4 Sails from an Inner Tube!

4 Sails from an Inner Tube!

MOST ANY ANGLER FISHING OFF MIAMI WOULD CONSIDER

releasing four sailfish (and catching a tuna) in a morning an amazing feat, especially if fishing alone. Try doing it from a nonmotorized inner-tube raft!

That — fishing offshore for sailfish, solo on rafts — is just what 17 of the top professional tournament-winning captains did for the second year in a row. In the funky April 26 event, formally titled The Bite TV second annual Miami Raft Invitational Tournament, Capt. Ray Rosher took top honors with 360 points by tagging four sails from his raft, equipped with 16 rod holders and nearly as many rods. Rosher, fishing for Team Penn Reels, also walked away with the winning trophy in last year’s first-ever half-day raft tourney with a phenomenal catch of seven sails.

counting a quad hookup (he landed all four) just after lines out. Second place went to Harry “Cort” Vernon Jr., with Team Capt. Harry’s, who caught three sails for 225 points. In third place: Matt Neber of Team Contender, who also tallied three sailfish. Standings were determined by points based on a number of parameters, including number of sailfish released; properly tagging before release added more points, as did the use of circle hooks. Also counted in point totals: “fun fish” (by weight), such as tuna and snapper. All teams put up $1,000 to participate

and Team Miss Britt gave the Youth Fishing Foundation a $2,000 donation to celebrate its win. To see more of this unique event, visit www.thebite.tv.

NATURAL-GAS TECHNOLOGY THREATENS GULF FISHERIES
Controversy continues to swirl among northern Gulf of Mexico states over the permitting of liquefied natural gas terminals that would employ an inexpensive but environmentally destructive heating system known as open-loop technology. The issue flared like gas burn-off at an oil platform last year when the U.S. government granted Shell Oil a permit to build an open-loop plant despite warnings from its own fisheries scientists that the risk to the Gulf’s ecosystem and valuable fisheries was too great. Now more companies are seeking such permits — most recently McMoRan Exploration to build a plant 16 miles off Louisiana — and that, says Coastal Conservation Association (www.join cca.org) communications director Ted Venker, “has Gulf Coast anglers very concerned — and a bit angry since open-loop technology is not employed