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ADVENTURES OF THE RUM BUM, PART II
By WILLIAM KEARNEY
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Nomadic sport fishing vessel earns big points in Bahamas, Bermuda, St. Thomas tourneys
In our last issue we profiled a nomadic sport fishing
vessel, the Rum Bum, and its crew as they set out for
a summer at sea. I last saw them in May, fishing the
Bertram-Hatteras Shootout, their final Bahamian tournament
before embarking to Bermuda. In the four months since then
their pursuit of billfish has taken them from the Bahamas,
north to Bermuda, south to St. Thomas, then north again to
Puerto Rico. Billfish tournaments volley from island to island
as fish populations congregate in different areas at different
times of year. This offers an ambitious itinerary for anyone
willing and able to spend the bulk of the year on the water.
Luis Bacardi, the Rum Bum’s owner, and his crew have made
it a tradition. 2006 has been no exception. During that time
they fished various tournaments for the Bahamas Billfish
Championship (BBC), the Bermuda Triangle Series (BTS),
the Bermuda Triple Crown and the Atlantic Blue Marlin
Tournament (ABMT). All told, they’ve logged 5,000 miles at
sea during the summer.
TO BERMUDA
After a seventh place showing at the Bertram-Hatteras
Shootout Tournament in the Bahamas all thoughts turned to
Bermuda and her steep, fertile banks. Normally, sport fishing
boats follow the eastern seaboard to Cape Hatteras and resupply
before making the relatively short jump to Bermuda.
The Rum Bum is one of a handful of boats willing to run to
Bermuda directly from the Bahamas. That’s an 835-mile
run. That means 74 hours straight at nine knots to conserve
fuel. Once there, Bacardi, Captain Jim “Jimbo” O’Neill and
mates Sean Williams, Sean Albury and Andre Pepin fished
five tournaments in one month. The points in the Bermuda
tournaments were for releases, so the team focused on
numbers of fish, not size. With that in mind the boat didn’t
target granders (fish weighing more than 1,000 pounds) in the
pass between Challenger Bank and Argus Bank, but rather
stuck to edges where O’Neill had seen consistent catches
over the years. “I’ve been fishing Bermuda for the past five
years and we’ve always done well,” said O’Neill. During the
years, he’s spent a good bit of time watching local charters
and observing different spots.
“I feel very comfortable there.
For this series I stayed in my
area and stuck to my instincts.
You run around too much
you miss the right part of the
tide.” O’Neill’s strategy paid
off. While in Bermuda the
Rum Bum won the Bermuda
Triple Crown, consisting of
the Billfish Blast (second
place), Big Game Classic
(first place with four blue
marlin and two whites) and the
Seahorse Anglers Club Billfish
Tournament. All told, the Rum
Bum released five blues and
five whites for the series.
ST. THOMAS
After its grand success in Bermuda, the Rum Bum made
another demanding run down to St. Thomas in the Virgin
Islands for the US Virgin Islands (USVI) Open/Atlantic
Blue Marlin Tournament, also known as the Boy Scout
Tournament.
The 860-mile run from Bermuda took four days and
included an unpleasant run-in with a tropical depression,
replete with 10-14-foot swells. After 80 hours at sea, the
crew was glad to see the hills of St. Thomas. In the end it was
worth it. “What’s special about St. Thomas is the quantity
of fish,” said Bacardi. “You might get six to eight shots a
day. It’s also more of a party tournament. It’s a good time.”
As it turned out, the Rum Bum was able to entice five fish
to the surface during the first day, but had no hook-ups.
In the end, they took seventh place in the tournament but,
more importantly, Albury took the top angler award for the
St. Thomas leg of the Bermuda Triangle Series with three
blue marlin to his credit. In doing so he won an Ed Pang gold
pendant in the shape of an ancient bone hook. The pendant
for each triangle series location has a different precious stone
inlay. In three years on the BTS, Albury has collected both a
ruby (Bermuda) and diamond (St. Thomas) inlayed hook, and
Bacardi has won a diamond. Proceeds from the BTS go to
youth organizations on all three islands. An added bonus to the
Rum Bum’s far-reaching travels to St. Thomas was that the boat
placed third overall in the Bermuda Triangle Series.
AUTUMN AND BEYOND
To round out the end of the summer, the Rum Bum’s next
stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico for the Club Nautico San Juan
International Billfish Tournament, Aug. 27-Sept. 2. It was a
two-week stay in Puerto Rico. At the time of this writing, the
results for the tournament were not available.
Plans beyond that include a run down to Venezuela for
the Presidential Caribbean Tournament in La Guaira. Once
in South America, they’ll be fishing for blue marlin, white
marlin, sails and even swordfish, which feed diurnally off the
Venezuelan coast. Because
of the numbers of aggressive
white marlin that congregate off
Venezuela in the fall, doubledigit
releases are possible, with
the record being 30 in a single
day.
After Venezuela, things
will really start to get
ambitious. In late autumn, the
Rum Bum will dry-dock for
repairs while Bacardi and a
mate fly to Australia, charter
a boat and scout locations
for a Rum Bum adventure
down under. Once a plan is in
place, the Rum Bum will be
shipped via freighter. Then it’s
10 months down under. The
general plan, based on prior
fishing trips, will be to start in March near Sydney, then work
north to the Barrier Reef. Bacardi and the crew hope to shoot
several episodes of “The Bite” fishing show in the southern
hemisphere before returning home some time in late 2007.
After that, who knows? Bacardi is looking to develop and
run tournaments in the Bahamas and Bermuda, and possibly
Cuba if and when it opens up. His main goal, though, is to
create low-impact release tournaments. “We want to shy away
from hand held cameras because the cameras get in the way
of the fish surviving,” says Bacardi. “The fish needs to be on
the hook longer for you to take pictures for an actual release.
You figure you keep the fish up for an extra two minutes.” The
solution, according to Bacardi, lies in technology. Wireless
cameras linked to satellites will allow judges to watch in
real time for verification. Size will be irrelevant. Once a
crew leaders a fish, they set it free. The survival rate will be
excellent, says Bacardi. As he sees it, billfish have the majesty
to inspire a way of life, and he wants to keep it that way.
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