Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament
Capt. Ralph Griffin and the "Chainlin" crew released a pair of blue marlin on the final day of competition to earn 600 points and the win in the 30th Annual Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament. Their fish fell for marlin lures in around 100 fathoms of water off Beaufort Inlet.
After seeing a trio of blue marlin on the tournament’s first day, Capt. Ralph Griffin and Goldsboro, NC’s “Chainlink” fishing team tallied a pair of blue marlin releases on the second day to come back and take home the win in the 30th Annual Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament, held May 26-28.
With Ben and John Seegars, Jeff and Todd Nunn, Scott LaFever, Daniel Holmes, and mate Dickie Campbell aboard the 54’ Jarrett Bay, the crew had an eventful opening day of the event, but they were unable to translate it to points on the leaderboard.
“We saw three that first day,” Griffin reported, “but we didn’t get a hook in one. They ate the teasers but wouldn’t try anything we had with a hook in it.”
The crew fished from the 600-700 loran lines in around 100 fathoms on Sunday, the tournament’s first fishing day, and happy with the amount of marlin they’d seen, wanted to return to the same water the next day.
“Sunday we ran to where we could with the sea conditions,” Griffin said. “We had really pretty 76 degree water with very little grass. We ran to the 800’s yesterday trying to find the same body of water, but I think we were above it.”
Finding scattered grass and 78 degree water on Monday, the anglers deployed a spread of large trolling plugs and hookless teasers and began their hunt.
They had their next billfish encounter at around 10:30 when a blue marlin attacked one of the trolling lures with a hook in it. Ben Seegars took the rod, and the crew battled the estimated 350-400 lb. marlin to a release in 22 minutes.
Shortly after noon, the spread raised another marlin, and this one again found a hook.
“We were fortunate to hook up when we did,” Griffin reported, “because the boat that finished second hooked their second fish right behind us. We won it on time.”
Todd Nunn took the rod for their second blue of the day, and had the leader in Campbell’s hand for a clean release in under 20 minutes.
“Neither one of those fish jumped,” said Griffin. “It’s probably a good thing, too, because it doesn’t work out with lures sometimes when they’re jumping.”
Tallying their second release at 12:30, the “Chainlink” crew took the lead for the first time in the event, and never looked back.
Curtis Struyk and Morehead City’s “Piracy” crew were the boat to hook up right after the winner’s second fish, and they released their blue marlin of the event less than an hour after “Chainlink” did. Combined with a blue marlin release they’d tallied on the event’s first day, the fish tied them with “Chainlink” at 600 release points, but they had to settle for second based on time.
Capt. Mike Webb and the “Pelagic” fishing team, out of Atlantic Beach, released one blue and one white marlin over the course of the event to earn 375 points and round out the top three.
Zack Marcules, fishing on the “Accord-ingly,” landed a 24.30 lb. dolphin during the tournament to earn the event’s Top Junior Angler honors. Penny Page, on the “Galot 3,” took first place in the Lady Angler field with a 24.80 lb. dolphin.
More information on the Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament (and the King Mackerel Tournament scheduled for October 19-21) and a full leaderboard are available at www.kingbluewater.com.
