$10,000 Fishing tournament lands at Reggae Beach Bar this weekend
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THERE is nothing quite like the thrill of reeling in ‘the big one’, and this Sunday (Nov. 9) families are being invited to the Reggae Beach Bar & Grill to share that experience with the fishermen of St. Kitts-Nevis as they participate in the St. Kitts Sports Fishing Tournament 2008.
“This is going to be a St. Kitts-Nevis fishing tournament with eight fishing boats from St. Kitts and eight boats from Nevis. There will be a total of cash and prizes well over EC $10,000…it is going to be really exciting,” Vernon Springer, Media Consultant for the Reggae Beach Bar, told SKNVibes.
While similar events have been held in the past at Cockleshell Beach, Springer said this year’s tournament was meant to “revitalize” the sport and provide fisherman with an extra source of income during tourism season.
“This is something organizers are trying to make not only an annual event, but perhaps something quarterly to keep the fisherman alive. It is a big sport around the world and it is something during the tourist season that they really want to make a big deal of,” Springer said.
Less than one month ago a similar tournament was held Oualie Beach, with the result being Nevis’ ‘Black Fin’ fishing vessel taking the top prize after reeling in over 250 pounds of Wahoo. Springer said that the boats from St. Kitts will be looking to top this number and take the top prize on their home shore.
“The fishing tournament in Nevis was unrelated, but out of that you can see that the competition has gotten steeper. Anything between St. Kitts and Nevis brings out that friendly rivalry, and this won’t be any different. The Nevis boats are already geared up from that competition, so the guys from St. Kitts are going to have to be at the top of their game if they expect to win.”
Leaving no earlier than 5 a.m. and returning no later than 2 p.m., the sixteen competing boats will be judged for catches of wahoo, dolphin, tuna, kingfish and an ‘others’ category, though no barracuda, shark or “bottom-feeders” will be counted toward their final total.
~~Adz:Left~~Prizes will be given to the first, second and third heaviest overall catches, as well as the first, second and third heaviest individual fish.
Springer said that families are specifically being encouraged to come out to the event, as it will be free and offers a number of entertainment aspects.
“The St. Kitts Sports Fishing Tournament has been dubbed a ‘family day’. It is a day where families will be able to come out and support the local fisherman from both islands, enjoy music from Jazzique and The Music Band and have a chance to win valuable prizes from sponsors like Carib Breweries and Digicel. The entertainment gets started around noon, to get people in the right mood for when the fishermen return.”
Additional sponsors for the event include the Marriott Hotel and Resort, the Ocean Terrace Inn, Fisherman’s Wharf, O. D. Brisbane, Marshall’s, Ottley’s Plantation, Christophe Harbour.
Springer encouraged the general public to support outlier sports like sea fishing because they offer diversity to the usual scene of sport in the Federation.
He also suggested the possibility of fishing boat races off the coast of the Nevis Drag Racing Track as one sport that could grow if the public support of local fisherman can be found.
