The 2012 Zane Grey Invitational will take place September 9-11. Typically the event is held in Avalon, California, on Catalina Island. For 2011, however, the tournament committee decided to move the event to Dana Point to be closer to a striped marlin bite just off the beach. It will be held in Dana Point for 2012 as well.
The Zane Grey is the first event in the California Billfish Series, presented by COSTA. The series also includes the Avalon Billfish Classic and the Catalina Classic.
The Zane Grey is a modified-release tournament, awarding points for boated fish that meet the minimum length and/or weight requirement, as well as points for releasing undersized striped marlin. Because of its unique format, the Zane Grey attracts some of the top marlin teams on the West Coast.
The tournament offers participants the opportunity to enter several optional jackpots that really inflate the prize money. These optional categories range from $250 a day up to $5,000, so if you want to go big, this is the event to do it!
The trick to taking home a fat payday in the Zane Grey is to catch a big stripey. Striped marlin over the minimum weight receive two points per pound for the minimum weight (165 pounds) plus an additional three points per pound for each whole pound over the minimum weight. A 200-pound striped marlin, for example, would score 330 points (165 pounds x 2 points) + 105 points (35 pounds x 3 points) for a total of 435 points. It makes for some exciting fishing as it typically takes just one or two big fish to move a team up into the money.
Besides great fishing, the tournament features top-notch food, custom-made trophies, captain’s bags full of goodies, door prizes and festive parties.
The series is under new management and will now be run by the founders of www.BDoutdoors.com who purchased the events in 2011. The new tournament committee has vowed to continue California’s marlin legacy and make sure that all of the tournaments and parties are even better than before. The tournament committee is always open to ideas on how it can improve upon these prestigious tournaments and welcomes any feedback. For more information, contact tournament director Ali Hussainy at ali@catalinaclassic.com or 858-560-5525.
The 2012 Zane Grey Invitational is scheduled to take place September 9-11 in Dana Point, California.
