The 2024 Bay Point Billfish Open is underway

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. ( WMBB ) — Just shy of 100 boats left the Bay Point Marina Thursday morning for the annual Billfish tournament.

The crews and anglers of this year’s tournament worked through Thursday morning’s rainy weather ahead of the departure.

One boat local mate, Allen King was getting the boat ready for his group of all-female anglers. The boat named ‘Me and the Boys’ is renamed for the weekend to ‘Me and the Girls’.

83 boats left the marina for the boat parade that kicked off this year’s event.

“It makes it tough when you’ve got a lot of boats,” King said. “The more boats, the more chances you don’t have. We’re going to go give it 100% and hopefully, it’ll pay off.”

The weather added another element to the tournament on top of the thousands of competitors. The participants said the rainy weather is the ideal fishing condition.

“All the raindrops that hit the water make Baitfish a little easier to get attacked,” King said. “The cloud cover normally helps too.”

The scales open Friday from 4 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. and will reopen on Saturday from 4 to 8 at night.

The awards ceremony will start Sunday at 10 a.m.

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