Swansboro Rotary Blue Water
Capts. Randy and Butch Bryant with the 549.20 lb. blue marlin that anchored the second win in eight years in the Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament for the Morehead City-based “Maggie” crew. The big fish bit a purple/black trolling plug in 105 fathoms off Beaufort Inlet.
“It was like an aquarium out there,” Capt. Randy Bryant said of the spot where he and the crew of the “Maggie” hooked the two blue marlin that earned them first place in the Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament, held May 22-25 out of the Swansboro Rotary Civic Center.
“There were mahi feeding, a couple of big hammerheads, and I think the marlin were just circling all that activity.”
Bryant, his son Butch, and Zach and Sam Adams, Paul McCarthy, Jeff Skinner, and Jeff Morgan teamed up aboard the “Maggie,” a 47’ Buddy Davis sportfisherman, for the event, and the team identified some likely looking water in 100 fathoms to check out on the opening morning of the competition.
“We were fortunate to see a fish early that morning in 105 fathoms before lines-in,” Bryant explained. “I thought it was a blue marlin and marked the spot.”
When the tournament officially started, the anglers plied the area with a spread of blue marlin plugs, daisy chain teasers, and a dredge for 45 minutes, but they decided to head offshore after not finding much interest in their offerings.
“We went out to the deep, 250 fathoms,” Bryant continued, “but we ended up coming back into the spot we’d seen the fish in 100.”
Soon after redeploying their spread, the anglers found the action they’d been looking for and then some.
“We hooked a double header on the plugs right there,” Bryant said, “and we had one of the other plugs hanging from an outrigger and a third one, a big fish, trying to eat it.”
After one of the anglers was able to get the rigger plug away from the third fish, they concentrated on the two that were hooked up, but realized the double hookup was going to present a challenge.
“They were both big fish,” Bryant explained, “and they were running together. If those lines touched, we knew we’d lose both of them so we were going to cut one off.”
Before the crew was faced with that painful decision, the hook set on one of the lures broke, freeing the “Maggie” to concentrate on just one of the big fish. Butch Bryant took the chair and began what turned into a wild battle.
“That was a crazy fish,” the elder Bryant reported. “It put on the most beautiful show I’d ever seen. It would greyhound one way, turn 180 and jump again and land on the line. Luckily it stayed glued for us.”
Continuing the spectacular show, the marlin performed four of the abrupt turns and many more leaps. After the fish settled down a bit, the crew were able to get their hands on the leader and a close look at the marlin, which appeared to meet the minimum size requirements to weigh a fish in the event.
“It was 104-105 inches and fat, and I’m pretty sure it would’ve weighed 400,” Bryant continued. “But we knew there were more fish and big fish in the area, so we decided to let it go and try for a bigger one.”
They got the official release at 1:41 that afternoon and reset their spread to look for another blue marlin.
An hour after releasing the marlin and with 10 minutes left before the 3:00 lines-out time, the “Maggie” crew had their number called again. As they’d hoped, an even larger marlin attacked another of their trolling plugs and found the hooks. Butch Bryant returned to the chair for the second fish, and held on while it made a hard run.
“That fish peeled a lot of line,” Bryant said. “Then he turned around and ran back to the boat. He actually passed us up on top.”
The fish stayed near the surface running for the rest of the battle, but the anglers were able to wear it out a bit over an hour after the hookup.
“We got her wore out and on her side and got her bill,” Bryant explained. “And we got a rope on her bill and one on her tail and got her in pretty easy.”
Measurements showed this clearly to be a ‘kill fish’ and the anglers hauled it back to the scales at the Morehead City waterfont after putting it in the boat. The 549.20 lbs. the fish weighed would’ve been enough to win the tournament alone, but combined with 300 release points from their earlier fish gave the anglers plenty to celebrate. Several other boats weighed fish over the course of the event. None were able to approach the 849.20 points that “Maggie” had on the leaderboard, and the Morehead City team earned their second victory in eight years in the Swansboro event.
Travis Carter and the “Yellowfin” crew finished second in the event by weighing in a 490.80 lb. blue marlin, and Lacey Henry on the “Miss Judy” rounded out the top three with a 479.60 lb. fish.
More information on the event and a full leaderboard are available at www.kingbluewater.com.
