Cape Charles boat, led by Virginia Beach captain, closes in on $3.4 million grand prize in Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament
Three days after topping the leaderboard with a 572.6-pound catch, a Virginia Beach captain and his crew are closing in on the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament’s grand prize of more than $3.4 million.
The tournament’s fleet of 266 boats can hit the water Saturday in a final attempt to knock the Mercenaria from the top spot in the lucrative blue marlin category. The potential payout could be $3,489,813, according to the Morehead City, North Carolina, tournament’s website. Fishing finishes at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Mercenaria is owned by Chad Ballard, president of Cherrystone Aqua-Farms in Cape Charles, and named after a species of clams grown by the business. The 72-foot Viking is captained by Virginia Beach’s Neil Sykes and is docked at the Virginia Beach Fishing Center in Rudee Inlet. The crew includes anglers from Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore.
The boat already has earned $777,750 for landing the tournament’s first qualifying blue marlin over 500 pounds. That catch Monday — reeled in by Matt Brown of Cape Charles — has remained in first place since.
The Wall Hanger, a North Carolina boat, remains in second place with a 556.4-pound marlin, followed by High Yield (Charleston, South Carolina) with a 526.7-pound marlin.
The fleet is competing in 10 categories for a tournament-record purse of more than $5.8 million. Boats are permitted to fish on four of the tournament’s six days, and category entry fees range from $1,000 to $20,000.
On Thursday, 255 boats hit the water, and 38 blue marlin were caught. Two of them taken to the scales at Big Rock Landing weighed in at less than 460 pounds and missed the leaderboard.
As fishing began Friday morning, 139 boats hit the water. By 4 p.m., when fishing wrapped for the day 14 blue marlin had been caught, but none cracked the leaderboard.
Jami Frankenberry, 757-446-2376, jami.frankenberry@pilotonline.com. Twitter @JamiVP
