2024-Results

 

HNSITT  2024 – Sept 25 – Sept 29

Hi everyone, the registrations and Captains Meeting for the 2024 Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament took place at the GARRISON BREWERY, 1149 Marginal Rd, Halifax between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. with a Team Roll Call at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday the 24th of September. Each team had at least one person present for the Roll Call check and to picked up their necessary registration items so they can legally fish.  

The registration commenced at 7:00 to pass on Tuna Tags, ICCAT forms, vessel trackers and detailed instructions on communications and tuna landing procedures to all teams.  Pizza  donated by The Embroidery Edge and a cash bar was available for socialising with the all of the team members.  12  Teams have entered this years tournament (listed below). The Registration packages including their initial tuna tag, ICCAT forms along with the DFO license conditions and log forms to be filled out and returned to DFO at completion of the tournament.  In addition there were vessel tracker units provided and updated instructions for the tournament. 

Four boats from Cape Breton and two local Halifax  boats were moored on the Halifax waterfront on Tuesday afternoon and the Captain’s Meeting was well attended with a cheerful and lively crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Edgecomb opened the meeting with a greeting to all and a roll call of all the teams present followed by a short greeting by Sarah Moore of the IWK thanking the teams and tournament for supporting the IWK over the past and present years.  Lee Purcell then gave some information on the tracker systems.  Greg Connor outlined the procedure details for the required DFO login and logouts and fishing logs that must be filled in as part of our license agreement to allow the tournament.  Vic Hennis confirmed that we have 10 tags donated by DFO for this year and that Reagan Hennebury of Team Rubber Boots Bandit has generously donated quota for an extra tag for this year’s tournament. 

Following the formalities pizza was served which was generously donated by Dave Edgecomb of The Embroidery Edge and the teams collected their registration packages with tags and log forms and trackers for this year’s tournament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck to all and tight lines.

Tuna landings will be at the Oceanview Fisheries docks in Sambro throughout the tournament with the Captain and crew allowed off the vessel to complete necessary documentations and photos.  There will be no public viewings.

Note to Teams:  Please send photos and any comments and good fishing stories to HITT@bluefintournament.ca so that I will be able to update this 2024 results page as the tournament progress’s.  Thanks from the webmaster.

 

Teams Entered 2024 year: 

Team Name	Captain	Vessel Name
Rubber Boots Bandit	Reagan Henneberry	Miss Jaimie Lynn
The Tunament	Michael Martell	Jacobite
Team Edge	Dave Edgecomb	Blu
Lobster’s R Us	John Martell	Reel Boss
Blind Strike	Gerard Mombourquette	Blind Strike
Mad Dad	Roddie MacCuspic	Mad Dad
Ripley’s Believe It	Calvin Ripley	Ripley’s Believe It II
Team Viking	Mark Wilbur	Nijinski
The Big “G”‘s	Isaac Conway	Reel Obsession
Chasing Tail	Don Cameron	Boston Whaler
Blue Shark Charters	Cale DeLong	Oliver Plunkett
Dragon Slayers	Blaise Bolland	Newfie Rockets

2024 Results Summary: 

Team Name	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Rubber Boots Bandit			Skunked	486	415
The Tunament				410
Team Edge		441		747
Lobster’s R Us				753
Blind Strike	441			618
Mad Dad	606			741	449
Ripley’s Believe It
Team Viking				721
The Big “G”‘s				587
Chasing Tail	296
Blue Shark Charters				305
Dragon Slayers
Daily Totals (lbs)	1343	441	0	5368	864
Tournament Totals (lbs)					8016

 

 Day 1 – Wednesday (25th) Result

On day one of the tournament the day started with clear skies and light winds of approximately 12-14 knots out of the north-northeast and all 12 boats headed out around 6 am to start the tournament.  Good luck to all.

Around 08:30 Team Blue Shark reported the first hookup. At 10:08 both Chasing Tail and Team Viking also reported being hooked up and shortly after Team Blind Strike reported that they had secured the first fish and were heading for Sambro.  About 11:00 Team Viking reported losing their fish.

At 11:30 Team Blind Strike delivered the first fish caught to Oceanview Sambro Fisheries wharf.  A nice 441 lb fish.

 

About 13:30 both Chasing Tail and Mad Dad reported securing fish and headed towards Sambro.

At 15:50 Team Chasing Tail delivered a 296 lb tuna to the Sambro wharf.

 

And at 16:20 Team Mad Dad delivered a 606 lb tuna after a slow trip in.

 

So ends day 1 of the Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament with 3 fish caught and no other boats hooked up at the 4 pm closing time.  According to our Tag Allocation for Second Fish Rules all 12 teams will be eligible to fish tomorrow.

 

 Day 2 – Thursday (26th) Results

Day 2 started off sunny with light 8-10 knot breezes out of the east-northeast.  11 boats headed out around 06:00 and one boat stayed ashore with mechanical issues.

Generally a slow day with not much early activity. At 11:30 Team Rubber Boots Bandit had a fish on but has lost it.  At 15:30 Team Edge reported a hookup and Team Viking has hooked up but lost their fish.  At 16:00 Team Edge reported they had secured and were swimming their fish.

At around 18:20 Team Edge arrived at Sambro and delivered a nice 441 lb tuna.

 

Only one fish today and the weather doesn’t look great for tomorrow but we’ll keep trying.

 

Day 3- Friday (27th) Results

Day 3 began rainy and overcast with SSE winds of 12-18 kts.  As of 06:30 only two boats have ventured out in the not so great conditions, Teams Rubber Boots Bandit and Blue Shark Charters. Around 08:00 they were joined by Team Dragon Slayer.

About 14:00 Team Dragon Slayer gave it up and returned to dock in Sambro without reporting any hookups or fish.  At the 16:00 lines out limit the remaining boats headed back to port with no recorded hookups or fish.

A rather soggy and disappointing day today and hopefully tight lines tomorrow.

Day 4- Saturday (28th) Results

Day 4 opened with broken clouds and 16 kt. NNW winds with gust to 21 kts. Seven boats got an early 06:00 start and two more had joined by 07:30.

At 08:00 Team Viking reported that they had hooked up out on the Eastern Shore.  Shortly afterwards things got crazy and 4-5 boats were all hooked up.  Around 10:00 four boats had secured fish.

By 11:40 the tenth fish had been caught and hailed in.  Luckily we have arranged a few extra tags.  Looks like all boats have fish today making 9 fish in total and the best day ever for our tournament.

Around 11:30 Team Mad Dad on Mad Dad arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 741 lb fish.

 

At 12:05 Team Lobsters R Us in Reel Boss arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 753 lb fish.

 

At  12:50 Team Edge on Blu arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload to offload their 747 lb fish.

 

At  12:30 Team Viking on Nijinski arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 721 lb tuna.

 

At 13:40   Team The Big G’s on Reel Obsession arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 587 lb tuna.

At 14:00  Team The Tunament on Jacobite arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 410 lb tuna.

 

At 14:20  Team Blue Shark Charters on Oliver Plunkett arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 305 lb tuna.

 

At 14:20  Team Blind Strike  on Blind Strike arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their 618 lb tuna.

 

At 16:05  Team Rubber Boots Bandit on Miss Jamie Lynn arrived at the Oceanview dock to offload their  486 lb tuna.

 

An amazing day with all boats that were out today catching a fish.  Definitely a first for the HNSITT event and a great haul for the IWK.

 

  Day 5- Sunday (29th) Results

Sunday opened with broken clouds and moderately light 10-14 kt winds out of the NNW.  By 08:30 there were three boats out to try to claim the last two available tags for the tournament.

By 10:00 both Rubber Boots Bandit and Mad Dad had secured fish so we have filled all of the tags that were available for the tournament this year and the lines out call went out to the other boats fishing.

Around 12:45 Team Mad Dad on Mad Dad delivered a nice 449 lb fish to the Sambro Oceanview Fisheries dock.

 

Almost immediately afterwards Team Rubber Boots Bandit on Miss Jamie Lynn delivered a nice 415 lb tuna to the Oceanview dock.

 

All the tags are fill and so ends the 2024 Halifax Nova Scotia international Tuna Tournament with just over two tons of tuna caught for donations to the IWK.

Thanks to all the fishermen and to the volunteers for a great fishing year.

 

Closing Ceremonies:

This year the trophies arrived in plenty of time for the tournament shown below.

The  plaque space on the Chronicle Herald First Place trophy is currently filled up for team plaques and at the end of the ceremonies our Master of Ceremonies Greg Connor hoisted the trophy and explained that we are now planning o having a lower base added to the trophy so that we can add team plaques listing the winning teams for 2024 and 2023 and future years.

The Closing ceremony gathering was held on Sunday Sept 29th from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Best Western Plus, Chocolate Lake Hotel, 250 Saint Margaret’s Bay Road.  At 7 pm. teams started to arrive and the  ceremony startup was delayed for a while as the reps from two of the winning teams from Cape Breton were a bit late due to having to fuel their vessels before returning to Cape Breton tomorrow.  In total representatives from 7 teams were present with approximately 25-30 people in attendance for the closing ceremonies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of the wait for Team Lobsters R Us and Team Mad Dad to arrive it was decided to dig into the  meal before proceeding with the Trophy Presentations.  The Best Western chef and helpers provided a great roast beef carvery with rolls, condiments and salads and a wonderful desert selection for the crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally around 8 pm. our trophy presentation and closing ceremonies got going.  It was kicked off by our Master of Ceremonies Greg Connor who is the president of ACD, and the Treasurer of our Board.  Greg gave a brief summary of this year’s tournament and pointed out that we had caught 15 fish in total this year thanks to the initial 10 tags provide through DFO plus the generous donations of one tag from Wesley Henneberry, two tags from Marshal Boutilier and one from Almond Mood – SW Nova and one from the Swordfish Association via Chris Purcell..   Also that we had one day on Saturday that landed 9 fish with every boat that was out that day being successful.

Greg also gave some additional details on returning the required DFO forms and our trackers and thanked all the Teams for making this years tournament a success.

Greg also had the honour of welcoming Sarah Moore,  Relationship Manager, Philanthropy & Donor Strategy Department Community & Corporate Giving of the IWK. Sarah gave a sincere thanks to the Teams and the Board for everyone’s efforts this year tournament and summarised how our donations help the IWK.

 

Following those formalities Greg again took to the podium to continue with the award ceremonies.

Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy

The Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy is given out each year to the Team that lands the first Bluefin to be secured and logged in by call in to Atlantic Catch Data (ACD) for donation to the IWK.

The winning team of the Wayne Hoskin Memorial Trophy was Team: Blind Strike with a 441 lb tuna and Captain Gerard Mombourquette and team members Patricia Martell, Gregory Mombourquette and Ross Sampson.  

 

First Place:  Team Lobster’s R Us with a 753 lb tuna

Captain John Martell and team members Jeffrey Martell, Jerry Martell, Aubrey Landry, Janelle Martell and Bryan MacDonell

Receiving the primary Chronicle Herald Trophy

 

Second Place:  Team Edge with a 747 lb tune

Captain Dave Edgecomb with team members Jeff Potter, Jim Lawley, Peter Maloney, Ben Maloney and Dave Greenwood

Receiving the HITT 2nd place keeper trophy.

 

Third Place: Team Mad Dad with a 741 lb tuna

Captain Roddie MacCuspic with team members Caleb Madden, Shaun MacLeod, Chris Gracie, Dylan MacCuspic and Ashton Carter.

Receiving the HITT 3rd place keeper trophy.

 

Interesting to note that only 12 lbs. separated the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place fish this year.

The first place winning Team also received a 1st place Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament keeper trophy along with an invitation to the Offshore World Championship Tournament in Quepos, Costa Rica which will be held April 6th to 11th, 2025

 

 

Special thanks to Oceanview Fisheries for Tuna landing facilities, bait, fish processing and marketing as well as to all of our sponsors and donors for their support.

Particular thanks to our volunteers: Vic Hennis, Biruta Hennis  for their effort at the Captain’s meeting and closing ceremonies and throughout the tournament.  Also special thanks to Greg Connor who is our board Treasure as well as the President of ACD for both his HTTS society work and also his ACD roll of logging in the fish as required by DFO with related costs donated to the tournament and the IWK.

 

Info

Below are the fish proceeds results for the 2024 catch.  Oceanview Fisheries handled marketing and shipping of all fish with a minimal charges for out of pocket costs to maximize donations to the IWK.  Net Price per Pound is market price before expenses.

Total proceeds including the Cash donations, Bait Sales and the portion of Registration Fees donated to the IWK amounted to $_______ for the 2024 tournament. (when available)

Announcement:

Presentation:

 

This brings the HTTS 14 year cumulative donations to a total of $_________ from the running of the  Halifax Nova Scotia International Tuna Tournament.  We wish the IWK all the best and thank all participants, volunteers and sponsors for their hard work and generosity to make this year another great success.