Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament
Putting the event’s first sailfish on the board broke a three-way tie for Atlantic Beach’s “Maggie” crew, earning the anglers their second win in as many years in the Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament, held July 1-4 out of Wrightsville Beach Marina.
Along with Capt. Randy Bryant for the event were his son and mate Butch Bryant, grandson Austin Lord, Sam Adams, Alan Willis, Richard Phillips, and Paul McCarthy.
The anglers were unable to get a clear satellite surface temperature shot before the event, so they headed for an area they’ve had success at in the past—near the tournament’s northern boundary at the 550 Loran line.
“There were 12-14’ seas stacked up out there,” Randy Bryant explained. “We had terrible conditions. The wind had to be close to 30. It was blowing the tops off the waves. The water was really hot, too. I looked around for the coolest water I could find, which was 85.5 degrees, and we stayed with it.”
The anglers caught several dolphin up to 25 lbs. over the course of the morning, but they saw no billfish until the first day’s 3:00 lines-out time was looming.
“We’d been catching a lot of mahi,” Bryant continued, “but we didn’t release that sail till 2:32.”
The sail came up on a dredge teaser in the 55’ Custom Carolina’s wake as they trolled in around 125 fathoms of water, and Butch Bryant was quick to feed it a dink ballyhoo on the short rigger.
“He dropped it back and everything went smooth,” Bryant explained.
The anglers grabbed the leader on the fish and earned the release as soon as it was within range, and then they quickly got baits back in the water.
“We got back to fishing and tried to get another one for that last 20 minutes,” Bryant said, “but we just got messed with by the mahis.”
With the first release of the event, the anglers went into Saturday in the lead and headed for the north again on the tournament’s second morning.
“The cooler water had moved a bit inshore,” Bryant said, “so we fished in around 60 fathoms. We saw three sails Saturday, but we had a big belly in our lines from the wind, and we couldn’t get hooks in them.”
Despite seeing more billfish but releasing none on the event’s second and final day, the first sailfish release of the event held up and the “Maggie” crew took home the Cape Fear Blue Marlin’s first place check for the second year in a row.
Releasing a sailfish just three minutes behind “Maggie,” Capt. Hunter Blount and the “Barbara B” crew, from Greenville, NC, took home second place.
Along with the captain and boat owner Bill Blount aboard the 61’ Sportsman for the event were Hunter Blount, Jr., Jim Holmes, and mates Scotty Capps and Morgan Morgan.
After having a sailfish grab a large marlin lure and spit it out that morning, the anglers hadn’t seen much activity other than dolphin until the fateful sail bit just after 2:30 on the event’s first day.
“It came in on the left flat, the same side we had our dredge on,” Bill Blount explained. “I popped it out of the clip, dropped the rod tip so the bait would stay swimming well in the water, and she came back and ate it.”
After inhaling the dink ballyhoo, the fish took off and began jumping.
“I didn’t even know what it was till it came out of the water,” Blount continued. “I saw the bite, but the fish never really showed itself.”
The “Barbara B” crew circled for a short time to try and find another fish, but they soon decided it would be prudent to get a fast release on the one they’d hooked.
“When we saw it was a sail and we knew the fishing was slow,” Blount said, “we decided we’d better go get it real quick.”
After clearing their remaining lines, the anglers backed down on the fish and got the leader and the official release at 2:35.
Saturday proved uneventful for the “Barbara B” anglers, but they held onto second place based on time.
Capt. Barry Moore and Morehead City’s “Stream Machine” earned third place with another single sailfish release.
The Morehead charter boat “Carolina Time” swept the event’s dolphin category, weighing in 39.5 and 22.1 lb. ‘phins to take first and second place. The dolphin pair also earned 15-year-old Cameron Rhue the event’s Top Junior Angler honors.
