Congrats to the Marlin Fever out of Morehead City for their tournament record setting 919.9# blue marlin yesterday. Congrats to Ocracoke boat Free Ranger. On day one they weighed a 436.2# fish to take second place. They got bumped out yesterday, then came back today with another fish @ 597.4# to retake 2nd place. Another boat at the scales right now!
Builder's Choice fish was 530#. Not quite in the money. Boat Fender Bender has one in the boat. https://tournament.thebigrock.com/
@Stumpy Saw this earlier. Very cool.
644.1# for Fender Bender. That takes 2nd. Lotta leader board changes in the first 3 days.
@Stumpy- Keep us updated on the final, Stumpy. So cool! Thanks!
After an epic first three days, day 4 was a bit ho-hum. 105 boats fished, no blues weighed. Reports were it was a bit sporty out there.
@Stumpy - Thank you for the update!
59 boats out there today. Reports are it's rough out there. As of today only 23 boats have fished their 4 days. So we're looking at 255 boats tomorrow... IF they all fish.
Sooo... 900 pound marlins eat other bill fish. https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_afcff0af-1729-47e2-8622-0185ed5bcb43.html
@Stumpy - I had no idea that they took the fish for research and found a sailfish in him. I always wondered what they did with the catches. Wow! No wonder he was a monster. Cool link, Stumpy.
@BentMtn Marine research facilities from all over the world request tissue and other samples from these fish. Although you hardly EVER hear of it happening (other than tournaments) it is legal to keep bill fish. But they have to be the larger of the species. I've actually had marlin, both as an entree and smoked marlin dip. The entree wasn't anything to write home about (see above about larger fish), but the smoked dip was top shelf. Of course it's kinda hard to bjork up smoked fish dip. https://www.deq.nc.gov/about/divisions/marine-fisheries/rules-proclamations-and-size-and-bag-limits/recreational-size-and-bag-limits
@Stumpy - So interesting and I learned something. The DEQ chart link is so overall handy and I'll save it. Thanks, Stumpy.
@BentMtn Be sure to revisit the chart regularly. Because... you know... flounder. :::eyeroll:::