Massive 737-pound blue marlin takes first place at Texas fishing tourney. Take a look
Fishermen in the Texas Billfish Tournament reeled in a 737-pound blue marlin on Aug. 7, the largest ever weighed in at Port Aransas in South Texas, My San Antonio reported.
The owner of the boat, Riley Rhodes, told My San Antonio that the struggle between man and fish (well, team and fish) took over three hours.
“It was epic and euphoric,” Rhodes said. “We knew it was a big fish, but we didn’t know it was that big. It was very emotional for the whole team.”
Thanks to the massive catch, Rhodes’ team, the Walk West, won the tournament with a point total of 1737, according to the Texas Billfish Tournament website. Scoring is based on 1 point per pound with blue marlins weighed in, plus bonus points for blue marlins over 600 pounds.
Unfortunately, the Walk West team’s marlin was short around 190 pounds from cracking the Texas record for largest blue marlin. That record is held by a 927.7-pound beauty that was caught at the Bastante John Uhr Memorial Billfish Tournament in 2014, Game and Fish reported.
Marlins tend to be aggressive by nature and in some cases, fishermen have been seriously injured or even killed when struggling to reel them in. In 2018, a 6-foot marlin crashed into and sunk a small boat carrying five fishermen in the South China Sea, Newsweek reported.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Massive 737-pound blue marlin takes first place at Texas fishing tourney. Take a look."