IBT 71 San Juan Puerto Rico
August 13-17, 2024
Story by: Art McDonald
Year 71 of the IBT continued in the tradition begun way back in 1953 when a Club Nautico member, Chilo Bird, volunteered as the first chairman of what became known as the International Billfish Tournament.
The early years saw the event as primarily an interclub tournament for the various fishing clubs on the island, but it was also among the first to invite international angling teams from the Anglers Club of New York and the Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club - all eager to experience the opportunities to catch blue marlin in a Caribbean Paradise.
The IBT is the oldest consecutive-year salt water tournament in the world. This year’s event ran from the Registration on August 13 and concluded with the awards banquet on August 17th. IGFTO provided 34 Observers to the tournament – an all-time high for this event, which included: Vice President and Membership Coordinator Bob Smith, Rick Alvarez, Todd Gettys, Ron Teke, Bruce Jones, Jim Sadler, Ed Hails, Rick Wesley, Louann Driver, Mike Cisneros, Sr., Mike Cisneros, Jr., Tom Word, Barbara Evans, David Cambron, Scott Hill, Rich Demaris, Keith Antell, Adriana Vale, Harold Roebuck, Marvin Badler, Tim Turnbull, Jonathan Mursic, Lisa Smith, Tony Lutz, Jorge Delgado Viger, Paul Finger, Jim Nicholson, Dave Maurer, Peter Sanchez, Ed Tapping, Cindy Pruett, and Vice President Emeritus Art McDonald - and our IGFTO President winged in for a few days too. There were a total of 203 anglers fishing from 45 boats.
This year started off with many of us looking over our shoulder at the weather in the Caribbean and a pesky tropical depression eventually becoming Tropical Storm Ernesto – and later, Hurricane Ernesto. Ernesto seemed to draw a bead on Puerto Rico the week before and continued its approach as the kickoff began on August 13th. It turned out to be much concern about nothing as the storm lacked intensity as it approached Puerto Rico – but did, indeed, dump a goodly amount of rainfall on the island.
This proved to affect fishing as the heavy rains caused flooding in the riverbeds which eventually led to the sea – clouded the water and provided multiple hazards with all kinds of floating debris (including full trees). Several boats trashed wheels! We all know that deep blue, clean, water is one of the keys to blue marlin fishing – the events surrounding Tropical Storm Ernesto certainly didn’t provide much in the way of clean water.
Day one produced 16 releases (15 blue marlin + 1 sailfish) – not exactly setting the world on fire. Day two wasn’t much better with 10 blue marlin releases, followed by a disappointing day three with only 8 releases (all blue marlin). Hanging in there was the Donna Lucy (58’ F&S) who released a blue marlin each day – including an early fish on day 3 to take the overall, and final lead, based on time. All-in-all, a total of 34 releases (33 blue marlin and 1 sailfish) were recorded proving that, sometimes, Father Neptune plays a role in tournament fishing!
The disappointing fishing didn’t dampen the after-fishing enthusiasm with the tournament providing an active dock party on the first fishing evening, and a great “Platinum Party” the second evening. The Awards Banquet was a gala event, although a bit tempestuous.
The majority of us departed on Sunday for home and bid San Juan and the IBT a fond farewell. Tight lines.
