The History of the Spice Island Billfish Tournament

It all started with Jim Needham, the owner of the Flamboyant Hotel. Jim loved the art of sport fishing and ventured along the coastline of Grenada in his little 14 foot open boat “Mambo” as often as he could, catching literally dozens and dozens of Billfish. He just had to share this love with someone and so in 1964, he called his friend Louis Rostant (Trinidad) and they met in Grenada with Martin Mathias, owner of a beautiful sports fishing vessel named “Bahari”, to formulate and stage the first ever Grenada Fishing Tournament.

Sadly, no records remain but we do know that less than 10 boats (Grenada & Trinidad) participated in what was essentially a gentleman’s tournament. No formal rules were in effect at the time. However, Jim & Louis worked steadfastly to refine the rules and procedures, most of which originated from the IGFA and adapted them to suit the Grenada event. They attracted anglers from all the nearby Islands and this still remains the main support for the event to this day especially now that SIBT is part of the SCBC circuit.

Louis Rostant's influence on the tournament was legendary. He took the sport to its extreme by introducing 12lb line to the list of permitted line tests. Indeed, he fished on occasion with 6lb test line and hoped that others would follow. For many years during that period the tournament permitted 12, 20 and 30lb test lines. The frustrations of anglers grew and many anglers experienced spooling of their lines by huge fish while many others were lost through line-fatigue. Nonetheless, Louis and Jim steadfastly stood by their position to keep the event as a light tackle Tournament.

Jim recognized in the early 1980’s that he could no longer continue the event and handed over the reins to a group of enthusiastic and younger associates. As a consequence the SIBT was born.

Change was inevitable and the new Committee tried to find ways to attract more anglers from the Region. St. Lucia’s Bernard Johnson was another of early visiting anglers of the Needham era and has continuously supported the Tournament throughout the years to this day. Whenever we look back at the very early years and Tournaments, it only reminds us how much we, as the Committee responsible for the Tournament, have changed for the better. In the early days, all the fish that were caught were brought to the scale. Anglers became more adept at learning the skill to attract and hook up to Billfish and the catch ratios increased tremendously. Billfish were caught in such large numbers that the Committee was very often overwhelmed by the task. Our records reflect that the largest number of Billfish caught in one day during the event was 92. This staggering amount would horrify conservationists today. The years went by and the boats got bigger and bigger but the fish became fewer in number. Jim traditionally held his tournament on the weekends, without apparently recognizing the part the moon phase played in the success of the event.

However, it has been a testimony to the Committee’ s understanding of the anglers needs and their willingness to compromise that has brought about many a change in the format and rules of the SIBT. The 12lb pound test line was eliminated, and replaced by 50lb test line. In 2009 the event replaced 20lb line with 80lb. More and more anglers have become conservationist at heart, most notable being Trinidad’s late Sid Johnson and largely through his influence the rules were gradually amended to the modified release format. This was obviously a bitter pill to swallow for the Committee, which with little or no sponsorship derived much of its funds from the sale of fish.

Nevertheless, each year the fishing and indeed the event grew bigger and better. A lay day followed by a second day fishing was introduced and then a third day was added which was supported by the majority of anglers.

Upon the introduction of insured prizes for certain species of fish (six in all) the Blue Marlin and Yellow Fin Tuna records were soon broken and large payouts made.  In 2010 the event has switched to the use of digital cameras, which will have the release photographs downloaded daily from each boat to help speed up the results process.

The other activities held at the Grenada Yacht Club, which was the venue adopted by the SIBT since 1997, soon attracted lots of visitors and locals alike. The cooking, happy hour bars and general camaraderie of the anglers have made this event truly the best in the Region.

The visionaries like Jim Louis and Martin Mathias have passed on. So too have St. Lucia's Mike Hackshaw, Trinidad's Francis SaGomes and very recently  Sid Johnson, Barbados' Denis Atkinson and Martinique's Roger Charles Nicolas. We have altogether lost too many other friends and anglers from each of the Countries above. The Committee owes a debt of gratitude to them for their various contributions and support over the years.

Sometimes the seas have been awful, sometimes calm like a lake. There have been hours of frenzied fishing activity and equally some have experienced many hours without a strike. Boats have all come home safely but some came mighty close on occasion to being lost.

All of these experiences and more have contributed to the Institution that is the SIBT Grenada and we believe, the Region’s premier fishing event.

Gary Clifford, SIBT Committee