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Tournament Winners Pre-2016 and Their Stories
Article by BD OUTDOORS. Author:: BD STAFF October 16, 2014
As a fisherman, one must always be ready for what the ocean presents, because you never really know what you will find on any given day. I think that is part of why it is so deeply satisfying to set a goal, target a fish and then succeed with your plan.
This would be the case for the crew of the Bad Company XL led by Capt. Steve Lassley on a recent trip out of Newport Beach, CA. They had been hearing about sightings and encounters with blue marlin, a species very rarely seen in SoCal waters, and had set their goal to go try and catch one.
The Bad Company XL is owned by Anthony Hsieh and Capt. Lassely said that he loves to chase swordfish. So their plan was to break out the 130's and put out the marlin spread while looking for finning swordfish.
Blue marlin may not frequent these waters, but the crew is no stranger to blue marlin.
“We have caught many blues in Hawaii and Mexico, but never in my lifetime have I caught one here at home” said Capt. Lassley. “There have been a few reports of blue marlin in the last month, some of which I trust based on the experience of the crews.” He went on, “There have also been some really nice striped marlin that have been touted as blues, but they are still nice fish.”
The fishing in SoCal waters has been epic and exotic this year to say the least. Unusually warm water has pushed up the coast and the tuna, dorado, wahoo and marlin have followed. Many of these “exotics” have been caught in places they should not be.
Capt. Lassley said, “We studied the SST charts and the recent reports and chose an area halfway between Catalina and San Clemente Islands. I found a little spot of puddling tuna and as we worked the area, the blue hit. With Anthony Hsieh on the 130 Penn, and my crew of experienced deck hands, we landed the blue in about 18 minutes.
It was a very special fish for us as we had gathered together old friends with whom to share this rare adventure. I even got to take my good friend Peter Groesbeck whom I had fished with for many years. It really was a special time for our whole team; Anthony, Ron, Pete, Eliseo and myself.”
The fish was brought into Avalon and weighed out at 462-pounds. A fine catch anywhere, but incredible when you factor in the location. Capt. Lassley said,
“I may be wrong, but to my knowledge, this is the first blue marlin weighed in here in about 83 years.""We also caught a couple striped marlin and saw a swordfish that same day, so I guess we had a glimpse of a possible slam, which is crazy for here.”
Congrats to Capt. Lassley, Anthony Hsieh, and the crew of the Bad Company. Stay tuned because they are gearing up for another trip and Capt. Lassley will follow up with an article on BD.
More BD Articles from Capt. Steve Lassley
"Vidas writes: "Dear Mark, thank you very much for [your] document and a ”few seconds” lesson yesterday how to use your product. Today with small isolated temperature area and plankton curve I caught Black marlin of 535lbs! (Other boats from club only bonito and few dorado’s!). I am very happy with my first experience of Seaview."
Wayne Waldron and Team Sea Ya!
Largest Fish Prize in the Oregon Tuna Classic - August 2012
After Friday’s results were released it became apparent that despite the weather the Oregon Food Bank was the real winner! Taking the Big Fish Pot sponsored by Westlie Ford was “Sea Ya” with a 30.30 pound albacore tuna.
June 2012 Top Dolphin: Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic. Joe Hudson / Iona Louise (60' Bertram) caught a 53.2LB dolphinfish netting a $69,330 win!!
Joe Hudson / Iona Louise (60' Bertram) was the only boat to catch a marlin - a 537LB blue marlin in the Big Game Fishing Club's 2012 tournament!
Team Malta da Kianda have been fishing the Big Game Tournaments in Angola for about 3 years. Two years ago crew member Colin McCaffery, a Scotsman who has fished the waters of the North Sea and South Asia all his life, decided to invest in SeaView's SPORT Fishing service. With one of the smallest boats in the sport fishing fleet in Angola, they soon established their mark by placing in the top ten for some of the biggest IGFA governed competitions. The culmination of their success to date was second place in one of the biggest competitions in Africa every year, The Lobito Big Game Fishing Tournament, in March 2010. Using SeaView's satellite images, they fished the second day only three miles from the shore, when all the bigger boats were travelling out 60 to 70 miles. This was based on some of the hotspots identified by SeaView, and they hit a huge feeding frenzy of blue marlin and sailfish. This moment took them straight to second place in the competition - a position they then held to the finish of the tournament 3 days later...
"We won the Pesky's Tournament for the second straight year. Ocean Imaging was a big part of our success in such a slow local marlin year. Trying extra hard in such a slow year we relied on SeaView data to find a promising spot of water just North of the 43.
On top of some reports from the week before we found the bait and the water conditions we were looking for. We caught two fish that day and had another strike. On the way home the next morning just outside the zone we had another marlin on for a short while. All this action in the worst year in So. Cal. marlin history! Thanks Ocean Imaging."
- Warren Gunter, Captain on the xJewelLure
On the first day of the tournament, C-Bandit was in the right place at the right time. A 549 pound black marlin ate a ten-pound yellowfin tuna!
"SeaView's accurate and reliable imagery updated multiple times per day helped us stay on the water that was holding the fish. We would not have done half as well in the tournament if we didn't have SeaView."
-Pete Grosbeck, Captain - C-Bandit
"Fishing in the 2010 Avalon Tuna Club Ensenada Tournament we were the only boat to catch fish in the entire tournament. We took a gamble that paid off when we saw that all of the waters between Ensenada and San Diego were green and turbulent. We located a 3 mile by 3 mile patch of blue water that was two degrees warmer and pushing current from the south, we swept all of the awards with seven yellowtail. Had we not had SeaView we would not have know about this patch of water as it was roughly 100 miles south of the fleet. Being able to pick up water movements in real time allows us to cover hundreds of miles of water before our trip and during the tournament."
-Colby Durnin, Owner - Joint Venture
The 26th annual 2006 Bisbee's Black & Blue Marlin Tournament in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, October 24-28, 2006, shattered its own 2005 payout world record of $3.3 million by hitting $4,165,960 in total prize money. In 2006 the Black & Blue had its biggest overall cash payout of $4,165,960. This was, and remains, the largest payout in sportfishing history. On day one of fishing, the radio was busy all day with teams releasing over 80 billfish. At the end of the day, it was angler Randy Parker of Kona, Hawaii onboard the 55 foot Hatteras, Bad Company 55, that captured the day's only qualifying blue marlin weighing in at 361 pounds.
Day two saw two qualifying fish. First to the scale was a 301 pound blue marlin onboard the 61 foot Viking Yacht, Retriever, with Cabo local Tony Araiza as the angler. The second blue weighed in at 422 pounds, incredibly from the Bad Company 55 once again.
