The FishingNosara team competed in the 2016 Ship of Fools Tournament on April 9-10 and we are stoked to announce that once again Captain William and Bob Pease put the Wanderer in the money:
More importantly, all four FishingNosara boats were in the running for a top spot throughout the weekend.
The tournament began early in the morning on April 8 as Garza Bay was buzzing with excitement.
Captain Fico on the upstart Explorer was leading the team after the first day with seven Sailfish releases report by Roger Bowgen and his group.
Captain William and the mighty Wanderer snagged six Sailfish plus a last-minute Dorado; meat fish serve up a potentially tie-breaking 25 points and would this one would turn out to be essential.
Captain Alex and Hubble Keller on the mega panga Harvester were slotted right behind with six Sailfish released and caught a nice Dorado:
They actually released three more Sails, however the camera with those pictures got accidentally sent to Davy Jones’ Locker.
Matt, Craig, and Paula from the US Office rounded out the team’s results with four Sailfish released on the Discoverer.
On the second day was a big decision: head North to try to catch the tail end of the swarm of fish that was yielding double-digit releases a week prior, or cut South and try to anticipate the next school.
The Discoverer and Explorer went North, and that decision proved to not be the right one as only four fish were caught between the two boats.
We took advantage of every bite, but there just weren’t enough fish to stay at the top of the scoreboard.
The Harvester and Wanderer went South and they hit paydirt with multiple Sailfish and Marlin releases…Marlin are worth triple the points of a Sailfish in this tournament.
Captain Alex kept his momentum up from a productive first day and captured several more Sailfish releases.
Captain William scored the big fish of the day with Bob Pease’s epic 2 hour fight ending in a MASSIVE Blue Marlin release.
The Wanderer made up for the time lost fighting the big fish by closing the day with a Double Sailfish release.
This flurry of billfish action late on the second day propelled the Wanderer into the money for the third time in four years.
On Sunday was the legendary Ship of Fool’s Fiesta at Pacifico Azul in Garza:
Great food, great music, and great times were had by all the teams and all of the Garza community came out to celebrate.
On top of the scoreboard this year was the Old Squaw:
Followed up by the High Roller:
The Largest Tuna prize went to Siempre Algo:
As always the events were run masterfully by the Tournament Staff including Marlin Bill, Angie, and the Judges.
We look forward to competing in the 2017 Ship of Fools Tournament and once again seeing FishingNosara boats challenging for the top spot.
The FishingNosara Tournament Series continues this December as we are entering all four boats into the Dreamstarter Tournament:
If you have what it takes, get your best anglers together and reserve your spot in this event.