A weekend on top is a good thing.
It was a pretty good weekend for Mike Standing.
It started on Friday, when he was presented the East Coast Surfing Championships’ inaugural award for community service.
That was followed with the Day 2 lead in the 22 annual Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament on his boat, Waterman.
None of the 39 teams fished on Friday because of bad offshore conditions.
On Sunday, Standing’s team secured the tournament victory when Capt. Ben Horning captained Waterman on a day that sealed the deal in resounding fashion.
Waterman finished with 2,170 points based on 31 white marlin releases and banked $288,750 of the total purse of $453,750.
The team - consisting of Standing, Horner, Jaden Bobbitt, Tom Baer, Garrett Holden, Tony Huerta, Jason Votes, Jack Bobbitt and Aaron Horning - won the second day jackpot and the third day.
For good measure, the crew won the top tuna division with Huerta’s 74.1-pound yellowfin.
William Enroughty, fishing on Sniper, had the top dolphin with a 25.6-pounder.
Clint Evans was named the top overall angler, while Whitney Simmons took top female angler with her 10 white marlin releases, and Sutton Paul took top junior angler honors.
In two days of competition, teams caught and released 420 billfish - 409 white marlin, eight blue marlin, two sailfish and one spearfish.
There were 11 gamefish - nine dolphin and two yellowfin - caught.
Second overall went to Don’t Panic with 1,820 points on its 26 white marlin releases. The effort was good for $55,575.
Fender Bender and Capt. Colin Oxnard was third with 1,540 points on 22 white marlin - good for $66,525.
