There's big interest in the Blue Rock, and it's mostly because of huge money
A huge thanks to the folks at the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament for the photo.
Just the sight on the billfish as it was finally wrestled to the transom must have been difficult to handle.
Connor Daniels had just fought a large - really big - blue marlin and all that was left was for his teammate on Marlin Fever to get the giant onboard.
There was little doubt that the fish met the criteria needed to bring it to the Morehead City scales for weigh-in at the 68th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.
Just what the fish would weigh was anyone’s guess.
But it definitely was heavier than anything already entered.
When Captain Cameron Guthrie backed the Wilson, N.C.-based vessel into the docks, the crowd on streaming video was going crazy.
Many had seen the 914-pounder weighed in by eventual tournament winner Top Dog in 2019.
Marlin Fever’s fish looked nearly twice the size of last year’s winner - a 517.1-pounder worth $2.5 million caught on hometown favorite Big Trouble.
So when Daniels’ fish tipped the digital scale at 919.9 pounds, all you-know-what went off.
The fish had set the new tournament record and had captured the Fabulous Fisherman’s prize of $871.250 for the first fish brought to the scales that topped 500 pounds.
And as nice as that is, the fish - if it holds up - could put another record of $6.5 million in the team’s pockets when the event ends on Saturday.
This year’s event features another record - a total purse of $9 million - that the 278 entries could divide.
There are 259 teams on the water today.
In the first two days, there have been a combined 138 billfish - 58 blue marlin, 49 white marlin and 31 sailfish - released.
Doc Fees - a 60-foot Ritchie Howell vessel - sailing out of Wilmington leads the dolphin division with a 66.1-pounder, followed by hometown Peggy in the tuna category with a 34-pounder and Four Oaks, N.C.-based boat Magic Moments with a 53.4-pounder in the wahoo competition.
As always, there’s more to come.
