let me set up a scenario; 2008 is setting up to be a very tough economic year after already coming off a poor 2007. Dolphin tournaments that have a novelty-type format notoriously aren’t set up for long-term success. Fuel prices are at an all-time high here in the Keys. Marathon has not had the reputation of sustaining large participated offshore tournaments. Early May isn’t exactly the height of tourist season. Businesses that sponsor large money tournaments are getting very tight with their money this year. Keys large scale developers have hit on hard times.

Now stating all of that, I would be the first to give a pass to this year’s Marathon Offshore Bull & Cow Tournament which wrapped up three days of fishing on Sunday afternoon. How could it be successful after all? Last year’s first-time event drew 66 teams and 371 anglers and doled out close to $25,000 in winnings. The total weight of a bull dolphin and cow dolphin was a novel format which garnered a lot of interest in 2007, but would the novelty wear off a year later? Last year, fuel prices were hovering around $3.00 a gallon but with 2008 on the water prices well over $4.00, would teams deter from registering, knowing they would burn roughly 100 gallons-plus searching for frigates, weed lines or debris? Could the tournament committee garner enough sponsorship to actually surpass $25,000 in prize money awarded in 2007 to make the competition worth the expense?

Of course the answer is yes to the tune of 78 teams! No sophomore slump here. The architects of blueprinting young successfully run tournaments in the Keys had little doubt about success. Jack Carlson and Biff Goss from Big Time Bait & Tackle as well as Brian Hurley from ReelPro haven’t built relationships with sponsors for the short run. And with the addition of Singh Companies as the title sponsor and a new home for the awards ceremony being the Boat House in Marathon, the Bull & Cow has made their permanent mark on the Keys. “This is a Keys-wide tournament. Last year, teams from Marathon, Islamorada and Key West won the top three spots. This year we attracted anglers from Miami, New Smyrna Beach and as far away as North Carolina” according to Goss. Carlson adds, “It was a perfect scenario to partner with Singh and feel like we have a new home at the Boat House for years to come.”

The hot bite in this year Bull & Cow after the awards ceremony ended late Sunday was marlin and wahoo. Most teams competing over the two days had found plenty of dolphin, but most were small or what are called peanuts and schoolies. With these fish come the predator species like wahoo and blue marlin who like to feed on the small dolphin. The highly superstitious Capt. Bobby Manske from the team Northern Lights out of Marathon had a blue marlin make an early appearance on Saturday morning. “As we were setting up our spread, I see this blue and white Calcutta trolling lure that was in the tournament gift bag. I said to put some wire on and throw it out there for a wahoo. It was no time at all when we see this large blue marlin swimming up behind the boat going after one of our short lines. He had the Calcutta lure in his mouth and the fish had no idea he was hooked. Once we came tight he finally figured it out he gave us a heck of a show. Unfortunately we broke him off shortly after that.” That was only one of the marlin stories of the tournament. Another being Capt. Billy Turnbull of Duck Key fishing in his 31’ Ocean Master. Roughly the same time as Manske, an estimated 450-pound marlin crashed a small trolled ballyhoo. Three and a half hours and one tired angler later, the marlin was brought boat side for a picture and a quick measurement. The fish was 109-inches from the fork to the lower jaw which makes this one of the larger marlin I’ve heard caught in the Keys in recent years.

Unfortunately in this dolphin tournament, marlin don’t count. Actually some teams don’t want to hook a marlin for the fact that they are time consuming and takes away from hunting dolphin. As mentioned, a lot of small dolphin were found and a few skilled teams did found the slammers. It was all about Saturday’s bite for Big Pines’ team Don’t Panic. Saturday’s weigh-in found them registering a 30.6-pound bull and 26.0-pound cow which held the lead until the scale closed 6 PM Sunday. Capt. Steve Swanberg of Cudjoe, Lance Stehman of Summerland, “Lucky” John Kelly of Cudjoe, Vernon Norris of Little Torch, and John Sipes and Aaron Neurath of Big Pine round out the team Don’t Panic. “We had a heart breaker where a 40-pound plus bull with a very large cow swam by on Sunday. We hooked up the bull but he broke us off and we lost both of them. It killed us” says Stehman afterwards. “We just weren’t sure that our first day’s catch would hold until Sunday.” Obviously the catch did hold and team Don’t Panic can split the $12,000-plus winnings amongst themselves.

Coming in a close second with a two-fish catch weighing 50.6-pounds is the team Main Attraction featuring Capt. Marty Lewis and mate Jaime Platt out of Key Colony Beach. They won the largest fish of the tournament trophy with a 36.4-pound bull weighed Saturday but were unable to find a cow on the final day that would help them surpass team Don’t Panic.

For all of the final results and information for next year’s even larger venue, go to www.marathonoffshoretournament.com


Posted-Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:32 PM EDT