MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WNCT) — The 66th Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament kicked off Monday with 271 of the 302 boats entering the water.
Boats have two lay days where they must stay at shore during the six-day tournament. Most took advantage of the nice weather on Monday to hit the water with hopes of landing the big one early.
Follow our coverage of the 66th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament on our daily blog and on our Big Rock page.
We’ll have live reports on each blue marlin that’s brought in to weigh on our “Watch Now” page at WNCT.com.
Big Rock Blue Marlin Leaderboard (through first day)
- Game Time, 516 pounds
- Release, 504 pounds
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4:28 p.m.
Game Time’s blue marlin comes in at 516 pounds to take over first place in the tournament standings. Clay Nalley is the angler and the captain of the boat is Ben Brownlee. More on this coming at 5 on WNCT-TV.
3:30 p.m.
The last boat to have a blue marlin hooked, Dun-Rite, released its fish at 3:20 p.m. (lines are out of the water at 3 p.m. unless a fish is still hooked). So fishing is done for the day and the last weigh-in for a marlin, brought in by Game Time, is now slated for 4:20 p.m.
2:51 p.m.
Release’s blue marlin weighed in at 504 pounds, earning it first place and a $1.7 million prize for the first 500-pound blue landed. No blue marlin over 500 pounds was captured last year, allowing the prize money to roll over. The boat is led by Capt. Rom Whitaker and the angler was Kirk Pugh.
2:34 p.m.
The Big Rock show leading up to the first weigh-in is now live on YouTube, X and Facebook. It will broadcast until the end of the fishing day.
2:25 p.m.
Game Time is the second boat Monday to land a blue marlin. Big Rock officials say the estimated time to arrive to weigh the blue marlin is 4 p.m. It has since been updated to 4:20.
11:58 a.m.
Big Rock posted its midway update just before noon.
10:24 a.m.
Release has boated a blue marlin. Capt. Rom Whitaker and the crew are expected to be at Big Rock Landing to weigh in their catch at 2:30 p.m.
9:51 a.m.
There is a total of $7.56 million up for grabs in the different categories.
9:50 a.m.
One thing the anglers are hoping for is landing a blue marlin that’s 500 pounds or greater. That didn’t happen last year when the winning fish weighed in at 484.5 pounds. So the prize money of $1,729,750 has rolled over to this year.
9:42 a.m.
Anglers are already busy Monday morning, hooking up and releasing lots of fish within the first hour. You can also follow the action on the Big Rock website or on the X page.
Bank Walker released the first fish of the day, a sailfish, to win $5,000.
9:19 a.m.
Follow our coverage of the 66th annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament on our daily blog and on our Big Rock page.
We’ll have live reports on each blue marlin that’s brought in to weigh on our “Watch Now” page at WNCT.com.
Kenneth Roundtree
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