IGFA Offshore Championship

Field Is Filling Fast

The list of qualified winning teams registered for the world's most prestigious billfish competition --- the IGFA Offshore Championship Tournament (OCT) --- continues to grow.

Long hailed as the “Olympics” of offshore fishing, the International Game Fish Association’s Offshore World Championship stands to grow even larger, thanks to a recently announced partnership with the Bonnier Marine Group

The tenth annual world championship of blue water angling, May 10 - 15, is again expected to host the single largest contingent of international teams ever to compete in a fishing tournament. Tournament officials feel last year's mark of 66 teams from 30 countries might be broken. Teams for the 2009 championship had previously qualified by winning one of 110 IGFA sanctioned events held in 40 countries worldwide during 2008.

Last year a record 517 billfish (503 striped marlin and 14 sailfish) were caught and released making for exciting action for all of the teams. The four daily records were also broken.

World Record Keeping
IGFA maintains and publishes world records for saltwater, freshwater, fly fishing catches, U.S. state freshwater records, and junior angler records, awarding certificates of recognition to each record holder. Recognized as the official keeper of world saltwater fishing records since 1939, IGFA entered the field of freshwater record keeping when Field & Stream transferred its 68 years of records to the association in 1978.

At the IGFA OCT, the teams will fish on a different boat each of the four days for marlin and other billfish, all guided by local captains.

For the latest details and listings of teams, look on the IGFA web site located at www.igfa.org under the fishing tab on the home page and click on "tournaments."

For questions regarding the Rolex/IGFA OCT, contact tournament coordinator Lynda Wilson at wilson@igfa.org, or 954-924-4233.