Fisher Price, kneeling at far right, holds his winning 29.6 pound dolphin fish (mahi-mahi) after weighing in at IGY’s American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook, St. Thomas, during the annual Dolphin Derby tournament. Price earned the tournament’s Top Angler award while fishing aboard “Total Disorder” with, from left, Kai Holmberg, Mike Keller, Capt. Nathan Gatcliffe and Jonathan Gatcliffe.
Fisher Price, kneeling at far right, holds his winning 29.6 pound dolphin fish (mahi-mahi) after weighing in at IGY’s American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook, St. Thomas, during the annual Dolphin Derby tournament. Price earned the tournament’s Top Angler award while fishing aboard “Total Disorder” with, from left, Kai Holmberg, Mike Keller, Capt. Nathan Gatcliffe and Jonathan Gatcliffe.
ST. THOMAS — The catch of a 29.6-pound dolphin fish (mahi-mahi) earned St. Thomas’ Fisher Price the Top Angler prize in Sunday’s annual Dolphin Derby tournament.
Fishing aboard the St. Thomas-based 42-foot KSB, “Total Disorder,” with Capt. Nathan Gatcliffe at the helm, Price caught his winning fish trolling south of St. Thomas in the annual tournament hosted by the Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club.
“It was just after noon when we saw two birds overhead and the fish in the water,” Price said. “At first, we couldn’t get them to eat. Then we started chumming to get them up to the back of the boat. Once we did that, we had our best luck of the day.”
Price’s catch was 25.6 pounds short of the 55-plus-pounds needed to win the top prize of $25,000, but he didn’t go home empty-handed.
In other angler awards, St. Croix’s Cai Claeys finished second with the catch of a 22.9-pound dolphin fish from aboard “Lone Star Lady,” while St. Thomas’ Mike Keller reeled in the third-place award with his 22.0-pound catch.
The Top Boat award went to St. Croix’s “Reel Lucky,” a 43-foot Invincible, which finished with a total catch of 88.3 pounds of dolphin fish.
“We worked our way from St. Croix trolling the whole way, catching double and even a triple header,” said St. Croix’s Ed Jarrin, Reel Lucky’s owner and one of the tournament anglers. “It’s a new boat, and I think we broke her in properly.”
In total, 13 boats from St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and Puerto Rico fished the tournament, landing 23 dolphin fish weighing 344.8 pounds.
Personnel from the USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources’ Division of Fish and Wildlife served as weighmasters.
Next, the VIGFC will host its annual Kids’ Fishing Tournament on Oct. 4 and the Wahoo Windup on Nov. 2. In addition, the Club will host the following seminars at its clubhouse in Red Hook, St. Thomas: June 7, Fishing 101–Billfish; Sept. 13, Lionfish Seminar; and Sept. 27, Fishing 101–Kids Edition.
