Although they caught the fish, the $3.5 million prize eluded them.
Although they caught the fish, the $3.5 million prize eluded them.
If you want to hear about the day that the guys on the fishing boat Sensation landed a giant marlin and danced to Tina Turner because they were sure they had won $3.5 million, only to find out that they hadn’t, you first need to learn about Ashley Bleau and the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament that took place in Morehead City, North Carolina.
Bleau, 45, is a self-described “Down East redneck” who considers board shorts and bare feet to be appropriate attire for the workplace. He spent his childhood on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina wishing that one day he would own a boat, and last year he made his dream come true when he purchased Sensation, a custom fishing boat that is 52 feet long and has a cabin for lounging as well as a bunk room downstairs. He founded his fishing charter business, Sensation Sport Fishing, with the assistance of the boat.
In June, he entered it in the Big Rock tournament, along with 270 other vessels, which set out to sea over the course of six days with the hopes of winning millions of dollars in prize money and having their achievement engraved forever in the Big Rock fountain at the Morehead City docks.
Michael Jordan, who competes on his fishing yacht Catch-23, is one of the many sport fishermen who travel from all over the world to participate in the Big Rock tournament, which has been run by a charitable organisation since 1957.
“Big Rock is your Super Bowl if you grow up around here and have any interest in fishing at all,” said Bleau. “If you grow up around here.”
Greg McCoy, age 56, was the captain of the Bleau. He had left his previous job in part due to the fact that the boat he captained was owned by the woman he was divorcing at the time. The only crew member who was completely committed to McCoy’s mission was a young man named Darrin Cox, who was 21 years old and wore a camouflage hat. Scooter is a nickname for him.
Bleau was able to find twenty-four fishermen who were willing to purchase shares in the boat at a price of $3,013 per share, with each man being assigned a different day.
The people who were on board the Sensation when any prize catches were made came to an agreement that they would split the payout for those catches seventy percent among themselves. Bleau, McCoy, and Scooter would each receive ten percent of the total profit.
The Fabulous Fisherman prize, which is worth $739,500, will be awarded to the first vessel that successfully catches a marlin that weighs more than 500 pounds. The grand prize for catching the marlin that was considered to be the largest overall was $2,769,400. If you were to win both of the prizes, your total haul would be worth $3.5 million.
The Sensation intended to leave Morehead City at five o’clock every morning of the tournament in order to search for a location to drop its lines in time for the beginning of play at nine in the morning. The regulations stated that the fisherman had until 3:00 p.m. each day to hook a fish, and they were allowed to fight the fish for as long as it needed to reel it in.
When a fish was on the line, the boats were required to radio in to let the tournament officials know. They were also required to provide video evidence of their encounters with fish in order to demonstrate that the fish were caught honestly and that there was no attempt to cheat. The winners were required to take polygraph examinations.
The majority of the ships that set sail for the Atlantic Ocean were outfitted with large, devoted crews and cutting-edge sonar technology. This allowed the ships to locate a fish swimming below them in the ocean, latch onto it, and then track it around.
None of those things were on board Bleau’s boat. McCoy relied on his instincts and the information he had gained from working on the water for the past 20 years to find marlin. In the beginning of this year, he and Scooter struggled for 11 hours against a bluefin tuna that weighed more than 600 pounds. They were almost successful in getting it into the boat when the line broke, and the fish swam away.
Four of the nine people on board the Sensation spent the most of the morning of the first day of the Big Rock throwing up because the swells were between eight and ten feet high. The Catch-23 that Jordan threw didn’t even fire.
On that particular day, three boats were successful in bringing in blue marlins, although only one of those fish weighed more than the required minimum of 400 pounds. On Day 3, Sea Wolf brought in a fish that weighed 408.1 pounds, and Predator brought in a fish that weighed 459 pounds. On day 5, two additional large marlins were brought in, one of which was caught by the boat Sushi and weighed 484.5 pounds.
On Saturday, June 17, Sensation had one more day to reel in a prize-winning fish before the competition ended.
Scooter, who is not often one to make wild pronouncements, made a prediction as the boat was setting sail that morning: “At 2:13 p.m., we’re going to hook a marlin, and it’s going to win.”
The morning proceeded in complete silence. McCoy looked for “rips,” or intersections of warm and cold water, all over the place. They have the ability to create lines of sea grass and trash in the water, which baitfish like to use as cover. He reasoned that’s where fish would be hiding out.
Sensation skipped the lines and went straight to the trolling. There was a Black Bart Super Plunger at the end of one particular queue. It had a blue and silver head and streaks of red and purple throughout it.
