# Blue Marlin Grand Championships tournament report



## MSViking

Fished the Blue Marlin Grand Championship at the Wharf in OB this past weekend with my family. This time I even had my 79 yr old father on board!

Let me start by saying what a fantastic job everyone associated with the event did, from Art Farve, Rocky, Chris Miller, Beverly, Jim Cox as well at the guys working the dock. This was absolutely the best run and nicest tournament that I have ever been fortunate enough to fish!

Long story short virtually everyone to my knowledge went SW, way SW! We fished WhoDat, Amos Runner and Medusa on Friday and Thunderhorse, Thunderhawk, Blind Faith etc… on Saturday. We fished hard, very hard, so hard that we needed to make the run Friday night up to Venice to refuel. We are very thankful for Cypress Cove making arrangements for us to fuel up at 2 AM! Running up and back down the MS river from midnight to 3 AM is an interesting experience!!

We lost a monster YF (150+) at the gaff after an hour long fight on an 80W. That was heartbreaking! Later in the day my sister caught a nice sailfish. We came across an abandoned pontoon boat that gave up a few nice mahi with the largest being 42 lbs, which was good enough for first place dolphin in the tournament. We also caught a few smallish tuna and other dolphin.

Sunday was a wet day as it rained all day, fishing was slow. 

The weigh in was awesome! The tournament did an outstanding job bringing everyone and the fish to the “stage”, really really fun!

We won a little money, could have won many tens of thousands of more, but we are not big Calcutta betters, more glory hunters. Made lots of new friends and had an absolute blast!










The dock was a constant party!!


















pontoon boat that gave up the mahi









mid fight on the YF we lost









Hard core fishing sister!









sister's sailfish



















Robert


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## Downtime2

Looks like a successful trip to me!! Congrats!!


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## MillerTime

I can only dream of fishing in something like that! That was a nice fish.


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## my3nme

Saw you there with your fish. Great job and not many done as well as this one. Reminds me of Bay Pointe in the early days


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## gotwasabi?

Nice work out there. Did yall see more life friday or saturday?


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## Chris V

Good job Robert! Nice dolphin!


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## sail7seas

Great report and congrats on the dolphin. Enjoyed your descriptive interview of the trip at the weigh-in.


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## reeldog80

Sounds like a great trip!! Congrats on the Dolphin!!


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## Xiphius

Great report, nice fish too bad about the tuna. You guys were moored across from the Work of Art for the festivities. They were partying Sat night. I guess 248k ight be a good reason to have a good time.


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## Head Kned

Well done Robert, too bad on the tuna.


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## sniperpeeps

Great report and nice phin!


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## Frenchy

Thanks for posting and congrats on the dolphin


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## whome

Nice work Robert!


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## MakairaPullingLures

hey robert - congrats on the tourney, pretty work!

you gotta email me the high res pic of that sail for the wall, very nice picture!!

good luck and catch 'em up -


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## FATSTACKS

Great job Robert! Glad to see that you won the Mahi money! Enjoyed seeing you guys come in on Saturday night and talking with you during the weigh-in. Sorry to hear about the monster YFT that was lost at the gaff. Enjoyed the prictures of the abandoned pontoon boat! Great post as always!

Bruce
FATSTACKS


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## Subdude

Congrads on the win and some nice fish. I feel your pain on the big tuna. We lost one close to 200 on a rip at the gaff during the Isle of Capri a couple years back too. I guess those long fights waller out the hooks sometimes. Beautiful new Battlewagon:thumbup:


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## FishFighter92

Nice report! Thanks for posting!


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## MSViking

MakairaPullingLures said:


> hey robert - congrats on the tourney, pretty work!
> 
> you gotta email me the high res pic of that sail for the wall, very nice picture!!
> 
> good luck and catch 'em up -


Justin, Your lures have been on fire for us this year!! Every billfish has been on either a Lena or Moxie all year! I will email you pics shortly.

Robert


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## JMB

Man, I always thought I was more on the hardcore side of being a fisherman. But, your schedule has got me comnvinced that I'm more like softcore!

Nice trip and congrats to you for putting some funds back in to the fishing account. 

Those floating ghost boats are scary! First that cat and now a pontoon!? Those are the things running at night - which give me the chills!


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## MSViking

JMB said:


> Those floating ghost boats are scary! First that cat and now a pontoon!? Those are the things running at night - which give me the chills!


One thing nice about the pontoon boat was that being metal it showed up huge on the radar, we saw it miles before we knew what it was, now the swamped cat is a whole nother can of worms!!

A few more pics

Cow we caught before the bull










Nephew fighting the bull on the Stella!









bull in the water











another view of the bull










nephew rummaging thru pontoon boat










additional bait the pontoon boat gave up!









sunset on Jacquelyn










Robert


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## REELIST

Great report (and fishing)! congrats Robert to you and the entire crew.

TP:thumbsup:


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## bully48

Congrats Robert on a great trip!! That pontoon boat looks like it was sitting on a lake out there. Great Pics!!


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## flyliner

Great report and made everybody wish they were with you. FYI - Stone Fuel, just upstream from Cypress Cove has fuel 24/7 and so does the fuel dock first thing in the jump from the river, can't remember their name. Either place is considerably cheaper than Cypress Cove, the only issue is they are commercial type facilities geared for serving the oil industry boats. You need to have some good fenders/polyballs.


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## JoshH

boat looked great at the weigh in, and congrats on the dolphin


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## grey ghost

Awsome pics, trip, & report!! Whaaaat aaa riiiddee!! NICE!!


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## samoajoe

MSYellowfin said:


> Justin, Your lures have been on fire for us this year!! Every billfish has been on either a Lena or Moxie all year! I will email you pics shortly.
> 
> Robert


 
This answered my question, Makaira Lures are proven producers. I'm ambarrassed to say I'm just now seeing your pics. It looks like everything cooperated except for the big yellowfin. Thanks for sharing!


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## brianspy

Nice pictures, looked like a great trip. You must be tired? How were the sharks out at the rigs


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## Sc1006

Nice report and congrats on getting some cash. I didn't fish the tournament but was at innovator, mars, and ursa Thurs night. Made it to medusa about 9 fri morning with about 15 other boats. Didn't even attemp to make any passes around it. We had a small white come up on the shotgun at uncle john, but he disappeared quick. The other fuel dock just as you turn into the jump is L&L Martin. They are 24/7 also and about a $1.00 cheaper than cypress and Venice marina. But like posted earlier, have good fenders.


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## Lil' Ti

Job well done Robert. It appears you guys are getting settled in, in the new ride. I hope it continues to get better and better for you guys in your fishing endeavors.


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## crackerjac

Robert, enjoyed meeting you at the breakfast Thursday morning. Congratulations on the dolphin. I was on the boat GET REEL you may remember seeing at Thunderhorse Thurday evening. We had a good trip as well 3 50lb yf that missed money by 2 lbs and 1 blue marlin catch and release that we were told was unable to verify if it was white or blue so that cost us 9k. But we had a great time. Hope to fish it again next year.


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## MSViking

crackerjac said:


> We had a good trip as well 3 50lb yf that missed money by 2 lbs and 1 blue marlin catch and release that we were told was unable to verify if it was white or blue so that cost us 9k. But we had a great time. Hope to fish it again next year.


One of the great things about fishing is, there is always the next trip! Enjoyed meeting you as well, certainly made lots of new friends, loved the format! I too hope to fish next year, heck I would send my deposit today if they would let me as I am certain it will sell out next year!

Robert


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## BlueHeron35

Great job as usual Robert.


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