Navigator wins 14th Annual Wahoo Fishing Tournament

The team from “Navigator” celebrate on stage after winning the 14th Annual SXM Wahoo Fishing tournament Saturday night. (Robert Luckock photo)

­”Navigator” from Saba emerged the champion boat when results were tallied at the 14th Annu­al SXM Wahoo Fishing tournament organised by St. Maarten Sport Fishing Foundation on Saturday night at Grumpy’s Bar, Dock
Maarten.

The “Navigator” crew hauled in 28 Wahoo for a whopping 774.7 lbs in Most Weight, sending them to the top of the leaderboard and winning the perpetual glass tro­phy. Navigator has won the tournament three times in the past four years.

Fishing teams de­scribed the weather and sea conditions as hor­rible. “It was bad all day. We had a break of may­be 30 minutes when the wind dropped to 5 or 10 knots but then went right back up to 20 knots,” said Ryan Hassell, own­er/captain of Navigator. “But this year was spe­cial because last year we caught only four Wahoo, the year before when I won 11 Wahoo and the year before that when I won 20 Wahoo.”

The prize for Sec­ond Most Weight over­all went to Team 3 Little Birds from Saint Mar­tin with 10 Wahoo for 324.3lbs.

The largest Mahi Mahi prize went to the boat “Highliner” from Saba. The Best Female Angler prize went to Gina Hassell from “Nav­igator” for reeling in five Wahoo, the biggest of which was 32.8Ibs. There were no qualifying King-fish this year.

Winner of the Wahoo Challenge or Captain’s unofficial bet ( the put your money where your mouth is category), in which 17 out 21 boats en­tered ) was Yellow Whip from Saint Martin with a 63lb Wahoo caught by Laurent Petit, the big­gest of this tournament. This was also the third overall prize of the tour­nament.

The second biggest Wahoo prize went to Team Bulldozer with a 53lb fish. Best Dressed fishing team went to the boat Jupiter from St. Maarten.

Some 21 fishing teams registered for the tournament, eight boats less than 2024, but that may have been due to the rough weather this year. Two teams repre­sented St. Eustatius, five teams represented Saba, seven from St. Barths, three from French Saint Martin, and four from the Dutch side.

The top two teams “Navigator” and “3 Lit­tle Birds” are eligible to participate in the World Offshore Fishing Cham­pionships, representing the Wahoo Tournament and Saba and Saint Mar­tin in Costa Rica in 2026.

Since 2018 the St. Maarten Wahoo Tourna­ment has been a qualify­ing event for the World Offshore Fishing Cham­pionships in Costa Rica.

The Daily Herald.