This year is the 51st Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament. Saturday June 6th is the first day of the tournament, and is reserved for lady anglers. The tournament goes on until the following Saturday, June 13th.
The purse last year was a record $1,854,575! A boat named Artemis, the winner took $708,400 of that.
Today the waterfront headquarters opened for registration. It will open again on Friday (June 5th) at 9am and remain open until 5pm. At 6pm on Friday there will be a Lady Angler Event at the Civic Center. Tickets are $15.
The last day for registration is Sunday (June 7th) on the waterfront from 1pm until 5pm. And at Town Creek Marina in Beaufort from 6pm until 9pm.
There will be weigh-ins Monday through Friday (June 11th-14th) at about 5pm. Saturday’s is at 4pm.
Last year 177 boats were in the tournament. They caught and released 163 billfish.
This Morehead City Blue Marlin fishing tournament has come a long way since the first one back in 1957. The total prize for this inaugural tournament was a whopping couple hundred dollars.
No one even caught a marlin in that first tournament. In fact I think the first marlin caught off the North Carolina coast wasn’t until that following September. An angler from Raleigh, Jimmy Croy landed a 143 pound blue marlin. He was fishing aboard a boat called the Mary Z captained by K.W. “Bill” Olsen.
This year’s Big Rock is set to be an outstanding event. Each year the tournament raises thousands of dollars for a variety of charities.
I’d like to wish all of the anglers in this 51st Big Rock the best of luck!
I hope to make it to the scales at least one day of the tournament and get some photos of a nice marlin or two.