June 12, 2021; Biloxi, Mississippi:
By Capt. Dave Lear
Some scenarios defy scripting. As if on cue from a director, the 25th annual Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic featured a parade of fish to the scales, intriguing back stories, nail-biting lead changes and a couple of climaxes that set new benchmarks. It was, quite literally, a sport-fishing drama.
The suspense started building as soon as the scales opened at 3 pm. Eric Daughtry on Blue Water started the dialogue with a 48.7-pound bull dolphin that ate a ballyhoo and was boated after a 20-minute fight. Blue Water, a 62 Viking from Orange Beach, had to contend with clearing floating grass from the line, a common complaint among the entire fleet.
Mike Woods, competing on Snafu, a 67 F&S based in Jupiter, Florida, manned the chair for a grueling 2-hour battle with a yellowfin tuna that ate a live flying fish. The strike came near the Thallassa Rig in the Mississippi Canyon. Snafu was in close proximity to C- Student, which would add another wrinkle to the script. Woods boated that eventual winner, a 212.2-pound behemoth.
With a $250,000 extra payout for the last team to break the existing state record swordfish (242 pounds), the broadbill entries were hoisted into the air with regularity. BJ Crookshank on Fish Heads came close to setting a new mark when he bested his after 2.5 hours. That fish registered 238.2 pounds. Rod Bender reported the tale of a huge smoker that got away after it pulled the hooks during a double-header battle. Meanwhile, Tails Up waited patiently in the boat que.
C- Student offered a teaser when it called in a boated blue measuring 126 inches on Friday. Once the 66 Viking from Southside Place, Texas, finally backed into the slip and the fish was off-loaded, the crowd went wild. Young Hunter Megarity had conquered his foe after a 2.5-hour fight on an 80 Wide reel once it ate a live blackfin tuna. C- Student was fishing in the area known as the Compound. The all-star crew with triple captains Ken Blackman, his brother Stan and Joey Birbeck weren’t sure if they had hooked a bluefin tuna since it consistently stayed down. The fish was finally gaffed, though, and quickly took the lead with a weight of 629.7 pounds.
“It was great having the band back together,” Stan said with a grin after the weight was announced. The two brothers were in the cockpit when Birbeck boated his first marlin and 10 years later, the three were together again for Ken’s first.
“This is a great place with great fans, one of the best tournaments out there,” said boat owner Keeler Megarity. “We really felt like that fish would put us in a good place. But there are a lot of really good boats out there.” Which, as fate had it, was the perfect segue for the final marlin act to come.
Intense, a 39 Contender from Mobile, Alabama, added another subplot when angler Neal Foster put a 67 pound wahoo on the board. The team made a 1,300-mile round trip to land their trophy in an open center console.
Appropriately enough, It Just Takes Time backed up to the scales with the last marlin of the evening. Their fish was hooked about 7:45 Saturday morning on a live blackfin tuna near the Helix Producer and was boated around 11:45 after owner/angler Nick Pratt fought the fish on an 80 Wide reel. It took four flying gaffs and two straight gaffs to subdue it. Measuring 123 inches long (LJFL) with a 70.5-inch girth, the winning marlin weighed 793 pounds. The 72 Viking is based in Orange Beach, Alabama, and was also the 2020 MGCBC top marlin boat.
“It’s just awesome to be here,” Pratt said. “We realize it could always be our last time. There are so many excellent crews fishing this event that we are very fortunate to get this opportunity again.”
With the marlin category firmly decided, the only question mark remaining was the swordfish. Tails Up, a Contender center console, had radioed in a big sword and when Tournament Coordinator Chris McLellan saw it hanging out of both ends of the fish bag in the boat’s bow, he knew it would challenge the record. After working the docks for all 25 years of the Classic’s history, McLellan had a sharp eye.
Capt. Donnie Jackson, a charter skipper from Metairie, Louisiana, fed a squid bait to the broadbill and was on a stand-up 80 Wide Shimano Tiagra combo, loaded with 80-pound braided line with a 300-pound leader, for five hours before the fish was boated at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. The boat raced back to Biloxi with 10 minutes to spare before the deadline hour. When the fish finally cleared the dolly and was hoisted aloft, it weighed 309.9 pounds, shattering the previous mark by 67 pounds.
“This feels incredible,” Jackson said afterwards. “I’ve been waiting a long time to break the 300-pound mark. As a charter captain I don’t usually get to be on the rod, but in a big money tournament we knew we had to go get ‘em and we did.”
Bring up the lights and roll the credits. With the exception of awarding more than $1.8 million in prize money Sunday morning, this movie, the 25th remake, is almost over.
