Millions on the line during conclusion of Big Rock

The 263 out of 271 boats fishing the 65th Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament that had a day left are out in the canyons off Morehead City, N.C. trying for a chunk of the millions that will be awarded after the scales close at 7 p.m.

Skip Hook may not have much to worry about with their 59.3-pound dolphin, and the odds are in favor of Waldor’s Ark with their 59.7-pound wahoo. but the major category has been switching rapidy. The volume of blue marlin has been outstanding as Marlin Fever took a big lead in the release category with a tournament record five blues released yesterday..

The Big Rock has an unusual $739,500 prize for the boat with the first blue of at least 500 pounds, but none of the leaders were quite that big,

Sushi took over the lead yesterday at 484.5 pounds, and held on as Chasin’ A weighed a 479.8-pounder fought by 14-year-old Carson Moser. That dropped early leader C-Student back to third at 470.2. Sea Toy is fourth at 463.7 pounds. If Sushi’s lead holds up, they are in line for $2,769,438!

Most unusual is the lack of tuna being weighed in. High Yield leads at a mere 42.8 pounds. Among the entrants is MJs, a North Jersey bigeye pro which released a blue marlin this morning.

I’ll keep track of the landings and will post again after the scales close,

Sea bass fishing continues to be good even if N.J. anglers have to sort through lots of shorts. The Big Mohawk from Belmar reported a 32-man limit on Friday.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for northwest winds at 10-15 knots before going southwest at 5-10 in the afternoon. That calm weather wasn’t favorable for surfcasting this morning. As a result, Vinny D’Anton started with fluking which once again produced shorts on Gulp. When some whitewater developed on the change of the tide, Vinny switched to sand fles and caught a couple of large short bass

before having to leave his Monmouth County beach as swimmers arrived.

Ginger Tatum with a fine striper before release by Gary Caputi