Wow!
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news9.htmlFIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Sean Mendonca received cheques totalling $415,000 for reeling in an 890 pound blue marlin in the waters off Charlotteville in Tobago on Saturday—a feat which could land the teenager in the world record books as a junior angler.
Taking part in the T&T Game Fishing Association’s 28th international fishing tournament, Mendonca, a Westmoorings student, hooked the monster fish at 9.57 am on Saturday and spent the next one hour and four minutes coaxing the fish on to his uncle Maurice Lloyd’s boat, Indigo.
When the fish was brought to shore for weighing at the Speyside fishing jetty, judges found that it was 135 inches (11 feet, three inches) long and that its girth was 72 inches (six feet), said Marylin Sheppard, who heads the tournament’s rules committee.
The fish is about twice the height and about six times the weight of the teenager.
“This boy may have broken the junior angler world record for blue marlin,” said Sheppard, adding that the verification and certification of the world record would be done by the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA), which is headquartered at Dania Beach in Florida.
Bill Rewalt, an American judge who was at Speyside for the tournament, filled out a form which he will take to the IGFA this week, said Sheppard, who assisted in weighing the fish. Rewalt will also take the lure, the hook, the leader and 30 feet of the nylon used to reel in the fish to the IGFA.
Mendonca received $100,000 for breaking the existing blue marlin record which was 644 pounds and $315,000 for catching a blue marlin over 800 pounds. He also received trophies for the largest fish of the tournament and for capturing the heaviest fish.
Sheppard said at 890 pounds the blue marlin was likely to be the largest fish ever recorded at a game fishing tournament in the Caribbean.
The tournament was previously held at Crown Point but was moved to Speyside this year, for the first time, because of rough seas off Tobago’s south-west coast, said Sheppard, who is also responsible for beach control which involves contacting the boats by radio and recording their times.
The tournament was sponsored by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, the Tobago House of Assembly, Carib and the local Game Fishing Association along with a number of other sponsors. Most of the boats in the tournament were anchored at the Blue Waters Inn in Speyside.
