Day Three of the 2022 Offshore World Championship saw a shakeup of the leaderboard, as the team representing the Torneio de Peixes de Bico 2021 tournament was bumped from first place, a spot they held since the event began. The new leaders, representing the 2002 Offshore World Champion team, released eight sailfish on Day Three to boost their overall total to 5,787.2 points. The team of John Lloyd, Rudolph Jessey, James Scott Laney, Buddy Moore and Frank Schaaf also has the tournament’s heaviest dorado at 58.4 pounds.
Dropping to second place is the Brazil-based team of Eliseu Soares, Rogerio Andrade and Eurico Soares, representing the Torneio de Peixes de Bico 2021 tournament. They had a pair of sailfish releases on Day Three plus a critical blue marlin release, worth 500 points, to hold down second place with 5,729.6 points. A strong finish today could see them holding the champion’s trophy on Friday night.
Perhaps the surprise of the tournament so far is the team from Croatia representing the Big Game Komiza 2019 tournament. Anglers Luciano Bernardini de Pace, Andrea Burgazzi and Roberto Martone moved into third place overall with 5,000 points, releasing 20 sailfish and two blue marlin in three days of fishing, with 12 sailfish releases on Day Three alone. Don’t count out this experienced group.
After three days, the field of 37 teams and 163 anglers, representing 18 nationalities, has collectively released 519 billfish: 470 sailfish, 48 blue marlin and one striped marlin. That’s an average of 14 billfish per team. One day of competition remains, with the awards presentation Friday evening.
