Alberta Marlin Fishing Team wins the 54th annual Port Antonio International Marlin Tournament.
Anglers on the Alberta Marlin Fishing Team, hailing from the prairies of Alberta, Canada, have attended the Port Antonio International Marlin Fishing Tournament (PAIMT) for the past 9 years. In 2017, they finally won the whole thing. The winning team was composed of Jack Carvalho, Michael Grant, Allan Mattie, Harry Janderson, Doug Cumberland and Capt. Stanley Carvalho. Their boat, Head First, is a 47-foot Bertram docked at Negril, Jamaica.
"The best thing about the tournament is meeting and having a fun time with all the other fishermen," said angler Doug Cumberland. "Another perk of winning the tournament is that we get an invitation to the Offshore World Championship Tournament in Costa Rica."
Below, a quick overview of the team's daily highlights, provided by angler Doug Cumberland.
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Day 1, October 25
After the official start of the tournament, we headed out to the east of Port Antonio, Jamaica, approximately 3 to 4 miles offshore. We were going into heavy seas and winds, fishing in 6- to 8-foot swells. To add to the elements, we had to fish through a nasty, persistent rainstorm. We finally decided to head west, and before long hooked up to a 15-pound barracuda. That afternoon we also landed four mahi-mahi in the 15-pound range. The fishing day ended at 5 in the afternoon, so we started heading back to the docks at 4 p.m. As we got closer to the port (around 4:45), we hooked a blue marlin. The fight lasted until 5:30 p.m., when our team successfully landed, tagged and released it. The 120-pounder was a great way to end the first day!
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Day 2, October 26
We left port at 6:40 in the morning and headed 8 miles offshore. Straight away, we hooked a couple mahi-mahi in the 15-pound range. Before noon on the second morning, we hooked our second blue marlin of the tournament. The marlin's fight and tenacity lasted 40 minutes. We had trouble holding onto the fish for release, as part of its bill was broken off, but finally got the hook out and tag placed. We caught a few more mahi-mahi in the early afternoon, but around 3 p.m., another blue marlin attacked one of our lures. This smaller one took about a ½ hour to reel in for a successful tag and release. Seas were calm for our second day of fishing.
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Day 3, October 27
We headed out early and motored east, hooking plenty of mahi-mahi while looking for that next marlin bite. Around noon, our team switched up the day's gameplan and we headed west. The move paid off, a marlin soon struck two different lures behind the boat, but it couldn't find the hook. Besides that marlin encounter, we didn't see another marlin on the final day. The tournament ended at 3 p.m. and we headed in. We hoped another team hadn't caught more than our crew over the three days of fishing. At the awards party, we found out we won. Emotions were high to finally win the Port Antonio International Marlin Tournament on our 10th anniversary of attending the event.