Big Rock still has no winner — with almost $1 million in first-prize money at stake
There is still no official winner in last week’s Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.
Almost $1 million in prize money is riding on whether a mate on the Hatteras-based Citation, the boat that caught a record-breaking blue marlin that should have taken the top prize, had a North Carolina recreational fishing license, which is required by both state and tournament rules.
About 5 p.m. this afternoon, the Big Rock Tournament board of directors issued a terse statement that it was “still in the process of investigating the alleged rule violation by the fishing vessel Citation with regards to the 883-pound marlin weighed in on June 14, 2010.”
In the media release, the board said:
“The violation centers on whether the mate on the Citation had been timely issued a Coastal Recreational Fishing License as required by our Tournament as well as the State of North Carolina. We have been in contact with the Division of Marine Fisheries as well as the N.C. Attorney General’s Office.
“We are exercising due diligence in this investigation, so to protect our participants, sponsors and charities.”
Angler Andy Thomasson of Richmond, Va., landed the fish on the Citation, which is privately owned and captained by Eric Holmes, after a three-hour battle on the first day of the tournament, Monday, June 14. It is – or would be if declared the winner — the largest in the 52-year history of the Big Rock.
However, the awards banquet on the last day, Saturday, June 19, was halted before the winner in the largest blue marlin category was announced.
The board issued a statement Sunday morning saying that it was investigating allegations of a violation of tournament rules.
Later, Sunday, the board issued another statement calling on fans of the Big Rock to refrain from commenting until a decision was made late today.
And late today came the decision that there was nothing decided yet.
The Big Rock is one of the largest tournaments on the East Coast. This year 156 boats entered, and the purse was worth a total of $1.6 million.
According to the Big Rock website, the Citation stood to take in prize money of at least $912,000.
Meanwhile, other newspapers, such as the Jacksonville Daily News and the Carteret County News-Times, have reported that the angler who caught the fish and another co-owner of the boat said that they have been told they would not win.
The Jacksonville newspaper reported online:
“We didn’t do anything wrong. But one of our people did. He failed to get a fishing license, but we didn’t know it. He told us he had it. He didn’t. So you take a man for his word, you know? I can’t do anything. They made their decision,” Thomasson said, referring to the Big Rock board of directors.
“They’re taking it away, everything. The fish is disqualified. We’re disqualified. So that’s the end of it. Yeah, wow. That hurts. To have done it like that…, to have somebody beat me because they caught (a bigger) fish is not so bad, but…,” he said, his voice trailing off without completing his thought.
A North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License costs $15 annually for state residents 16 and older or $30 for nonresidents, according to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ website. A 10-day license can also be purchased for $5 for state residents 16 and older or $10 for nonresidents.
In an update today, the Jacksonville newspaper also quoted Michael Topp, a co-owner of the boat who has a vacation cottage in Frisco:
The lack of a license by a “for-hire mate” was discovered during a lie detector test Saturday night, said Michael Topp, one of the boat’s three owners. The tournament requires a lie detector test for the top money winners, including the captain, mate and angler as well as “others as deemed necessary.”
“Based on that, it appears that they are going to withhold all the winnings and disallow the catch of the fish,” Topp said. “It’s their tournament, their rules, their judgment. We, of course, feel that the action of the particular individual on an individual license should be dealt with on an individual license basis.
On the Big Rock’s Facebook page, folks have been arguing the fairness or unfairness of it all for two days as they have followed the unfolding drama.
Some say “the rules are the rules,” while others think the angler and the boat should not have to pay for the mistake of a mate, who has not been named in any published account. Some think the record should stand anyway.
Besides what the Citation stands to lose, there are at least two boats that stand to be big winners.
If the Citation is eventually disqualified, the top prize money in the biggest blue marlin category would go to the second-place boat, Carnivore, which brought a 528-pound fish to the dock. The angler was John Parks of Jacksonville, N.C., and the captain is Ed Petrilli of Cape Carteret.
The third-place finisher also stands to move higher in the prize money. That boat is Wet-N-Wild with angler Joseph Engleby and captain Tony Ross.
Not involved in the controversy are two Hatteras-based boats that finished in the money.
Sea Creature, captained by Steve Coulter, won for a 54.4-pound dolphin that took the dolphin “winner take all” category for $96,900, the weekly gamefish dolphin division for $6,077, and the daily gamefish category for $1,013. Total earnings for Sea Creature was right at $104,000.
In addition, Release, with Capt. Rom Whitaker, won first place in the daily release division on Saturday with a release of one white and one blue marlin for $7,732.80 in prize money.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To read the story in the Jacksonville Daily News, go to:
http://www.jdnews.com/sports/rock-79581-city-rules.html
To read the story in the Carteret County News-Times, go to:
http://www.carteretnewstimes.com/articles/2010/06/21/news-times/news/doc4c1d094db4136090480783.txt
For more information on the Big Rock Tournament and the winners, go to http://www.thebigrock.com
