MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WNCT) — The 65th Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament continues Tuesday after an active day of fishing produced a first-day leader.
C-Student emerged as the only boat to reach the leaderboard on Monday. Three blue marlin were caught and brought in to be weighed. However, only C-Student’s 470.2-pound fish qualified (the other two fish were below the 400-pound requirement).
Fishing begins Tuesday at 9 a.m. and runs to 3 p.m. Overall winners will be announced and crowned on Saturday.
You can follow all the action on the Big Rock Twitter account. There will be updates on fish caught and being brought back to the shore to be weighed along with other updates. You can also get the Big Rock app to listen to updates throughout the day. You can also listen here on the Big Rock website.
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Leaderboard
- C-Student, 470.2 pounds
- Sea Toy, 463.7 pounds
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6:35 p.m.
This year’s Big Rock Blue Marlin T-shirt isn’t just your average design. Artist Larry Rackley created a design that goes from oil painting to a digital design for the T-shirts. Erin Jenkins has more on this. Click the video at the top to find out more.
5:49 p.m.
Since 1986, Big Rock has given back $8.5 million to charities around the area. This year, the Big Rock Foundation is looking to give back $1 million and add to the total through a unique My Hometown Raffle event this week. Erin Jenkins has more in the above video.
5:17 p.m.
The blue marlin that Lady Dianne reeled in didn’t make the 400-pound weight requirement. So the leaderboard stays the same as activities are done for the day. It’s the third blue marlin brought to Big Rock Landing to weigh that didn’t make the 400-pound limit.
4:18 p.m.
The last boat that was still battling a blue marlin, Honey Hush, released its line. So fishing is done for the day. All that’s left is to weigh the catch for Lady Dianne, which is from Beaufort, along with the fish caught in other categories. More on 9OYS News at 5.
4:01 p.m.
The prize for the first fish that weighs over 500 pounds is still out there. The first boat that does that picks up a check for $739,500.
3:34 p.m.
Sea Toy is now in second place after its blue marlin weighed 463.7 pounds. The second boat with a blue marlin, Lady Dianne, is expected to arrive at 5 p.m. with its catch.
3:02 p.m.
Lady Dianne is the second boat to reel in a blue marlin at Big Rock. ETA for its weigh-in will be announced later today.
1:06 p.m.
Sea Toy has boated a blue marlin and will be returning to Big Rock Landing to have it weighed later today. The boat is expected to arrive at around 3:30 p.m.
12:32 p.m.
One of the neat things that are being done during Big Rock week is checking in live with some of the boats on the water. There were a couple of posts on the Big Rock Facebook page on Monday. Check out the latest one that was done with Weldor’s Ark.
12 p.m.
It’s noon and we’re all waiting anxiously for a blue marlin to be boated and brought to Big Rock Landing to be weighed. Here’s a report on how things are going.
11:21 a.m.
There’s been a lot of fishing but no blue marlin boated yet. You can keep up with each hook-up, release and blue marlin boated on the Big Rock Facebook page.
11:05 a.m.
One of the traditions of the Big Rock is the blessing of the fleet each morning. If you follow the Big Rock on Facebook, you know when you see the video that it’s time to go fishing. Check out today’s blessing with Randy Ramsey.
9:31 a.m.
There are 254 of the record field of 271 boats on the water today.
9:22 a.m.
If you missed Monday’s coverage of the 65th Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, click here to see everything from our Day 1 blog.
Check out our KWLA coverage from Saturday and go to the KWLA website for more.
7:10 a.m.
Check out the weather forecast for Tuesday’s fishing.
5:55 a.m.
The Big Rock website provided a Day 1 wrap of activities on its website.
There were 271 boats entered for their shot at the record breaking $5,835,075 purse. Of the 271, 218 boats braved rough seas and fished Monday. The fleet racked up 46 releases: 42 blues, 2 whites, and 2 sailfish. The scales saw one qualifying blue marlin and eight gamefish.
C-Student brought in a Blue Marlin weighing 470.2lbs. The coveted Fabulous Fisherman’s title and prize payout of $739,500 is still up for grabs.