Micabe in early lead

As expected, Thursday was a busy day for sailfish in the seventh annual HMY/Viking MegaDock Billfishing Tournament being fished out of the Charleston City Marina.

The unofficial release tally was 52 sailfish, two white marlin and one blue marlin for the 66 boats that fished the opening day of the final event of the S.C. Governor's Cup Billfishing Series. The tournament continues through Saturday, with first place paying $20,000.

Micabe, a 55-foot Jarrett Bay owned by Mike Larrow of Hilton Head Island, has a tenuous lead in the event with 800 points for four sailfish releases, a total matched by three other boats — Big Sky with a blue marlin and a sailfish; Full Pull with four sailfish; and Rookie IV, also with four sailfish.

Scoring in the Governor's Cup is based on 600 points for blue marlin releases, 300 points for white marlin releases and 200 points for sailfish releases. Ties are broken based on the boat reaching the highest point total first, and that gave Micabe the lead when the crew out of Ripley Light Marina released a doubleheader of sailfish at 10:59 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Big Sky reached 800 points when it released its blue marlin at 12:27 p.m., while Full Pull got to 800 points at 2:35 p.m. and Rookie IV reached the mark at 2:50 p.m.

"We had five or six sails behind the baits at one time," said Larrow, whose boat is captained by his son-in-law, Chris Jennings. "We were strictly targeting sailfish. "

Boats are allowed to fish two out of three days, captain's choice, and Larrow said Micabe would fish today in hopes of increasing its point total earliest.

Weigh-ins today and Saturday begin at 5 p.m. and continue until 7:30 p.m.

The leading lady angler after Thursday was Kathy Baxley aboard Fly Buoy, who accumulated 500 points for releasing both a white marlin and a sailfish. Tara Asbill, aboard Fin Addict, has the top dolphin at 28.8 pounds while Bobby Krivohlavek, aboard Reel Hooker, has the top wahoo at 59 pounds. No tuna were weighed.