{"id":348003,"date":"2021-07-15T06:04:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T20:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=348003"},"modified":"2021-07-15T06:04:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T20:04:44","slug":"most-unlikely-fisherman-nab-winning-ahi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/most-unlikely-fisherman-nab-winning-ahi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Most unlikely\u2019 fishermen nab winning ahi"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cecilio & Kapono captain Gary Sword and crewmembers Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan), Rep. Ivan Blanco (R-Saipan) and his son Ivan Jr. receive the first place trophy in the yellow fin category during the 37th Annual Saipan International Fishing Tournament\u2019s awards banquet last Monday at the Aqua Resort Club poolside. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To their own admission, the crew of Cecilio & Kapono had no business winning first place in the yellow fin category of last weekend\u2019s 37th Annual Saipan International Fishing Tournament held in the waters off the CNMI.<\/p>\n

During the awards ceremony last Monday night at the poolside of Aqua Resort Club, captain Gary Sword was as surprised as everyone standing on the stage as he and his crewmembers\u2014Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan), Rep. Ivan Blanco (R-Saipan) and his son Ivan Jr.\u2014received the handsome hand-carved first place trophy for the heaviest ahi caught during the two-day fishing derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the most unlikely group because none of us own a boat. We actually asked our brother Cecilio (Raiukiulipiy) to loan us his boat. Master navigator Cecilio said \u2018you can use my boat\u2019 but then he had to go to Pagan and we couldn\u2019t contact him. About 6am on Saturday morning we didn\u2019t have a boat,\u201d he said to the delight of the cheering crowd.<\/p>\n

Sword said because Raiukiulipiy\u2019s boat was AWOL, they were forced to give other boaters a two-hour \u201chead start\u201d as if their relative inexperience as fishermen wasn\u2019t enough of a handicap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set out at 8 o\u2019clock in the morning. Everybody was out except us. We were like \u2018what the heck is this!\u2019 We didn\u2019t know what we were doing but it\u2019s OK we are Micronesian fishermen\u2014we make it happen! So we left at 8 and at 8:15 we hooked up with this beautiful ahi and we really didn\u2019t know that our equipment was new, not our boat, and we didn\u2019t know if we could bring this thing in. It took us two hours to bring it in. And [everyone\u2019s] wondering why it took us that long to bring in a 60-lb yellowfin, but we didn\u2019t know the [heck] we were doing but we had had fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sword also revealed that a fifth member of their crew was Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, who wasn\u2019t there to join them on stage during the awards banquet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank the Saipan Fishermen\u2019s Association for this and we have our floor leader Ralph Yumul and also we have our minority leader Ivan Blanco and the secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig who by the way was bad luck for us on Sunday. He didn\u2019t show up on Saturday but was bad luck for us on Sunday. It\u2019s alright Dave you could still join us and you\u2019re still part of our team… I\u2019d like to thank the Saipan Fishermen\u2019s Association for putting together this international derby\u2026With COVID, everybody here was just about ready to get the [heck] out of their house and go fishing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming in second to Sword and company\u2019s 67-lb catch in the yellow fin category was MV Kiddo and their 58-pounder, while Sesa was third with a 50-lb ahi. MV Kiddo was skippered by Tak Nakazato and his crew were Courtney Nakazato, Koniko Nakazato, and Jowel A. Naputi. Sesa was captained by Steve Reyes and had Kevin Diaz and Jesse Borja as crewmembers.<\/p>\n

Cecilio & Kapono won $1,000 for first place, while MV Kiddo and Sesa went home with $750 and $500 for finishing second and third, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the wahoo division, J&MJ captain Manuel Mogar and crewmember Lawrence Pantola landed the heaviest fish at 32.2 lbs and won $1,000. The St. Cristopher came in second with a wahoo weighing 25.8 lbs and skipper Juan O. Barcinas and crewmen Robert Sasamoto and Antonio Mu\u00f1a are now $750 richer. Rosemary of captain Tom Aguon and deckhand Gene Bolton finished third with a 24.7-lb wahoo and got $500 for their troubles.<\/p>\n

Regulator of captain P.J. Alan and anglers Phil Aldan, Ben Fitipol, Ricky George, Ray DL Cruz, and Kiko Togawa topped the mahi mahi category and took home $1,000 after reeling in a 24.7-pounder. Coming in second was Salty Bandits with their 9-lb fish and captain Masaki Kitami and crewmembers Kalama Fernandez and Joey Tudela are now $750 richer. Third place and $500 went to Catmandu of the Snell family\u2014skipper Michael II and crewmates Michael III, Latrell, and Lorenz\u2014after they landed a 7.5-lb mahi mahi.<\/p>\n

In the skipjack division, Santa Soledad nosed out Handliner for the $750 first place purse with a fish weighing 9.4 lbs. Santa Soledad was captained by Melchor Lerum who had help from Joel Jeminez. Handliner captain Maxi Morag and lone crew James Rayphand settled for second place and $500 with their 9.3-lb catch. Captain Tony Tenorio and crewmembers Jennifer Tkel and Jessie Tenorio were third with an 8.7-pounder and pocketed $250.<\/p>\n

A total of 90 boats\u201460 from Saipan, 17 from Guam, and five from Tinian\u2014took part in the two-day fishing derby that is sponsored by the following: Marpac Budweiser, Mobil Oil Marianas, TSL Foundation\/TanHoldings, Triple J Enterprises, Pacifica Insurance Underwriter, Inc., CIC Insurance, Docomo Pacific, Roil Soil, Pacific Rim Land Development, Paradise Dental Spa, Coca-Cola Beverage Co. (Micronesia), Inc., Atkins Kroll Saipan, Matson Inc., D&Q International Distributors, Naked Fish, Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, Muzik Production, WSTCO, MINA, Micronesian Marine, Marianas Coffee, Johnny\u2019s Bar & Grill, Herman\u2019s Modern Bakery, Century Hotel, Fishing Tackle & Sporting Goods, Joeten Motors, Inas\u2019 Kitchen, and Bank of Saipan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To their own admission, the crew of Cecilio & Kapono had no business winning first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":348004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}