VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — In tournament fishing, persistence is the name of the game, and at the recent OC Tuna Tournament, that persistence paid handsome dividends for Jake Boltz.
Fifteen years of entering the ring paid off for Boltz, as he and his Fly’N Fish crew came away with more than $300,000 after the weight of their tunas topped the field in the tournament held off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland.
Boltz, 28, took the boat from Virginia Beach to Ocean City and met up with its crew to compete for the heaviest stringer — the weight of 10 yellowfin tunas, up to five per day — over the course of the three-day tournament.
“Found a really good spot all by ourselves, caught a ton of fish,” he said, without disclosing exactly where this fishing spot is.
Lines were cast into the mother load, hauling in big, juicy fat ones. Five weighed in at about 209.5 pounds. Getting just three hours of sleep that night, they went back early Saturday morning.
“I made the decision to go back out to the same spot the next morning,” Boltz said. “Had a slow morning, then had a really good afternoon.”
The boys hoisted another 198.5 pounds of tuna from their salty home, for a combined weight of 408 pounds. This put them in first place by day three, but since they already weighed in, they just had to wait until the other boats returned.
“We just sat around and were super stressed out,” he said.
It was a nail-biter, but no one could beat their weight, leaving Fly’N Fish with a trophy and the $357,460 prize.
“A lot of excitement,” he said. “Shed a couple of tears. It’s just been a super long-time coming. The three of us have been fishing together 15, 16 years. Never won anything like this, so it was just a sigh of relief really.
So what plans do they have for the money?
“I think we are going to put a down payment on a new set of motors for this boat,” he said. “It’s going right back into the boat.”
“Yep, and we’re actually going back out tuna fishing tomorrow, so there [are] no breaks,” he said, laughing.
His advice to other competitive anglers? Just stick with it.
“You’re going to lose a lot more than you ever win,” Boltz said. “You just got to keep trying, keep at it. Don’t get discouraged.”