All Settled In and Here Comes Big Rock

SeaVeyor is now nestled into her original slip at the Yacht Basin... We have a view of the basin and the marshes just beyond.. what a great way to enjoy a morning cup of coffee. We feel that the Yacht Basin is one of the best on the East Coast, and it's home! One of the many things that we enjoy here is the Sportfish community. The guys that have their boats here are awesome! You can just feel the excitement in the air when they come into the dock. Big Rock is just in two weeks. It is a Gulfstream fishing tradition on the East Coast that truly has no equal. It is called the "SuperBowl" of Blue Marlin tournament fishing. Morehead City Yacht Basin was one of the original sites that was home to the tournament. Just within the last seven years, six Captains from the Yacht Basin have won the tournament.

It all started back in 1957 with the Morehead City Fabulous Fishermen's Club. They normally got together for coffee in the mornings and would talk of "tales" of the big fish, Blue Marlin , that sailors had seen off of the North Carolina coast. They put together a plan for a tournament with a cash prize of a couple hundred dollars. This was just what the sleepy little port needed for it's fishing fleet. It's 1957...all summer long no Blue Marlin were caught, but finally in September, the Mary Z radioed in that she was coming in with a Blue Marlin catch!! The Captain was Bill Olsen and the angler was Jimmy Croy.. It was a 143 lb blue marlin. When the Mary Z arrived in port, a small crowd gathered to meet her and a parade followed with a little red wagon filled with their prize of silver dollars.. The tournament is named after the Big Rock out in the gulf stream, about 46 miles out. It is a combination of ledges,peaks, and plateaus that covers an area of 8-10 miles and about 1 mile wide. It is home for various bait fish that attract the bigger Blue Marlins. This tournament is not just about the prize money, but also giving to community charities. Big Rock has given over 2 million dollars to different charities. Although I don't like to see the big fish killed, very few are brought in and most are catch and release. Having won the 2008 Lady Anglers of Big Rock, ( always catch and release) I have a huge respect for what these guys do and how well they do it. As I stated before, it's not just about the prize money, but a tradition that started long ago and just gets better every year. Just seeing all of the beautiful sportfish boats, all lined up and ready to go, and then all coming back into the inlet each afternoon is such a sight to see!! Of note, in 2007 we took our center console Pursuit out and sat

just outside the channel at the inlet. Dwayne strapped me into the fighting stand on the bow and I took pictures of these beautiful boats coming in one at a time..And, yep, I got green once we got back to shore.. too much time looking through the camera viewfinder.. Ha!!!! One of the few times I've ever gotten seasick. This years Big Rock starts on June 8th and I can't wait !! If you want to read more about the Big Rock tournament go to www.thebigrock.com/history . Most of my historical facts was taken from this site.. I will update more once the tournament starts...Good luck to all the fishermen/and lady fishermen! Note: the images are from the 2008 tournament