Biloxi, Mississippi; June 10, 2022
By Capt. Dave Lear
The bite offshore is almost as hot as the temperatures on the hill. It is unofficially summer, after all, and the 73 boats competing in the 26th annual Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic are racking up the release points. As of late Saturday afternoon the collective tally included 33 blue marlin, six whites and two sailfish. Several boats have a couple releases each; no blues have been reported boated.
The MGCBC is a team tournament with an emphasis on blue marlin. In order to weigh a blue, the fish must measure 110 inches from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail. Every fish is different, but as a general rule that size is typically 500 pounds or more. The weight is verified by a certified scale at the docks of the Point Cadet Marina once it is off-loaded. The top score is determined by the heaviest weight.
Smaller blue marlin that are caught, along with white marlin, sailfish and spearfish, are released. Crews must show video of the catch and release with an identifier and time stamp as proof to the video judges. Because of their size and strength, blue marlin releases count for 600 points each, while the other species score 250 points apiece.
Game fish divisions include tuna, wahoo and dolphin and entries over the 20-pound minimum earn a point per pound. There are also special honors for the top lady and junior anglers overall.
All the boats competing pay the base $6,000 entry fee. That money is then paid out to the top three winners in the blue marlin, tuna, wahoo and dolphin weight divisions as tournament awards. The heaviest blue pays $100,000 to the winner. Second place is worth $50,000 and third pays $25,000. The game fish categories pay out $30,000, $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. The billfish release tournament awards have the same pay structure as the game fish.
Teams can choose to enter optional categories to increase the payouts, however. In essence, it is basically a fish bet. Catch and release optionals, along with the blue marlin weight category, have five levels of bets starting at $10,000 and finishing with $500. Gamefish optionals begin at $5,000 and scale down to $500. All optional categories pay first through third place with a 50, 30, 20 percent split. So if a boat is entered across the board in optional money and they land the heaviest blue marlin overall, the payout can be a very large six-figure payout.
“This is an average year for the number of boats, but our prize money keeps going up with the optional entries,” says Tournament Coordinator Bert Merritt. Merritt has been with the Classic since the beginning.
“Fish-wise, the bite is on. These guys are competitive as all get out. We’ve lost a few of the top teams from previous years, but new boats have stepped into the void,” Merritt adds. “The style of fishing has changed over the years also. More boats are using the sophisticated Omni directional sonar to find fish and live bait them. But others are still trolling lures and rigged baits and staying competitive. So like it has since the tournament started, it all boils down to being in the right spot at the right time and executing. The teams that do that are always the big winners.”
The real scorecard will be determined Saturday night, once the last boat has weighed its catch. The weigh-in is free and open to the public at the Point Cadet Marina, behind the host Golden Nugget—Biloxi. The scales open at 3 p.m.
