by Randy Gibbs
The 12th annual Nantucket Big Game Battle was held August 15-17. The two day invitational catch and release tournament raised $28,000 for Nantucket Star, an island organization which provides social and athletic activities and programs to Nantucket youth with special needs. 41 boats and over 200 fishermen participated in the two day tournament. The tournament featured two divisions; one for boats 34′ and under and the other for boats 35′ and over, as well as an overall division. Twenty one boats competed in Division 1 and twenty boats competed in Division 2. The tournament also had a team competition teaming boats up one from Division 1 with one from Division 2. Points were earned for each fish species caught regardless of size based on a formula which was weighted to the degree of difficulty of the various species. 10 points were awarded for each mahi-mahi caught and released and 450 points were earned for a blue marlin catch and release. Limits were imposed for all species.
Boats raced off in the dead of night to the fabled canyons of the Northeast for the 5:00 AM call for lines in the water. When the call was given at the close of day two to pull lines out of the water and all boats had reported Team Crab Eyes out of the island of Martha’s Vineyard had bested the field and was named Division 1 winner as well as the overall tournament winner having racked up 2080 points a margin of well over a hundred points on its closest competitor. Team Crab Eyes was also a runner-up in the team competition which was won by Guzzler and Castafari. Division 2 was won by Miss Bridget out of Falmouth, MA who tallied 980 points for the tournament.
Crab Eyes, with Captain Ted Rosbeck, owner Randy Gibbs and anglers Scott Braillard, Josh Forend and Matt Arieta, was a late replacement entry to the competition and is a 36′ Invincible open fisherman center console. Crab Eyes was the smallest boat in Division 1 competing with a host of large sport fishing vessels.
Crab Eyes scored quickly with a triple header of Bigeye Tuna caught in the first hour of the competition on Day 1 and ended the day in second place with 1120 points just 40 points off the lead. they went on to seal the deal on Day 2 with a steady pick of White Marlin tallying 3 for 5 on the day and adding 960 points for the day. Captain Rosbeck said “In order to win a tournament a lot of pieces need to come together to win, including a lot of prep work, planning, great angling and a good dose of fisherman’s luck. In this tournament, all those pieces came together for us and we were rewarded with some nice trophies, but more importantly, the trip of a lifetime with great friends. I am very proud of the whole crew of team Crab Eyes”. Over the course of the tournament the fleet caught 18 Bigeyes, 13 Wahoo, 18 White Marlin 1 Mako, 1 Swordfish and 1 Blue Marlin.
Congrats guys Nice catch
Thanks, check out the mystery marlin in the 3rd pic from the bottom. Look Ma no beak! At first we thought he was a spearfish. Didn’t notice any obvious scaring on his stub of a beak when he came on deck. But we were in a hurry to get the pic and get him back in the water. The rules committee called it a ” hatchet” . When you zoom in on the beak it appears he had a beak and lost it as a juvenile as it has no obvious scaring..