FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HOTTEST SAILFISH BITE OF THE SEASON!

2008 ABC/WORLD DIAMOND SOURCE BILLFISH CHALLENGE SETS
NEW RECORD

Total # of Boats – 71 Total
# of Releases – 260

The Sailfish bite in the last
3 years of the ABC/World Diamond Source Billfish Challenge presented by D&D
Welding has been nothing short of astounding.
This past Saturday, February 23rd, the tournament set a new
record as 71 teams posted a total of 260 releases by day’s end.

Whether it’s good timing, the
right weekend, a little bit of luck or a combination of all three, hot
Sailfishing action seems to be the norm in the Billfish Challenge, rather than
the exception. In only three days of
fishing, the tournament boasts a unique one-day format, teams have combined to
release a staggering tally of 694 Sailfish over the past three years. “Evidently the word has spread about our
tournament,” said Jamie Bunn, director of the event. “We were in the company of some of the best
Sailfish teams in the sport and once again the bite was something that our
teams will talk about for a long time to come.”

Within minutes of the 7am
lines in the water announcement, the releases began to pour in to the
tournament radio room. Doubles, triples,
quads, some teams even had 6 fish on at a time.
It was absolute pandemonium on the water. While the fishing appeared to be good up and
down the coastline, the hottest action was in the vicinity of Haulover
Inlet. In the center of it all was the
Miss Costa team, captained by Ray Rosher and his crew - Bill Danko, Rick
Murphy, Alex Castellanos and Charmain Rosher.

By late morning, Rosher’s
team had capitalized on 9 releases and were sitting in 1st
place. However, the leader board was
extremely tight – 4 Aces and Weez in the Keys had also pulled even with Miss
Costa at 9 releases a piece, and several other teams were knocking on the door
with 7 and eight releases as well. By
midday, Rosher elected to pick up and run to the south of the field and
followed the edge they had been fishing all the way into around 80 feet of
water. That proved to be a wise
decision. As quickly as they began
deploying baits, the Sailfish were devouring them behind their boat. “We literally could not even get out a
complete spread,” said Rosher. Within 30
minutes, Rosher’s team had added another 6 releases and secured their 1st
place position with a final tally of 16 releases in the one-day tournament,
earning them nearly $75,000 in prize money.

Second through 5th
place in the tournament were all decided by time. Each team had 10 releases a piece. Captain Joe Turner and his 4 Aces team finished in second earning
$41,100 in prize money, followed by Rock
Star in 3rd, Priceless
in 4th and Weez in the Keys
in 5th. In the funfish
division, Brian Rifkin and his teammates on In
the Box The
tournament paid back over $170,000 in prize money, also a new tournament
record. earned an extra $9,200 for the heaviest funfish weighed in the
tournament – a 43.1 pound Kingfish.

1st Place – Miss Costa – 3200 points - $74,800

2nd Place – 4 Aces – 2000 points – $41,100

3rd Place – Rock Star – 2000 points - $12,640

4th Place – Priceless – 2000 points - $1,250

5th Place – Weez in the Keys – 2000 points - $20,000

The Top Amature team award went to Even Flow by landing 5 sailfish for a total of 1,000 points. Florida Sport Fishings very own Eric Porak reported that they had their first sailfish on after having the baits out for 6 minutes, and were cut off several times by kings as they were only targeting sails.

Team Even Flow consisted of,

Captain - Kevin Crousillat

- Eric Porak

- Brett Porak

- Jim Steel

- Brian Zascavage

- Darrin Penharlow