By Joy Crist, Island Free Press
The 63rd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament wrapped up this past weekend, and a boat based out of Oregon Inlet ended up landing the top spot, as well as the tournament’s largest cash prize for a first-place marlin in history.
The vessel WideSpread, with local Captain Jay Watson and a team of anglers from Raleigh, won the first-place prize of $1,678,250 for a 656.5-pound blue marlin that was reeled in by 19-year-old Cole Pirrung on Friday evening, June 18.
The other winners in the Blue Marlin Division for 2021 included the boat Natural, which landed a 521.6-pound marlin on Tuesday and a prize of $453,700, followed by Outnumbered, which reeled in a 512.4-marlin and a $301,800 cash prize.
The largest prize for a gamefish went to Fin Print, which landed a 48.3-pound dolphin on Thursday and took home $529,125 for their efforts.