BLUEWATER CUSTOMERS CLAIM ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST TOURNAMENT PAYOUTS EVER INTO THE RECORD BOOKS With a colorful history of over 60 years, the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament has had more than its share of excitement, huge crowds and massive fish. Held every year in early June in Morehead City, NC, the Big Rock regularly draws America’s top billfishing teams and is watched by spectators around the world. The week-long tournament offers prizes for the heaviest blue marlin and other gamefish weighed, total billfish release points, daily pots, and a variety of other payouts. Some have called the Big Rock the ‘Super Bowl of fishing,’ and that may be an apt description in terms of the huge crowds and global attention the event garners. But unlike playoff football, the week starts off with the tournament completely up for grabs by an enormous field of teams. Sure, experience, skill, luck, equipment and teamwork come into play, but moreso than perhaps any other sport, an amateur greenhorn could be just as likely to reel in the winning fish as a lifelong veteran in another boat nearby. Granted, the caliber of the boats, equipment and their crews play a big part in any success, it’s not entirely dumb luck. While none of the fish weighed during the week came close to the tournament record 914-pound blue marlin caught back in 2019, this 64th edition of the tournament completely shattered records in other ways. With an incredible 266 teams and over 1,500 anglers entered, the total available purse of payouts soared to $5,858,875 this year. NEW BOATS, NEW ACCOMPLISHMENTS Enter the Mercenaria, with experienced owners on their second or third Viking sportfish, and aided by Bluewater’s Scott James in a series of transactions. Having taken delivery of their new 72C in Spring of 2021, Capt. Neil Sykes and the Mercenaria crew had plenty of long-range fishing trips to fulfill, but perhaps never could have imagined winning the Big Rock in such short order. As has happened in the majority of recent Big Rock tournaments, Monday, the first day of fishing, was packed with hook-up activity, boated fish and spectator anticipation, as the field of teams scrambled to bring in the first big fish and lock-in a guaranteed check in the “Fabulous Fisherman” division. Angler Matthew Brown told Big Rock TV that day, “It was a slow beginning, but before long I heard, ‘Matt, you’re up!’” Captain Neil Sykes described the fight and the rest of the experience, “The fish ate a plug on the left short, it was a pretty bite. Then it tookoff jumping away fromthe boat before taking a u-turn and greyhounding towards us. I had to push up the throttle 4 BLUEWATER
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzI5NTg=