The 28th Invitational Billfish Tournament, Pelican Yacht Club, Ft. Pierce, Florida kicked off Wednesday. 42 boats have entered. The tournament format is four days to fish three. With the weather good one would guess all are fishing the blue water Wednesday. This is a catch and release tournament. Dead baits only, such as ballyhoo, will be trolled. Each boat will be manned with an official to make the call as to the type of billfish caught and when the leader is touched. It is an official catch when the leader is touched. Catches are radioed to the tournament boat.

One would expect good fishin for the boys. Last weeks cold front should continue to push migratory sailfish south. Captain Glenn Cameron of the Floridian won the Fort Pierce Billfish Derby which concluded this Sunday past with 23 releases. Capt. Pat Price of the Hotty Toddy had 15 sailfish releases Sunday on the last day of the Derby and reported 13 bites on Monday, seeing 20 sailfish in the baits. For those of us who care, it is one impressive site to see the Hotty Toddy coming into port flying 15 saifish release flags from the riggers. Fish were reported 38 miles north of the Fort Pierce inlet. They should continue south. Lines are out of the water each day at 3:30pm and it looks like about 33 billfish have been caught by 3:00pm Wednesday with Capt. Dave Graham of the Easy Rider on top the leader board with four releases. To give you an idea as to Wednesdays fishing, this tournament record is 386 releases in 2004. Must be too nice out there.

This tournament is the last leg of the annual Treasure Coast Sailfish Championship. The big boys are after serious bragging rights here and going into Wednesdays fishing the Hotty Toddy, Capt. Pat Price, the Vintage, Capt. Hans Kraaz, and the Floridian, Capt. Glenn Cameron lead the way with 28 releases. Multiple other boats are within striking distance which insures an exciting end to the Teasure Coast sailfish tournament season.

For archived catch statstics and live scoring visit www.pelicanyachtclub.com.