2018 Tag & Release Competition Update
Here are the current standings in all categories (except Cape Verde, apologies, we’re working on it) as of October 5, 2018. Scroll through, find your name, find your friend’s name! Fishing for the competition year ends on October 31 and all reports must be in either digitally or mailed into the office by November 15. Winners will be announced via email and regular mail by mid-December. OVERALL RELEASE CAPTAIN Ben Horning – Jupiter, Florida, USA Ronnie Fields – Lake Park, Florida, USA Nicholas Gonzalez – Miami, Florida, USA Stuart Simpson – Durban, South Africa Dennis Endee –
Learning to Fish Via Youtube?
Sportfishing is an art/skill that cannot be mastered quickly. It takes time, energy, failure, and money to become an accomplished angler. The interesting aspect of fishing is the pressure that goes along with it. Many fishermen are not “professional” and have regular day jobs. Thus, they may only fish a couple times a month or a few times a year to hone their skill. Due to this, there is stress to try to make every trip a fantastic event because of the irregularity of trips. Plus, fishing is a hands-on sport. For example, pitch baiting marlin is not
Passing of a Legend – Capt. Ron Hamlin
Hamlin was recognized not only for his expertise at placing anglers from all over the world on billfish, but also for his contributions to billfish conservation. His expertise at the helm won him awards year after year, including the Billfish Foundation’s Top Captain Award, for which he stopped competing. After landing billfish for years during the early part of his career, he later recognized that continuation of his profession depended upon the availability of healthy stocks of fish in the water for clients to catch. He turned to catch and release fishing and became a voice for billfish conservation
Tag & Release Competition Update
Our annual Tag & Release competition is about 3/4 over and we will crown this year’s winners later this year at our Tag and Release Award Ceremony in February. We are highlighting the “Top Five” in many of the competition categories. This list constitutes the tag and release records processed by TBF as of July 16, 2018. We will post an updated version soon with the regional competitions. Do you know anyone on there? Are you in the top five and want to be recognized by the who’s who in the billfishing community at our ceremony? The end
Assessing Florida’s Sailfish Population
Management of sailfish in the Atlantic Ocean falls under the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which is responsible for tuna and associated species like billfish. The first official stock assessment for Atlantic sailfish was completed by this management body in 2009, and identified two separate stocks: the eastern and western. In Florida, anglers interact with the western Atlantic sailfish stock, which was found to be overfished and likely undergoing overfishing. The most recent assessment, done in 2016, states that both sailfish stocks of the Atlantic Ocean suffered the greatest declines in abundance prior
Tag & Release Competition Winners Honored At Ceremony
The Billfish Foundation’s (TBF) Tag and Release Award winners, the “Who’s Who” in the billfishing world, were honored during the International Tag and Release Awards Ceremony at Miami’s Jungle Island on February 16, 2018. Over 40 award winners from all over the world – from as far away as the Seychelles Islands, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, France, and Gabon – came to be recognized as some of the top anglers, captains and mates for tagging and releasing the most billfish in our competition year. Earning one of these prestigious awards, produced and donated by King Sailfish Mounts, symbolizes a year
Announcing TBF’s 2017 Tag & Release Competition Winners
Each year The Billfish Foundation recognizes the best of the best in the billfishing community to acknowledge the significant effort they contribute to our Tag & Release Program and billfish conservation. Since its inception in 1990, the program has grown to accrue nearly 240,000 tag and release records to become the largest private billfish tagging database in the world. In the last year alone, TBF has collected nearly 15,000 records! The information gathered through tag and release efforts has been invaluable to help better manage billfish stocks, better understand these fish, and preserve the sport we love. This has
