Large crowds gather at the Morehead City waterfront during the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament to watch competitors arrive at the weigh station.

Big Rock’s 50th anniversary sets gold standard for marlin fishing

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. – Last year, when the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament celebrated its 50th anniversary, nobody could have anticipated the six fantastic days of fishing that gave the event its golden-Hollywood ending.

The 50th Big Rock – which took three years to plan -- lived up to its hype in every way. Past winners received special honors; parties and participation gifts were bigger and better than ever. Thousands of dollars were raised to support charities. And everything went off without a hitch as anglers found themselves battling for a Big Rock record purse totaling $1,854,575.

In the end, competitors on 177 boats caught and released 163 billfish in near-perfect conditions. It was a wide-open tournament right up to the last minute … which included 28 minutes of “overtime.”

The competition was golden – both figuratively and literally – for the crew of the Artemis, who captured the top prize of $708,400. Named for the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis spent most of the tournament finding out what it was like to be hunted.

“It’s hard to explain what we’d gone through,” said Artemis angler Darryl Reyna, who landed his big catch on the tournament’s opening day. “Five days of those radio calls … there were so many hook-ups. Then that final call … I was numb. We all were. I don’t think I ever want to hear another radio call again.”

When the Artemis received word it had won the 50th Big Rock, the initial reaction wasn’t joy … it was relief. They had fished the final day of the competition and were headed back to port when they heard an ominous radio call. The tournament was suppose to be over but someone was still hooked up.

This was Big Rock’s version of sudden-death overtime – one last boat was fighting a big blue marlin. The fight could go on as long as was needed to reach an outcome.

Artemis crew members knew this final hook-up could knock them out of the top spot. An uneasy quiet fell over the crew. The tournament radio -- which had been hopping with hook-up calls all week –- suddenly, went silent, too. Now there was nothing on the radio but background static.

Then, 28 minutes after all other fishing had ceased, a final call came over the radio from Peggy captain Mike Guthrie of Beaufort. He had decided to release the blue marlin his crew was fighting. The Artemis was the winner of the 50th Big Rock.

“Believe me … we celebrated pretty quickly after that initial moment,” said Reyna, who was all smiles at the tournament’s awards ceremony. “But at first … we were just glad it was over.”

Since there was so much money at stake, it’s sometimes hard to believe how far the Big Rock has come in 50 years. A half a century ago, blue marlin fishing was thought to be something restricted to the balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Fish had been harvested from North Carolina coastal waters since before George Washington’s presidency. Nobody had ever caught a blue marlin there.

This was still true 11 years after World War II.

But sailors from cargo ships that offloaded goods at the Morehead City port would tell residents they had seen blue marlin not too far from shore. While most dismissed this as “bar talk,” a few wishful thinkers hoped the stories were true.

These dreamers were members of Morehead City’s Fabulous Fishermen Club, a collection of local fishing enthusiasts who got together each morning at one of the waterfront cafes to share a story or two and a cup of coffee. They had all heard the sailor's fish tales. They wondered how they could find out if it was true.

The year was 1957 and times were tough on the Morehead City waterfront. The post-war building boom that was changing much of America had not had much impact in this area. Morehead City was still a sleepy, little, port. Residents scratched out a living as best they could.

But club charter members Bob and Mary Simpson, Bill Strickland, Tom Potter and Dick Parker convinced local business leaders to put up a cash prize of a couple hundred dollars to encourage the area’s fledgling charter boat industry to head further offshore to find these elusive fish. Parker, who had fished for billfish in the Caribbean, knew what a boon this would be to the small charter boat fleet in that area.

The prize money that was raised did the trick. Boats ventured further offshore. Soon, captains and anglers began reporting their own blue marlin sightings. Still, throughout the summer of ’57, no blue marlins were caught.

Summer failures finally gave way to one huge autumn success. On Sept. 14, 1957, Raleigh angler Jimmy Croy, fishing aboard the Mary Z with Capt. K.W. “Bill” Olsen, landed a 143-pound blue marlin. This catch would forever change the face of fishing along the N.C. coast.

Olsen radioed back to port and word of the catch spread throughout the small town. When the Mary Z finally pulled into port, the boat and crew was greeted by a large gathering and blaring police sirens. An impromptu parade along the waterfront ensued, featuring the fishermen’s prize: a child’s red wagon filled with silver dollars.

While no one knows exactly where Olsen and Croy made their historic catch, most think the two had reached the Gulf Stream, a warm-water current that bisects colder coastal waters 40-60 miles south of the Morehead City port. As the Gulf Stream drifts north along the N.C. coastline, it crosses a structure on the continental shelf called “Big Rock” from which the tournament takes its name.

The Big Rock – which is not a rock at all – is a series of ledges, peaks and plateaus that covers an area about 8-10 miles long by 1 mile in width. It’s a haven for small reef fish – the type of fish that attract the larger fish that blue marlin feast on. It’s a microcosm of the oceanic food chain just a short distance from the Morehead City waterfront.

While the Big Rock remained an underwater secret for much of the nation’s history, it’s now considered the premier spot for marlin fishing on the East Coast. But even though the Big Rock has provided more than $1 million to tournament winners for 11 straight years, it took 39 years of hard work by Big Rock board of directors and tournament organizers to reach that level of success.

Early Big Rock events could hardly be considered tournaments. There were few rules and the competition was restricted to the members of the Fabulous Fishermen Club. Some of the early prizes resembled booty from a scavenger hunt. A 1965 newspaper article that detailed the winner’s prizes listed one quart of varnish.

But these humble beginnings gave way to a huge growth in prize money that no one could have predicted. In ’74, the winning boat received just $800. Ten years later, the purse reached $70,000. Twelve years after that, the purse reached $743,000.

Throughout it all, the Big Rock’s biggest asset has been the collective leadership of the Big Rock board of directors. The men and women who serve on the board act as stewards of the tournament. They have been instrumental to its rise in prosperity and popularity. They established and tweaked the rules every year to make sure the competition is fair to every entrant. They have led the way in the establishment of conservation standards that other tournaments chose to model.

The Big Rock board made it a part of its charter to give back to the local community. It established a foundation that supports a multitude of charities. These charities, to date, have received $1,897,250.

Early on, the competition consisted of a handful of charter boat captains hoping to win a few dollars and the bragging rights that came with a Big Rock victory. Nowadays, hundreds of anglers participate, representing the best marlin fishermen in the world. Each one hopes to win the Big Rock – the “Super Bowl” of fishing.

And are dozens of ways to win.

During the 50th Big Rock, the Tuna Trappe III captured the Fabulous Fisherman division to win $382,500. The crew of the 27-foot Tiger Runner pocketed $92,560 for winning multiple release prizes. Competitors battled daily to win a top release prize of $8,640 and runner-up release prize of $5,760.

Throughout it all, Artemis worried about its lead. No stranger to victory, the Artemis, captained by David ‘Bucky’ Copleston of Charleston, S.C., had won the S.C. Governor’s Cup competition in 2007. That included a key win in the Bohicket Marina Invitational Billfish Tournament at Seabrook Island, S.C., where the team caught and released three blue marlins.

But even though the Artemis catch was heavier than any Big Rock winner in five year, their lead never seemed secure. That’s because the 50th tournament opened with more opening-day weigh-ins (five) than there’d been in more than a dozen years.

Competitors expected the hot fishing to continue … and it did!

“The ‘bite’ was on … you could just tell,” said Randy Ramsey, a member of the Big Rock board who manned the tournament radio all week. “It’s safe to say 5-of-6 fishing days were great. We had a great week.”

A great week that fit right in with other great weeks in Big Rock’s recent past:

• In 2003, J.F. and Jim Pedersen, a father-and-son team from Hollywood, S.C., captured the 45th Big Rock the day before Father’s Day. It was a timely moment for both and it gave the competition a Hollywood ending.

• In 2004, Donald Lane of Atlantic Beach was captaining his own boat, Impulse, for the first time. He picked up a Big Rock victory and the $711,375 first prize, staking the young captain to many other billfish competitions.

• In 2006, Goldsboro angler Wes Seegars fenced off the rest of the competition aboard Chainlink. He caught the last and biggest blue marlin of the 48th event, battling his blue marlin for seven hours aboard a vessel that had won the Big Rock before in ’94 when the boat was named the Salty Fare.

Big Rock storylines seemed to get better every year. Competitors made plans to participate in the next Big Rock before the current Big Rock was over.

“The franchise of the Big Rock is one of the things that we hold most dear,” said Tommy Bennett, who serves as Big Rock president. “The Big Rock has a good name. People have expectations when they arrive here. We’ve got a great spot on the calendar … and we need to keep this in mind in the days ahead.

“We are committed to making sure that our participants have a great, wonderful, meaningful time while they are visiting Morehead City. We want them to be well taken care of, well fed and well entertained. We will do everything in our power to make sure that they have a wonderful experience while they fish the Big Rock.”

Bennett’s words are fundamental to understanding why the Big Rock is the success it is today. This one-time wager grew into a million-dollar tournament because competitors, sponsors and Big Rock officials treasure and safeguard its core values. It has become a singular event through thoughtful stewardship, excellent planning, luck and some of the best billfish competitors in the world. Its popularity grows bigger every year.

While the Big Rock’s golden anniversary was intended to celebrate its wonderful past, it also serves as a starting point for all competitions yet to come. When competitors head offshore this year, they will enter the Big Rock’s second half century. They will try to strike gold and become the next chapter in the Big Rock’s wonderful history, a story that grows more golden every year.