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Rod Van Saun with his better part Kate will introduce us to the Alaskan way to running a tournament.
Rod runs a fishing charter business up in those rather "cool" waters of Alaska and we anticipate that he will run a very 'Hot' tournament for us Ixtapa.
It will be only a few short months before you see the applications in your mailbox.
We thank Rod and Kate for stepping up to organize what is clearly one of the most premier tournaments in the world.
February 2-9, 2008
The 2008 tournament was chaired by Brian Hill and his wife Corie. With special consideration to Kelsie, Jake, Paige and Wesly for outstanding support.
TAA thanks Brian and Corie for stepping forward and taking on the responsibility of running a flawless tournament. It was a family affair this year, as all members of the family helped.
Congratulations on both a job well done and also for Brian being the Grand Champion for 2008 IST.
The 18th annual TAA Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament was again hosted at the beautiful Hotel Dorado Pacifico in Ixtapa, Mexico, February 2-9, 2008.
The excitement was building as 34 anglers and 26 guests from the United States and Costa Rica gathered at the Dorado Pacifico to begin our week long event that included four days of angling competition.
The opening night banquet showed off the wonderful prize table assembled by Co-Chairman, Captain Rod Van Saun of Ninilchik, Alaska. With the help of our many fine sponsors the prize table included product from Costa Del Mar, Shimano, G.Loomis, Iland Lures, Ande Line Company and Hook & Tackle. Our top four anglers this year received trophy’s generously provided by Gray Taxidermy of Miami.
Recent fishing reports showed very good action for sailfish and marlin in the weeks leading up to our event. Favorable sea conditions greeted our anglers as they headed out of Zihuatanejo Bay early Monday morning.
The fishing started slowly on the first day with 1 Marlin, 5 Sailfish and 3 Dorado tipped by our anglers. Our Day 1 leader was Brian Hill with 250 points. The first fish of the tournament was tipped by Steve Davis.
Day 2 was a slight improvement with 8 Sailfish and 1 Dorado.
Each day anglers reported seeing lots of sailfish, a tremendous number of porpoise and lots of bait, but for whatever reason the fish were not on the bite.
Day 3 continued our improving trend with 13 Sailfish and 8 Dorado.
The positive thing about the low fish count was that the tournament was anyone’s to win going into the fourth day. A few fish could put an angler and their team into the running, and a big day could put you right on top.
Day 4…that elusive “Hot Bite” did not materialize and our final day ended with our lowest fish count of the week with 3 Sailfish and 4 Dorado. The last fish of the event was tipped by Mike Leech.
The Captain’s award party was held at the El Mirador restaurant at the pier in Zihuatanejo. Lamiglas rods were awarded to each daily high point Captain. The rods went to Leonardo on Fish On, Jaime on the Albatros received two, and Alex on Esturion. Jaime was also awarded a pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses for being the top Captain of the tournament.
Judy Franich was recognized at the angler’s award banquet by Steve Davis for her 100th tournament billfish release.
The 2008 TAA Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament team for the IGFA Offshore World Championship held in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico will be Brian Hill, Mike Leech, Dale Miles and Judy Franich.
Take a guy that fishes for a living and let him run a tournament, your results will be nothing less than spectacular. Rumor has it that Mike was the idea guy and Jerilue was the deal closer. With the combined touch of these two, everyone who ever heard of the Ixtapa Sailfish Tournamnent had a great time.
There is a tremendous amount of work that starts months prior to the tournament, in a foreign country that has to all come together. Mike and Jerilue did a first class job at running this premier tournament.
The TAA extends it's gratitude for taking on such an enormous responsibility and delivering wonderful results.
Thank you
2007 Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament
Alan Molle-Champion, Richard Schwager 2nd, Kelly Schulzke 3rd, Smokey Molle 4th
1/31/07
Zihuatanejo, Mexico
January 13-20, 2007
The 16th annual TAA Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament started out with 50 anglers boarding their boats at the starting pier in Zihuatanejo the morning of January 15th. The anglers were excited with anticipation of hooking up with a dancing sailfish.
Judy Franich started things off with landing our first sailfish of the tournament, with Suzzette Cohen landing the last one 5 days later.
Fishing started off slow after the first day with a total of 8 sails landed, 42 anglers coming back with no fish landed.
John Jackson topped the leader board after day 1 with 2 sails landed worth 300 points. An additional 6 anglers followed John’s effort with points on the board. The next day saw 2 additional anglers, Judy Franich and Alan Molle catching John Jackson for a 3 way tie for 1st place at the end of Day 2. Day 3 saw 2 of the previous days leaders dropping out of the running with Alan Molle holding onto a slim lead. Day 4, the last day saw Trisha Bothmer landing the only marlin of our tournament; weighing approximately 200 lbs., caught on 20# Ande tournament grade line.
Fishing improved each day of the tournament, although generally slow when compared to past tournaments. We landed 76 sails, 1 Marlin and 12 Dorado. This number represents a reduction of 33% in sails landed from the previous year. Many opportunities were missed when several fish hit like a freight train leaving anglers staring at circle hooks with a head.
At the end of day 4, Alan Molle’s name kept coming up as the likely winner as angler’s found their way to the captain’s awards party at the pier after a tough day of fishing. As Alan Molle returned with his score sheet verifying his 3 fish catch and high point daily score the mystery of the winner of the 2007 Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament was over. Alan Molle had just confirmed his place in the Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament history for 2007.
The only question left was who would be the 3 anglers joining Alan Molle on the 2008 Offshore World Championship Team. As the last anglers trickled in from a long day of fishing the scorekeeping team, headed up by Linda Veninga kept the results under wraps. Everyone would have to wait for the results to be announced at the Awards Banquet, later that evening.
With rods being given out by GLoomis and reels by Shimano, there was a lot of interest in placing well in this tournament.
The awards banquet served up our 4th place team of Trisha Bothmer and Craig Cohen, Richard Zeigler and Bill Crozier in 3rd, Kelly Schulzke and Richard Schwager in 2nd and Sam Nottage and Alan Molle in 1st.
Our IGFA Offshore World Championship qualifying team had a really tight race for the last 3 places with 10 points separating 2nd and 4th place. Both Smokey Molle and Kelly Schulzke had the same amount of points but Kelly won on time for a 3rd place finish. Smokey finished in 4th place. Richard Schwager slid into 2nd place, edging out Smokey and Kelly by 10 points. Alan Molle, Smokey’s son increased his lead after day 3 to take the championship.
As always, the Dorado Pacifico Hotel in Ixtapa handled our banquet and rooming needs with perfection. What a great place to stay in Ixtapa!
Next years tournament will be February 2 – 9, 2008.
TAA secretary Steve Davis honors Smokey Molle at the 2007 Ixtapa Sailfish Tournament for releasing 250 lifetime billfish.
Smokey has been an influential part of establishing TAA and the preservation of billfish through the catch and release program.
Congratulations Smokey
