By Capt. Dave Lear
June 7, 2018; Biloxi, Mississippi:
One by one they slowly churned past the tournament control boat to be checked off the list. Nearly 120 big center consoles, catamarans and sport-fishing convertibles, most with filled fuel bladders lashed to the deck or cockpit, departed the Point Cadet Marina at 11 a.m. Thursday in search of translucent blue offshore water in the Gulf of Mexico. Finding those ideal conditions might be a little more difficult these week, but no matter. With $2.6 million in potential prize money on the line, the hunt will be worth it.
Un-Tropical Storm Alberto changed things up from the last couple of weeks. A big plume of greenish-brown water has pushed out the mouth of the Mississippi River and around several of the rigs that were producing last month. Still, there are always opportunities for the resourceful.
“There’s a warm water eddy rotating clockwise off the Green Canyon,” says Tom Hilton of Hilton’s Realtime Navigator, a satellite forecasting service used by many teams. “It’s grabbing that off-color river water and pulling it south, taking some rigs off the table. There’s also green water coming in from the east. There should be some fish right out front but probably 20 boats on each rig. The Ram Powell [rig] should be good. All that bait isn’t going anywhere though. And I’ve seen 800- and 1,000-pounders caught in green water.”
Capt. Jason Buck and the crew aboard Done Deal, a perennial contender, is planning on any contingency.
“We’ll likely head west but we may change our mind two or three times before we get there,” Buck says. “That’s why we always carry as much fuel as possible, so we’re ready for anything. There were some good weed lines off the river. Alberto didn’t mess them up too bad and many have re-formed. So we’ll go see what we can find.”
This will be the second year Draggin’ Up, a 74 Viking based in Galveston, Texas, has fished the Classic. Capt. John Deerman says his team really enjoys fishing this particular tournament.
“We mainly fish the Texas circuit, but we love coming over here for this one,” Deerman explains. “The owner enjoys hanging out at the casino beforehand, plus there’s always lots of boats and big prize money. Green water has moved in around the river, so we filled the bladders up to head west.”
Draggin’ Up and 86 other boats entered the special $200 division for a chance to break the Mississippi yellowfin tuna record. The first registered angler to land a yellowfin on conventional tackle exceeding 205.8 pounds will win an extra $500,000, plus possible optional money.
In another competitive twist, all blue marlin weighed must measure 107 inches from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail. The Classic, and all four other events in the Gulf Coast Triple Crown Championship, agreed to raise the minimum length to promote billfish conservation this season. Smaller blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish that are successfully released count for points in the Catch & Release Division. Catches must be verified by a video recording that includes the GPS date, time and official indicator. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are up for grabs in this tightly contested category.
Boats were able to start fishing immediately after clearing the navigation channels. The weigh scales, located at the Point Cadet Marina behind the host Golden Nugget Casino and Hotel in Biloxi, will open at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Besides blue marlin, wahoo, dolphin, tuna and swordfish are eligible catch. The weigh-ins are free and open to the public.
