The tour

Every tournament is a single fishing day on its own water, with its own painted map and its own fish. You pick a spot each morning from the map, read the forecast, rig your tackle and head out; at four o’clock your heaviest fish goes on the scale against the field. Most tournaments are won with billfish: blue marlin first, with white marlin, striped marlin, sailfish and swordfish in the mix depending on the water. The Cape Cod Giant Tuna Shootout turns that upside down, and only tuna count. The early rounds are warm, forgiving and close to shore; the later ones run far offshore, into deeper, rougher water where the field lands bigger fish. The Gulf gives you a choice of five states, from the Flower Garden Banks off Texas to the Florida Panhandle.