Hatteras Fever II, captained by Buddy Hooper, caught a 465.3-pound blue marlin to win the 55th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament on Saturday, according to the tournament organizers.
The weeklong competition in Morehead City was disrupted by weather throughout the week with choppy waters making fishing difficult.
Anglers on 99 of the 100 boats were able to go out on Saturday, the final day of competition, but no blue marlins were brought back to the weigh station. Thirty blue marlins, 19 white marlins and four sailfish were caught that day.
The week produced 65 blue marlin, 40 white marlin and 14 sailfish releases. The winning fish was caught on Wednesday by Raleigh angler Taylor Miller, and was smaller than 19 of the past 20 Big Rock winning catches. With the win, Hatteras Fever II will take home a $478,050 grand prize.
Sensation, captained by Dale Britt out of Morehead City, finished second in the competition with a 423.8-pound blue marlin caught by Trey Siner.
Bull Tolson captained Sea Toy to a win in the billfish release division. Sea Toy scored a grand slam (a catch and release of each billfish species) on Saturday to come from behind and take home the $37,312 prize.
The 55th Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament comes to an end and the crew from Hatteras Fever II wins it all, taking home $500,000 in prize money.
The team reeled in a 465.5 blue marlin on Wednesday.
Although it’s the smallest fish to win the tournament in nearly 20 years, it was still the biggest caught at the tournament.
The crew says they feel lucky to be taking home a win.
“We definitely feel very fortunate. We had a lot of things line up for us, and we were able to capitalize on what opportunity fronted itself, so we just made the most of the opportunity that we were given,” said Taylor Miller of Hatteras Fever II.
The crew says they’ll be back next year to defend their title.
The possibility of rough conditions failed to deter the lady anglers aboard Fight-N-Lady as the team scored an early blue marlin release and held on to win the billfish division of the 16th annual Keli Wagner Lady Angler (KWLA) tournament.
Jessica Proctor and Fight-N-Lady captain Pete Zook, Morehead City, teamed to catch and release a blue marlin after an 11-minute fight. Procter’s catch proved to be worth $5,100 in the billfish division of the event.