Team Australia Captain Lachlan Sommerville, right, with teammate Chris Yanckello and the winning 317 pound marlin. Photo: Marshalls Billfish Club.
The biggest marlin of the two-day All-Micronesia Fishing Tournament was caught last Saturday within two hours of the shotgun early morning start.
At 317 pounds, the marlin caught by Team Australia was not challenged by any other team over the two days of fishing last weekend. Team Australia captain was Lachlan Sommerville and the boat captain was Rudy Aliven.
The second place marlin weighed in at 294 pounds and was caught by Team RMI 2 captained by Wally Milne.
Third place marlin, a 202 pound fish, went to Team Rota captained by Jaynard White with Kenneth Kramer the boat captain.
No records were broken but plenty of fish, including six qualifying marlin, were caught by the 18 teams competing.
The 34 pound barracuda caught by Team South Africa Captain Steve Sharp with boat Captain Brian Kirk was big enough to move into fourth place in the all-time All Micronesia record book. The team also pocketed a $300 cash award from angler John Murphy put up for the biggest qualifying barracuda. John owns the MBC record barracuda catch set in 2006 when he caught a 49 pounder.
Team Budweiser 2 captained by Jeff Espinosa caught the top three wahoo — 30 pounds for the biggest — on Kirtaki captained by Ronnie Reimers.
Team RMI 1 captained by Danny Paul reeled in the largest tuna of the tourney at 86 pounds. Team Chuuk led by Robol Mori with boat Captain Jerry Nathan caught the second place tuna at 68 pounds and Team Moloelap captained by John Aister caught the third place tuna at 52 pounds on Li-Manbwini.
