By Bob Blum

Aruba  (October 22-26, 2015)

There is a lot of focus on the tournaments in Cabo san Lucas, but I was recently an official observer in a different kind of tournament in Aruba. This was a billfish release tournament .Four person teams on 21 boats caught 67 billfish over three days—17 blue marlin, 37 white marlin and 13 sailfish.

 

The first, second ,and fourth place teams were all members of the same local  Arubian family. The fourth place team was the most interesting. It was entirely women.  I don’t know how they were related,  but they all had the same last name. Each day they showed up in matching outfits.  Hat shirt, and shorts were the same color- first pink, then purple, and then blue. Hats and shirts had their team name—Reel Teasers. In addition they had pink rods and reels.

A father or uncle or husband drove their boat, but they did not have a deckhand. On the first day they had a quadruple hookup on white marlin, and managed to leader and release three of them.  I wish I had seen it.

 

Aruba is a lovely island. It is 20 miles long and 6 miles wide at the widest. Compare that to Catalina which is 22 miles long and 8 miles wide at the widest. Catalina has 4,000 residents. Aruba has over 100,000 residents all of whom speak four languages—English, Spainish, Dutch, and the local language-Papiamento.  Catalina has a small airport. Aruba has an international airport that handles about 100 flights a week –half of which come from Europe or South America.  Venezuela is only 18 miles away.

 

I took the observer course sponsored by IGFA several years ago. This was the second tournament that I attended.  Tournaments in the Caribbean in Puerto Rico, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic use observers as do Pacific tournaments in Costa Rica, Guatamala,  .and El Salvador.  It is an inexpensive way to see interesting places.  For the tournament in Aruba I paid $129 for four nights in the the  Aruba Renaissance Hotel including all meals and an open bar. I had to pay my airfare but flew on frequent flier miles.It is interesting to see how people fish in different places.