|
IT WAS ‘TEAM RELEASE’ ALL THE WAY AT THE
SOLERA OPEN INTERNATIONAL LA GUAIRA BILLFISH SHOOTOUT
La Guaira, Venezuela, March 12th, 2006 – Anglers Jaime
Riveiro, Luis Millan Jr and David Benzaken, fishing aboard the 51’ Riviera,
Release, with Captain Luis ‘Loro’ Millan jumped out to an early lead on day
one with four blue marlin and never looked back during the prestigious all
release Solera Open International La Guaira Billfish Shootout held in La
Guaira March 7th thru 12th. By the end of the third and final day, Team
Release had amassed a total of 4,700 points with nine blue marlin plus one
sailfish releases in the three days of competition marking the first time in
its twelve year history that the Shootout is won by a local Venezuelan team.
Despite strong challenges on day 3 from the local anglers aboard Adelina who
released 3 blues and 2 sails on the final day placing them second in the
overall team standings with a final tally of 3,400 points and the Puerto
Rican team aboard Mojito who scored a thousand points on day three to finish
third with a total of 3,000 points for the 6 blues they released during the
event, Team Release managed to hold on comfortably even though they only
caught one blue on that last day.
The blue marlin action in this year’s Solera Open Shootout was fast and
furious where every tournament boat, without exception, competing with the
official tournament line Sufix Supreme released at least two blues during
the tournament, for a final per boat average of almost five blues. This is
the second best per boat blue marlin average in the history of the 12 year
old event and is only exceeded by the 6.4 blues per boat average recorded in
the record breaking 1999 Shootout when a total of 256 blues were released in
3 days aboard 40 boats.
In the individual angler category there was another first for Venezuela with
one of their favorite sons taking top honors for the first time in Shootout
history. Luis Millan Jr of Team Release posted an impressive point total of
3,500 points releasing five blues. He was followed by anglers Massimo Ortisi
also from Venezuela fishing aboard Adelina with 2,200 points resulting from
4 blues and a sail, and American Larry I’anson fishing aboard Guarimba with
2,000 points for the 4 blues he released.
There was yet another first for Venezuela in this year’s Shootout. In the
annual softball game played on the lay-day pitting Venezuela vs All
Visitors, Venezuela prevailed for the first time in the 3 year tradition
crushing the Visitors by a score 14 to 4. The game had to be called on
account of lack of equipment after the Venezuelans knocked all game balls
out of the park with several consecutive home runs!!! We’ll see what happens
next year . . . Special thanks go out to our Title Sponsors for making sure
nobody went thirsty during the game and the entire tournament for that
matter by providing plenty of Solera Premium Beer, Pepsi, 7UP, Gatorade and
Minalva Bottled Water. Also, special thanks are in order to angler Luis
Angel Rincon, owner of Mango Marina and his staff for hosting and making the
Pirates of the Caribbean Rum Bash held on the night before the game, another
tremendous success. Maybe the visitors partied a little too much at the Rum
Bash and that’s why they were so badly defeated the next day?
Mark your calendars for the upcoming Venezuelan International Super Slam
scheduled for September 27th thru October 2nd. The tournament promises to be
another great one. Observers interested in participating please contact
Michelle Zelones at bluefin@usa.com or 561 310 3474. For charter boats
contact FishQuest Sportfishing Adventures at 1 888 891 3474 (from outside
the U.S. 706 896 1403). For dockage please email info@intlbillfishtourns.com.
Register online at www.intlbillfishtourns.com. We look forward to the
pleasure of your company. |
