La Romana, D.R.
July, 2018
One of the longest and most exciting fishing seasons of Marina Casa de Campo closed with 972 Blue Marlin releases out of 1,435 strikes in 131 fishing days. Apart from the excellent Blue Marlin season there were 29 White Marlin releases out of 36 total strikes, an exceptional Sailfish run with 138 releases out of 225 strikes and 35 Swordfish out of 45 total strikes.
This fishing season started earlier than usual, since we had Betsy, Bandolera, Doña Lucy, Reel Development and Natural fishing the FADs since mid December 2017, closing that half month with 12 Blue Marlin releases, 66 Sailfish out of 104 strikes and 1 Swordfish captured by Bandolera. The star of the season was Natural and her captain Chuck Gregory with 38 releases out of 60 strikes in this month and breaking the single day Billfish release record of Marina Casa de Campo, with 29 Sailfish out of 45 strikes on December 17th.
The preseason continued in January of 2018 with a total of 21 boats fishing and closed with 88 Blue Marlin releases out of 128 strikes, something never before seen in any of our seasons. One of the most exciting days was January 24th when Da’ Bait released 8 Blue Marlins out of 13 strikes. The Sailfish were still hot during this month that closed with 56 releases out of 79 strikes. The Natural continued attacking the Sailfish and released 31 out of 51 with one Blue Marlin during this month, Legal Drug and Bandolera released 10 and 12 respectively.
In February the marina broke its record with 35 boats fishing. The total of Blue Marlin releases in 28 days was 179 out of 263, 7 White Marlins, 16 Sailfish and 5 Swordfish. In the beginning of this month, specifically the 2nd of February, Black Gold had one of the top days, releasing 16 Sailfish out of 25 strikes. That same day Builders Choice caught a 160 pound Yellow fin Tuna and Vitamin Sea caught a 137 pound Yellow fin Tuna, two days later Paco Vela caught a 237 pound Swordfish.
March, one of the peak seasons of the season, did not disappoint this year closing with 461 Blue Marlin releases out of 668 strikes, 16 White Marlin, 10 Sailfish and 15 Swordfish. In this month we held our successful fishing tournament Marina Casa de Campo Open, with 19 boats signed up. 42 billfish releases in total out of 56 strikes, out of which 36 were Blue Marlins, 4 White Marlin and 2 Sailfish in two fishing days. In the second version of the tournament, the boat from North Carolina, Builders Choice (64′ Jarrett Bay) was crowned champion, Auspicious (80 Viking) got second place and Intents (62′ Viking) got third place. March was also the month of the cup, with its new format of choosing the best 10 fishing days of each competing boat, breaking the participation record with 17 boats competing. During the first 15 days of the cup 133 Blue Marlins were released.
April came with a lot of expectations. The fifth version of the Casa de Campo Blue Marlin Classic was held in this month in which 12 boats signed up. Mama Who (77′ Jarrett Bay) was crowned champion, Business Stinks (72, Merritt) got second place and Builders Choice (64 Jarrett Bay) got third place.
The Cup reached its second period and in this month the competition was more intense, in the end, Betsy (87 Spencer) and Whoo Dat (58′ Jarrett Bay) were in the fight for first place, finally the team from Louisiana (Whoo Dat) getting first place with 32 releases in their best ten days of the month long competition. During this month 107 Blue Marlins were released making a total of 240 Blue Marlin releases in the 30 days of the cup, also breaking the record in this category.
Finally April closed with 226 Blue Marlins released out of 351 strikes in 30 days of fishing.
Even though the majority of the boats left towards the end of April, some boats fished a few days in May, Never Say Never and O’fishal Business reported both Blue Marlin and Swordfish.
The 2018 Marina Casa de Campo Fishing Season was one of the most active and dynamic in all senses, and has consolidated this fishing scenery as one of the most important in the world, not only because of its excellent fishing, but also because of the quality of the service received by visitors of Casa de Campo and the level of the Marina and resort installations.
Once again we would like to thank all of the fishermen, captains, crew and family members that visit us each year and at the same time congratulate everyone for having an excellent fishing season. We also would like to thank the fishermen of La Barca, who are responsible for the excellent fishing seasons in this area.
