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Big fish for small fry

Boat/US Magazine, July, 2003 by Ryck Lydecker

"This bilifish tournament is different -- one-of-a-kind different..."

It's not unusual for bluewater fishing tournament competitors to land a lot of money by landing big fish. But in the billfish big leagues it can take $5,000 or more--sometimes way more--just to play in a game where payouts of thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands, are at stake.

Want to fish the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic for a share of the $850,000 in cash and prizes? The entry fee is $5,000 per boat. How about Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin Jackpot in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where three teams took home $400,000 -- each -- last October? That'll be an $18,000 entry fee. How about next month's White Marlin Open in Ocean City, MD, where the total purse is $2 million and last year a single team walked away with $870,000? That'll be only $13,400.

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But if you want to fish the Barta Blue Marlin Classic at Walker's Cay Resort in the Bahamas next April, well, that's a different story. Pony up $500, get in line and hope you're luckier than the 600 anglers who got turned away this year.

This billfish tournament is different -- one-of-a-kind different -- and that's because one hard-core bluewater angler by the name of fred Barta had a different vision for tournament fishing.

Bucking the Tournament Trend

"About eight years ago, Tred came to us with a wild idea," reports Mike Leech, former president of the world fishing record-keeping body, the International Game Fishing Association, and now its ambassador-at-large. "He wanted to create the exact opposite of the high-roller billfish tournaments with their hefty entry fees, big money betting pools called "calcuttas' and legendary cash payouts.

"Tred wanted to get back to the oldtime religion of tournament fishing," Leech explains. "Things like dead bait and no plastic lures, catch-and-release only for billfish and a very modest entry fee."

And, Leech says, Barta wanted any money raised beyond expenses to benefit the IGFA Junior Angler Program which teaches kids conservation and ethical fishing practices in fresh and saltwater while maintaining over 700 gamefish records set by anglers under 16.

"We thought if we could get 35 boats, we'd be doing pretty good," Leech adds. "So we tried it."

Instead of the typical entry fee of $5,000 and up per boat that other billfish tournaments charge, Barta, a controversial, iconoclastic fishing writer from South Hampton on New York's Long Island, set the fee at $500.

"We figured that would attract a lot of the smaller boats, say 35 feet and under," Leech goes on. "But it could still be a good tournament, we'd have a great time and see where it goes from there,"

From the beginning, the event took off like a hooked sailfish as word spread through the big game fishing fraternity.

In his day job Barta is a private aircraft broker but he holds 20 saltwater fishing world records and writes Sportfishing magazine's back page column, "For the Record." That gave him the connections to start lining up sponsors, one after another Fishing companies and boat manufacturers, he found, wanted to help grow the sport through the Junior Angler Program. He also began to write about the event in his regular fishing columns and the entries began rolling in.

"We were amazed," Leech reports. "The first tournament totally sold out."

Small boats only? Hardly. The average boat that year was 45 feet; the largest, a 70-foot Viking sportfisherman. And when the financial dust had settled from the entry fees, raffles, clothing sales and live auction that Barta added to the mix, he cut a check to the IGFA Junior Angler Program for $50,000.

These days, half-a-dozen well-known marine artists like Guy Harvey and Carey Chen also participate, donating paintings, sculpture and other works -- some completed on-site -- to a live auction held on the second night.

Along with donated fishing gear, boating equipment and guided trips, the auction, plus a huge prize raffle, raised $280,000 this year.

A total of 116 boats entered in 2003, from 27 to 60 feet, and Barta says he returned nearly 600 entry fees because that's all Walker's Cay could handle. A total of about 300 people came with those boats, dozens of them kids, from tots to teens.

Honesty is the Policy

"This is perhaps the most successful all-release marlin tournament in the world," reports Dean Clarke, executive editor of Sportfishing and Marlin Magazines. "The entry fee is $500 per boat and nobody makes a penny off this tournament."

Clarke, a member of the event's Board of Governors which oversees the finances, says every year a portion of the proceeds also goes to the school on the neighboring Grand Cay where most of the Bahamians who work at Walker's Cay Resort live.

"We've purchased computers for the school, built a library there and stocked it with books," Clarke reports.

While the event raises a lot of money, there are no cash prizes in the Barta Blue Marlin Classic, just nice fish-mount trophies -- scores of them -- plus several prestigious sponsored awards. The rules are simple: five lines only, with naked dead bait -- ballyhoo, Spanish mackerel, mullet -- rigged with single hooks and fished on 30-pound test line.

Big fish for small fry

Boat/US Magazine, July, 2003 by Ryck Lydecker

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