The 4th Annual Barta Boys and Girls Club Billfish Tournament came down to the wire for the 2nd year in a row. With 123 boats fishing, Outlaw, owned and captained by Ken Miller out of Hatteras, had the lead after the first day with Blue Marlin and Sailfish releases. By 11am on day two ,they fell into second place when the Miss Marilyn owned and captained by Todd Saieed had three releases in just one hour.
Frequent Flyer, last year's winner captained by Glynn Loftin, was biting at their heels with two releases by 9:30 a.m. With only two fishing hours left Outlaw released its fourth fish at 12:30 p.m., followed by Frequent Flyer's third Release at 1:07 p.m. and Miss Marilyn's fourth release during the final minutes of the tournament.
Based on time, Outlaw sealed the tournament with a first-place win followed by Miss Marilyn and Frequent Flyer. The top three Jr. Angler winners were J.D. Carter aboard the Frequent Flyer with three releases, Evan Berk on the Ablemarlin with two releases and Hank Boughman on the Marlin Fever with two releases. Top trophy Jr. Angler winners in the game fish division were James Freeman aboard the Jim Dandy with a 62.5lb Wahoo, Ross Leonard fishing the Early Dawn with a 23.1lb Dolphin, Wen Murphy fishing on the Bluewater out of Hampton, Va. with a 15.2lb Tuna and Andrew Kerekes on the SeaKer with a 22.5lb King Mackerel.
The fleet released a total of 47 billfish with 79% of those fish released by Jr. Anglers. Five of the billfish were released by 7 year olds! At the end of the tournament, Capt. Tred Barta said, "This tournament is all about giving back and this year the tournament raised another $100,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coastal Carolina".
This brings the total amount given in just four years to over $400,000, impressive for a $500 entry fee, trophy-only tournament.
