Manteo, North Carolina: Desperado ain’t out riding fences no more. The Manteo-based charter boat, a 56-foot Taylor Harrison run by Capt. Rob Barker, went wire to wire to win the 36th annual Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament. The team added a confirmed blue marlin and sailfish on Friday to accrue 1,000 points overall, good for a […]
Manteo, North Carolina: The Wright Brothers must have been billfishermen, too. The two aviation pioneers used a strong westerly wind to gain enough lift to launch their flimsy aeroplane from dunes at nearby Kitty Hawk many years ago. A strong west win also benefitted the 70 boats fishing Friday in the last day of the […]
Manteo, North Carolina: Mother Nature put on quite the show for the participants of the 36th annual Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament Thursday. Sheets of rain, ominous clouds and bolts of lightning were the backdrop for most of the day for those remaining ashore. The fleet had to ease through nasty weather as they got closer […]
Manteo, North Carolina: And on Wednesday, the fleet rested. Only one boat, Due South, opted to fish on Wednesday and with no billfish releases, the overall standings didn’t change. The format for the PCBT calls for a single declared lay day amongst the four total fishing days, so barring any mechanical or other unexpected issues, […]
Manteo, North Carolina: In tournament venues, boats like to show others what they accomplished that day. In big-game circles, that’s done by flying capture flags off the outrigger lanyards as they return to their slips to indicate how many fish were caught. For sailfish, it’s a white flag with the distinctive silhouette of the sail […]
Manteo, North Carolina: To survive and thrive for more than three decades, a special event has to be…special. Such is the case for the Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament, celebrating its 36th season this year. Long known as one of the premier stops on the big-game circuit, a stroll around the tournament pavilion during Monday’s registration […]
Builder’s Choice definitely made a lasting impression in the 35th annual Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament. Angler Harris Huddle and his team put a 911-pound blue marlin on the dock on Tuesday, the first day of fishing, and never looked back. That blue, combined with a white marlin release the same day, vaulted the New Bern […]
Medical experts define obsessive-compulsive disorder as ritualized, repetitive behavior a person feels compelled to perform. There were all kinds of OCD types running through Oregon Inlet this week, but on Friday, the last day of competition in the 35th annual PCBT, Obsession led the fleet. Capt. Jeff Ross and his crew aboard the 55 Sheldon […]
Thursday’s leaderboard needed a big Magic Eraser as several boats scored releases to inch up only to be replaced a short while later. But at the end of the day that tallied 71 billfish among the 68 boats fishing, one name remained solidly in first place: Builder’s Choice. The 64 Jarrettt Bay and its New […]
Seventy-one billfish releases on light tackle is a pretty darn good day at most big-game destinations. But for the middle of August, off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, those numbers are just a tad off the norm. Several boats took advantage of their opportunities, however, and racked up some needed points on the leaderboard. They had […]