The 44th anniversary of the New Orleans Invitational Billfish Tournament proved to be an exciting one for Allen Stuart and his Wild Hooker team. They made the most of their time at sea during the event, successfully tagging and releasing three blue marlin to nail down first place. In second was Lee LeBoeuf’s Psyco Fin team. They had one blue marlin, two white marlin and a sailfish, all tagged and released. Third place fell to Jay Lauricella’s Duke with a pair of blue marlin released. Lee LeBoeuf was awarded the Judge Leander Perez Cup, the tournament’s most prestigious trophy, as the event’s top angler. He released a blue marlin and two white marlin aboard Psyco Fin. Maddie Giambelluca was the top lady angler and Max Barberito was the top junior.
The participating boats found good fishing conditions approximately 54 miles from South Pass, Louisiana, during the tournament, where they collectively released 12 blue marlin, four white marlin and one sailfish. The New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club hosted a silent auction for The Billfish Foundation and also committed to sponsoring a satellite tag for TBF’s upcoming blue marlin satellite tagging project held at Port Eads later this summer.
