Barbados take top three places in fishing Tournament

After fifteen years of trying without a victory, three Barbadian boats and their respective crews finished first, second and third in last weekend’s Spice Island Billfish Tournament in Grenada.

Taking pride of place was the boat Eclipse with captain Mario Williams and his crew consisting of Matthew Roach, Jacobi Lampitt and husband and wife Jonathan and Diana Webster. In second place was Mamzelle captained by Paul Hamel-Smith with crew David Hamel-Smith, Luke DeFreitas, Roy Thompson and Shae Warren. Third place went to Change Order which was skippered by Matthew Milne with crew Eric Carr, Adam Aleong and Gavin Grift.

Eclipse had the most billfish releases, 11, while collecting 3300 points. It copped the top non-national boat award in the tournament, had the top release angler aboard as well as the top female angler. Jonathan had eight releases for which he collected 2 400 points while his wife Diana had three for 900 points. David Hamel-Smith took third place among the anglers with 1200 points after making four releases. He finished just behind Nathan Jean-Joseph of Martinique with five releases for 1800 points aboard the Reha Team boat. Mamzelle tallied 3 000 points from its overall nine releases while Change Order’s seven releases garnered the boat and its crew 2 400 points. Trinidad’s Andrew Sabga Jr. was the top junior angler collecting 900 points for his three releases.

Eclipse had five releases on the first day of the competition, two the second and four on the final day of the tournament that ran from January 28 to 30.

“We took the boat over and we practised two weeks before the tournament just to feel ourselves out with the water and stuff. And everything worked out for us. We did really well in the tournament, we basically won everything,” Williams said, while thanking his sponsors for their contribution to Eclipse’s success.

The Eclipse winners (from left) Mario Williams, Matthew Roach, Jacobi Lampitt, Jonathan Webster and Diana Webster. At second left is a representative from the Republic Bank in Grenada who made the presentation of prizes.

Second placed Mamzelle crew (from left) David Hamel-Smith, Luke DeFreitas, Paul Hamel-Smith, Roy Thompson and Shae Warren. Republic Bank representative is third left.

Third placed Change Order crew (From second left) Matthew Milne, Eric Carr, Gavin Grift and Adam Aleong. At left making presentation is a representative of one of the tournament sponsors.

Williams took the opportunity to advise Caribbean governments that they should come together and stop commercial boats from killing the very small marlins. He said they had to be released when caught young. He added he had been releasing billfish with regularity and other boats have been coming to Barbados to take part in the local tournament because the fish are plentiful. He said the tournament this year would be a lot bigger because of the volume of fish.

“If we keep releasing the fish, we will have plenty of them around, it will be good for the game fishing association here and it will be good for commercial fishermen later on,” he said. (KC)