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38^th BBC Season Starts April 27^th

With only three weeks until the start of the 2011 Bahamas Billfish Championship series, the BBC office is getting increased reports of good billfish activity in both Abaco and Eleuthera. Mitch Roffer's forecast called for increased billfish activity as the 'blue marlin water' moves into the Central Bahamas and that seems to be occurring.

Stephen Kappeler at Cape Eleuthera reports that four blue marlin were released in Exuma Sound ("right out front") over the last weekend in March. When asked about fishing off of Harbour Island, Capt. Rich Helmuth on the Wani Kanati said, "The marlin fishing here has been OK, to be honest. Just about every day, one of the boats catches a blue or white. And that's while everyone is desperately trying to catch yellow fin tuna."

Capt. Bill Diamond aboard Deguello says that, in general, fishing has been improving steadily over the last two weeks around Abaco. Buck Autrey on the Bet-A-Buc released a white over the past weekend fishing out of Treasure Cay. Capt. Joe Trainer released a blue off Guana aboard the Over Under and former BBC Champion, Don McKinney released three white marlin aboard Double Dog off the Hope Town lighthouse.

Meanwhile, the BBC office is busy processing last-minute registrations and entries. All 'Permits to Conduct a Sportfishing Tournament' have been secured from the Government of The Bahamas. The trophies, T-shirts and 'goodie bags' are ready for shipment to Abaco and final headcounts are being tabulated for the host resorts.

If you are planning to fish and have not yet registered, time is running out quickly. Use the online registration forms for secure, quick and convenient registration and entry for any of the BBC tournaments that you wish to fish. Don't miss your chance to be a part of the BBC 'action' this spring.

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ROFFS Bahamas March 23-31, 2011.mp4

In the March BBC e-Update, we published Mitch Roffer's annual BBC Fishing Forecast in its entirety. Since its publication, the "blue marlin water" is moving as predicted. Here is the latest update from ROFFS.

To the right is ROFFS™ infrared (sea surface temperature) movie of daily satellite images (March 23-31, 2011) for the Bahamas. Note the warmer (redder) "blue marlin water" is being pulled northward from Mayaguana area toward San Salvador and north by a clockwise rotating eddy that is north of San Salvador and east of Eleuthera.
     Some of the blue marlin water is being pulled westward toward Eleuthera, but most is being pulled northward by a counter-clockwise eddy. Some of this water is moving toward Abaco.    

ROFFS Bahamas 23-31, 2011 larger vi

From the Mayaguana area some of the blue marlin water is also moving northward to Eleuthera between Long Island and The Exumas improving the blue marlin action in Exuma Sound and off Cape Eleuthera. See www.roffs.com for more details on Bahamas billfish forecasting.

The Bahamas Billfish Championship provides a unique sponsorship opportunity to marine related business entities by providing a captive platform for visibility to a niche market of the world's top billfish anglers and crews.  More importantly to us is that our sponsors help offset the continuing rising costs of producing five world class billfish tournaments in The Bahamas.

Our 2011 major sponsors (in alphabetical order) are Abaco Gold, Al Behrendt Marine Group, Allied Marine,  Bertram Yacht, Caterpillar Marine Power Systems, Geoffrey Smith Galleries, Gulfstream International Airlines, Hatteras Yachts, HMY Yacht Sales, International Special Risks, Lewis Marine Group, Murray Products, Smith Merritt Insurance, Steve T. Goione and Viking Yachts.

Prize sponsors that also add more value to your fishing experience are Alexseal, Bahamian Brewery Beverage Co. Ltd., Black Bart Lures, BoatMat, IGFA, LMR Tackle of Ft. Lauderdale, RJ Boyle Studios, Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Treasure Cay Services and WBS. And a major 'Thank You' goes to R. J. Boyle of Lighthouse Point for providing the 2011 BBC tee shirt artwork.

We encourage your support of these companies and the products and services that they represent.

To all of our sponsors, we say, Thank You!

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An "I Told You So" Recovery

    This tag recovery is going to make some south Florida fishermen feel vindicated, while I have to listen to some "I told you so" phone calls. 

    It has finally happened. Nine years into this study and there is an apparent southerly movement exhibited by a dolphin off southeast Florida. The existence of a fall southerly migration by dolphin off south Florida has been a point of discussion with numerous fishermen for many years. My position has been that the recapture data did not support their hypothesis. However, I cannot readily explain away this movement.

   This important, though somewhat confusing piece of information had its beginning off Miami, Florida, on March 5, 2011. This was a day when Capt. Bouncer Smith tagged and released 11 dolphin during one of his charter trips aboard his boat Bouncer's Dusky. On March 22, 2011, Capt. Richard Houde recovered the tagged fish due south of Key West, Florida, during a charter fishing trip aboard his boat Southbound. The tagged-fish remained at liberty for only 17 days before biting another baited hook.

      To read the complete Dolphin Research Newsletter, click here.