Ep. 454: A Shark Ate My 3 Million Dollars

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All right, everybody coming from Hailey, Idaho in the First Light Store, the one and only First Light Store in first Lights home base of Haley, Idaho. We're here a bunch of guys from North Carolina who are who are wrapped up in the biggest news story to ever happened to fishing outside of we got Way to Fish. This is maybe bigger than that we got because it's the opposite of that. Here we had people in that case, we had people in a fishing tournament packing losing a

That's correct? All right?

Do you gut him? Walking through? Who? So? I know we got the guy holding the rid, the guy owning the boat, the guy captaining the boat. Okay, who do we start with? Let's start with who owns the damn boat?

Oh?

You owned the boat? Sorry?

Okay, lay that out for us. My name's Ashley Blue. I live in Greenville, North Carolina, and I bought the Sensation last year, last March. Matter of fact, Oh huh, I didn't.

So you just got it, just got out of my freshman year and you run the boat that day.

I was on the boat.

Yes, okay, And then go ahead, the angler, Bailey Gore.

I'm from Booe, North Carolina. Hadn't really had a ton of experience marlin fishing, but now we do.

Okay, Now you have a lot of You're like a subject matter expertise R that's been on an expert Okay. And then the captain.

Yeah, my name is Greg McCoy. I live in Pinal Shores, North Carolina, right near where the tournament's based in Moorhead City, and I'm the captain of the Sensation.

You've done the tournament how many times?

At least fifteen fifteen years, probably more than that. I fished it on my own boat several years with friends of mine. I fished it on charter boats where my group chartered a boat, and then once I got into the industry as a mate and captain down there, I fished it on where we've had charters on our boats. Lots of different angles the way I fished the tournament, but just it's a big tournament. It's one of the

Yeah, Explain to me, why how are marlin tournaments so prevalent, Like you just don't You don't know if you're a guy that fishes like me, you know, I've never caught a marlin. I never had been on a boat that had a marlin on. I saw marlin hooked one time, but that was it. Why are people so aware of marlin tournaments?

Well, I'd say in the sport fishing industry, salt water sport fishing, that is the royalty of sport fishing. Blue marlin, black marlin in other parts of the world. But in our area it's blue marlin. That's the top, top sport fishing.

Fish, the biggest, coolest fish out there.

Absolutely, yes, the most you know, brings in the big money guys, and uh so that's the one. You know, those marlin tournaments are the ones that bring in the most people and the most money. And this, this big rock tournament is a huge event. It really is. It's a lot of money involved and a lot of boats. We had I think what two hundred and seventy some boats entered in the tournament this year.

And do they all got to take off from the same arena.

No, you can fish it. It's just a matter of there's boundaries out in the ocean, a northern and southern boundary. Basically you can go as far east as you want.

And what lay that off for me? What is the northern and southern boundary?

Southern boundaries? We go by TDS which is true direction, which is the old Lorane coordinates. So the southern boundary is the two hundred line. The northern boundary I think is the what four hundred line, So it's it's basically the South Carolina and Virginia line, A little.

Bit less of it, I got it.

And then you just have there's a certain time. Nine am is the first time you can put any lines in the water. At nine am, they call over the radio, you know, lines in, lines in, and that's when you start fishing.

And you gotta be done fishing at what time three o'clock? And then how many days of the tournament.

It's a six state tournament. You fish four out of the six captain's choice on the late days, you take two late days during the week.

And the tournament winner winds up being the Is it clean? Is it like? The biggest marlin caught during the six days? Is that's it? It's not a daily winner.

They do have daily release prize. There's all different kind of categories, but yes, the real winners, the biggest fish put on the dock, the ones if you bring if your boat. One has to be over four hundred pounds to qualify.

Okay, what's the biggest marlin you've ever seen come out of the water?

Uh? The one, the biggest one I got was this year, six hundred and nineteen.

This is that was the fish that was the career best, Yes, sir.

Yeah, and it would have been a dream come true if it hadn't been disqualified.

So here here's the thing I want to get laid out to before we get into the actual story of what happened. Were you are you? Were you the designated angler? Or did this happen to be that you grabbed the rod? A little bit of both? Okay, So that morning.

We pulled numbers. There's six, yeah, six hours and the six guys fishing, and a number was preach hour. I was number five, I believe. So the fish was caught in the sixth hour. But I don't think it really mattered. I was the only one there without a rod in my hand. So Scooter Screwter, the mate, said get in the.

Seat, so he put me there. That was it.

So that's how you came to be the faithful God. Oh yeah, it really didn't matter. It was chaos, everybody trying to get everything cleared. Everybody's doing up. I was all going to stand there.

With nothing to do.

Okay, I was in the steat. I had nothing to do because I'd been sleeping. God, I'll tell myself a little bit where you get a little Were you a little seasick or what? No, I was just beat. I was just take a little napping, hurt. The real go off can run out.

Of the door and that ride can't change hands, right it can? Oh, it can't change hands? It can? So you can you can spell each other? Yeap?

All right?

Now lay this out for me, because how many guys are on the boat?

Uh, there's six anglers and then there was the captain, Greg, the mate and myself.

Okay, So now when you leave out in the morning, you don't you know, statistically, if you if you imagine everybody's average, you have a point five percent chance of you have a you have a point five percent chance of winning. Less than a point five percent chance of winning, but there's a chance. So how are you guys figuring

What we did, I mean, you can enter in there's so many different categories, like we had talked about earlier on different calcuttas. And we entered the first nine levels, which was everything that we were able to enter, and that was fifty two five dollars. And so what we did was we took the charter everything that took to be able to enter the tournament. We divided it by twenty four shares, which was four days of fishing six

Got it, and so you were like a clock you chartered the boat essentially yep. So you guys you got like you and your fellow fishermen. You guys didn't know each other.

Now I knew one other guy, one of my friends. When I saw it, I texted was like, yeah, let's do it. And that was the only other guy I knew on the boat. And who were the other guys Just a bunch of random guys and everybody was in on the understanding though. Oh yeah, like the economics were clear.

We had a little contract that we had them. We met up Sunday whoever could make it to the boat. You know, we had a little meet and greet and showed them some things on how to get in the bucket, harness in the fighting chair. But typically, you know, guys that fish these tournaments a lot are have their own their own designated crew. They've all done it together many times. We're a charter boat, so you know, this is a lot of time a charter boat wants to get one

It worked out.

It's not ideal because you're dealing with different crew members every day. We had one guy that bought four shares. He wanted to fish all four days.

Also, during this tournament, the anglers are swapping out every day exactly, So how many days did you fish?

I just fished Saturday, just one day, and I'd bet nobody on the boat. Yeah really, yeah, I didn't make it to the meeting on Sundays. I just showed up it.

You had like no, I mean, with all duies, you had no idea what you were getting into. Neither one of us, neither side like anything about the finer points of this tournament and all this.

I'd followed it for years, but never never fished in it at all.

When I came up with the idea, I wanted it to be. This has been such a bucket list tournament. It's the world's biggest marlin tournament on the East Coast, I mean as far as money wise, and it's known as a rodeo tournament, meaning it only follows its own rules. So in doing so, I wanted it to be affordable for the average person to be able to go check this bucket list off there, you know, and make it. We have all the tackle, we have all the expertise as far as the boat. All they really need to

Very unique opportunity for people like me. I really couldn't do that.

Ever.

Yeah, you have to you have to be a big you have to be like Ernest Hemingway for a day, for a day, all right. So so laid out for me, let's jump the fishing day. What what's like, what's the plan? What's the fish plant?

We had? Uh? I told the guy. We had a group text, you know, and so I texted them all and we had already taken our lay days. So and this was the last day of the tournament.

I said, all right, this is day six of the tournament.

Day six. But we that was how we presented it as a first come, first serve. They got to pick which day, not day of the week, but day one, day two, day three, because we never knew what the lay days would.

Be, and you're pulling your lay days based off weather.

A lot of times. Yeah, we we fished Monday. It was the first day and it was absolutely horrendous, very rough, tough day. I think four of our six guys got sick beyond belief. Seasick. That kind of thing was that one?

Were you one of them?

No, I don't get seasick to knock on wood, huh. But so we fished Tuesday, we laid out Wednesday and Thursday. The weather was supposed to be horrible, which there's one category that the first fish over five hundred pounds weighed in is worth about almost eight hundred thousand dollars.

So that incentivized to get out early.

Yes, until that fish is on the dog, it definitely gives you a lot of incentive to keep charging. But the weather was just crappy and there weren't a whole lot of big fish weighed in yet, so we decided to lay out, and you know, kind of gives you a chance to regroup. Anyways, we fished Friday. We did get a bite from but we probably had him on for sixty seconds and he shook the hook.

Marlin.

Yeah, definitely a marlin. My mate saw him come up and bite the lure. But so yeah, we I told the crowd to be there no later than five o'clock that we were leaving. At five point fifteen, most of the crowd was already there. By quarter of Bailey showed up I hadn't seen him during the week. Yes, oh you must be Bailey He's I said, yeah, he shook his hand, Come on, I'll show you a couple of things, and the crowd was all there. So we ended up

And you're out at like you're off, you're off the shelf on some kind of temperature break or.

That's what we look for.

Yeah, and are you able to see other dudes fishing or pretty like spread out?

Well, it can be both. I mean again, there's two hundred and seventy some boats fishing the turn. I think the final day there was almost two hundred and sixty boats still eligible.

And how deep a water you guys in We.

Went out to two hundred plus fathoms, which is six foot per fathom, so yeah, I can't figure that kind of over twelve hundred foot I think my mask.

You got it over some kind of canyon.

We go out to what's called the break where it really starts maybe thirty fathoms, and it'll start dropping off pretty quickly, and then on out from there it just drops into the abyss. Really, I knew I kind of wanted to get back out fishing deep. We had spent the other days. Our bike Friday was in two hundred plus fathoms, so I kind of want to spend the last day fishing deep. We got out there and we

So you talk about depth, but that marlin, he spends the bulk of his life at the surface, at near the surface.

Right.

They're not like swordfish that spend their day down.

Correct. I'm no marine biologists. But they do spend a lot of their time at the surface. They do go deep on their own sometimes, but.

They'll live up there in bask At the surface.

They're always moving. They they're polegic. You think about how much five six hundred pound fish has to eat every day just to maintain. So they're always hunting, they're always moving, they're always swimming around, and generally what they eat is on the surface. They eat dolphin fish, you know, Mahi mahi. They eat anything they can get, really, you know.

So, and what's your guys fishing strategy? How are you fishing that day?

We're putting our regular spread out. We troll, you know, a little bit higher speed than we would with natural baits. Any natural baits have to have circle hooks, which adds a whole nother element to troll fishing.

And that's a rule. What kind of rule, tournament rule or a state rule.

It's a tournament rule. It's for conservation. A circle hook will generally you have to get the fish to swallow the whole bait and the hook and everything, and then you engage the drag and it comes out. And a circle hook, the way it's designed, it turns and it generally hooks them right in the corner of the draw. So it's a conservation thing. If you really end up releasing that fish, it's probably going to live, you know.

He's not hooked down on the gut. Yeah, jay hook exactly.

Now, with lures, which is what most of the guys in the tournament troll, you can use jay hooks because they're generally not going to swallow a lure. Once they get hold of it, they know it's not a real something they want to eat, so they come up and they usually they either they're either on or they're not. You know, with a jay hook, they thrash at it. They might bite it so they get hooked or they don't.

So when you see him that you can throw the bail and let them run it exactly.

I got it, put it in free school.

And are you guys catching all kinds of other junk while you're out doing this? Are you getting like ma he and tuna and whatnot?

Well, that day, if I'll tell you about the fishing story, and I'll let Bailey tell you about But uh so we had got into afternoon, we're still dodging boats. We had an old friend of mine, Edgar Styron, that grew up in Hatteras, has been running boats fishing his whole life. He's forgot more about catching Marlon than I will ever even know in my life. And he rode with us the first two days. He was trying to pound some things into my head about how to catch these fish.

Okay, tell me what that means.

We have riggers and they are basically just to spread this that you're spread out farther from the boat so you control more lines. They keep everything from getting tangled. So on each rigger we have a short and along and along goes all the way up to the top. The short is about midway on the rigor.

And that's just the release.

Yes, when it's in like a release clip. When the fish comes up and hit it, the pressure causes it to release and then it just goes to the rod and reel and you do your normal thing. All that is so you can drag more lines in the water without getting them tangled.

Really got it.

So, yeah, we get a hit on the port short seem like a decent fish. I didn't think it was what we were looking for. So everybody on the boat knew what it was. No, I didn't that one.

I did not like what speed, you didn't know what species was.

And so all our other anglers have a job. When we hit a fish, you know, we got to get all the other stuff out of the way so that we can start maneuvering, backing down. If it's a real big fish, we're going to back down on it to try to gain line a big a real big marlin, or a big tune or something they can spool you. We got a lot of line. They're big reels, but a big fish could conceivably take every bit you got

We crank all the rods in, yes, sir. So he's got the one rode.

In the water and all the other baits in the boat. Now it's the guy gets in the chair. I think that was Darren, guy named Darren Flannery. It was his turn. Uh. He gets in immediately, didn't have much trouble. I knew it wasn't what we were looking for. Reels it in. It turns out it's like a fifty pound barracuda.

Oh I thought this was the fish.

No, no, no, this is a this is a preliminary.

Yeah, you like it. It's a nice big barracuda.

Barracuda. Wasted time because for us, it's not worth anything in the turnament. There are game fish categories, but not barracuda.

Well, that's the smoker of a barracuda.

Big barracuda. Yes, and it did strip offline. You know, we probably have about sixteen pounds of drag where we're set for the strike on these fish. Anyways, I say, you know, we got enough time, guys, we got plenty of time. Let's get them back out. Let's go after what we're looking for. So we get back on same course, headed to where we were headed. Uh, probably about a half hour later this time is the one we're looking for. She comes piling across the spread.

It's a she.

Well, the bigger ones are okay, generally females. So she comes piling. We see. I didn't see her coming, but I think Ashley did.

I had just sat down. We got everything back out and was turning around, like he said, and I had set down on a bean bag up in the top of the bridge, just kind of you know, so you can see everything without the rocket launchers in your in your face. And she came from the left going right and fully breached and crashed right on that same rod that the barracuda did. And I mean it was just like pandemonium from that point forward. And I mean you saw her come from the side full broadside, jumped and

So if a canas right quick the epic ness of this, you need man. Also is you got to realize this is the final hour of the final day of the tournament. So two fifteen lines out at three o'clock.

Because the fish have to be landed by three or it's hooked by three.

You call in when you hook up, and you could go into the next day if you had to. I see, so now we hook up two fifteen, I get into the radio. You know, big Rock this is sensation. We're hooked up and uh so now we're fighting a fish and it goes and I'll let Bailey tell his story. But we we got a fish on. I saw the fish. I think Ashley was on the bridge with me. He

And look, you guys knew it was a big market.

Yeah, I said, if we get this fish to the boat, we've we've won the big Rock. You know. So we all knew there really hadn't been there hadn't even been a five hundred pounder for that fabulous fisherman category yet, and I knew this one was over five hundred for sure, And well, I knew it was going to win the tournament at that point if we could get it to the boat.

And now we had to do that, you know, so how much risk is there knowing that he's respecting the fact that he's sitting right here. How much risk is there in handing the rod over to unproven, a un idiot or unproven marlin angler, right, well, I mean at that point, are you like, damn it? We should have gone on ourselves.

That was part of the deal. You know, these guys basically paid for the tournament and paid for the charter fee, so you know, we had to stick to our deal. And like Bailey said we would, we decided to do it instead of just going, you're the first guy up, the second guy up, because a lot of times when you're marlin fishing, you don't catch a whole lot of

But I didn't even know at the time. I don't even know what time it was.

I think Scooter. Scooter kind of runs the cockpit. That's his world. I'm up top and like I said, he's I let him do his thing because he he's good at it, and he's a great he loves hunting a fit. I tell people when they climb on the boat, if it if it flies, runs or swims, Scooter will kill it for you. And so I just let him do his things. So I think Scooter was happy with Bailey being the one book. And I want to tell you, we put him in there and it's you know, you're

So thank you.

So I was asleep. I got a picture of me when my buddies took it to fourteen, Me asleep on the couch like this with a beer sitting on my chest. Drunk, not drunk, just sleepy, just tired. So I was at two fourteen and two fifteen the fish hit. I heard everybody scramble on the back deck, took out, running out of the the cabin area, went out on the deck on the deck, and I came out the door. I stood one eye closed and when I looked out. I could see the marlin jumping across the wall.

Seriously.

I was like, okay, this that wake y'all. Oh yeah, yeah.

I went from a dad's sleep to wide open in two seconds. So everybody was back there, reeling in lines, getting the teasers out the water, getting thing cleaned up, and screweders holding the rod. He's like, get the chair, get the chair. And I was the only one standing there, so I got the chair. It was close to my time. I didn't even know what time it was at the time, so we got all strapped in and started cranking.

But in your guys deal that you have laid out the financial plan, it doesn't matter right now.

The guys that fished in the first three days get the same money. It doesn't matter as long as the fish. It's a team effort. As long as that fish gets the boat, we're happy.

Yeah, got it, got it? So there you are. And is it like is it kind of the less you do the better sort of thing? Like you got the drag set. Yep, we got a drag set. Are they telling you like, don't pump the rod, don't do this, don't do that, or is a pre self explanatory.

It's kind of self explanatory. You gotta let fish run. Fish running. You're not gonna stop that. So we just let it run. Whenever we get a second it stops.

Start cranking again, start working the chair, and you're trying to circle the fish.

Uh no, he's going straight hell bent for leather out back. So once we get everything cleared, I'm coming back hard.

As I can.

Okay, you're not trying to pass around and catch line.

That's some of these videos you'll see of the water crashing over the trans and stuff. We didn't really get that effect. But uh yeah, And that's one thing I'm telling you, and he'd probably tell you. Number one rule I'm we always yell at people, do not touch the drag. We got the drag where we want it, don't touch it. And I told everybody these guys, your job is to keep the fish tight. It's not a race. But you've got to turn the damn handle when a fish is on.

Probably heard of a thousand times. Keep cranking, keep cranking.

And then I would tell him, because a lot of guys, if it's their boat and they've angled a lot of big fish, they can tell by the change of noise in the engine that the boat's about to come back, you know. But I would tell him, I said, we're coming back. Keep cranking, keep cranking. So I would warn him when I was about to come back a little harder or whatnot.

So how long does this? How long does this go on? For? Lay out the how long a fish fight takes?

I was in the chair three and a half hours from the start until we swapped off, and that was that was about all I could do. I was yah hours of constant cranking.

Huh, I had no idea.

Yeah, we ended up with fighting the fish right at six hours, a little over six hours. But uh, when I was sitting in chair was three and a half. She spent three and a half hours on the fish. Oh yeah, getting sunburnt. People the rubbing sunscreen on me. It was getting bad.

I didn't rub up sunscreen.

I don't know who it was.

They missed my right foot, they got my back but.

The right foot. So uh, during this whole long fight, the fish is mostly towards the surface. For the first we would you say, hour and a half, Yeah.

First probably hour and a half he was up up top and that's where you want him, really.

Uh huh, you know, you drawing a crowd.

One other boat came by. We went into you know there line at three o'clock, so basically we went into overtime. I think there was one other boat near so they came by and watched for a while, and then they headed off into the sunset. You know, So we're out there alone at this point.

But they knew what you were doing.

They did. They knew, you know, they could see the boat and knew who We're a local boat. We're a charter boat right there on the Moorhead City waterfront.

So well, the other part of the story that's so big in being a charter boat in these tournaments, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment, and there's this stuff called the omni sonar where a lot of these boats just go out there, don't put any lines in and just ride around and look underneath the water and spott a fish. A Morland a mile away and then they go and just pound over top of it. We don't have any of that stuff. We're just a

Guys like the Jamaican Boss. That's a very good.

So these omnies they can ping a fish. We can see one. We got a regular sonar bottom machine and if it swims right underneath us, I can see it. I can market, but I can't. These omnies are like military. They they ping the fish, they can lock onto the fish and they can follow it. These fish have tails. They don't just sco in one direct or. They go wherever they want, right. So the omni sonar when they ping one, they actually a touchscreen lock on target lock.

Huh. So they could go all day and never set a line. So talk about a competitive advantage, I mean it's right there.

Yeah, the party wants to stick it to those guys.

Yeah, it's amazing, absolutely.

So at what point, Okay, let's get to like the pivotal moment in the fish fight. So just a spoiler alert here the fish gets bit by a shark.

No, we didn't know anything about it. I mean when that fish stove deep when we were fighting, it was moved the chair to the left, moved the chair to the right. It was a lot of action. But when he got so exhausted, it's it's natural for these marlin to once they get so exhausted, they go down deep to try to basically die. And so when he went deep, our rod tip was bent like this for the remaining three four hours, bent over like this. And it was man versus goliath. Wrench up six inches, come down.

He's just down. He's down, straight down.

And so and Bailey got exhausted and he was like, this is enough, and everybody else looked at each other. Nobody wanted to get on the thing. And I was like, well, I'll get down there if you want me to. And why I did not want to do it, there's a lot of period.

I guess I saw how I wore out.

I was, yeah, and then they might be the one that loses it.

Yeah, So we I came down out of the bridge and got strapped in and started working him on the on the chair and I'm kind of a sizeable guy, and between me and then the six hundred pounds fish, the chair kind of decided to break and so the foot rest out of the chair, just the pin totally bend it down and the bottom of the chair falls out and I'm basically standing up with the with the rod. The fish doubled over and it's like, holy cow, and I mean, so the fight's still going on. No sign

And it's so common to happen in a fight with the marlin to end it like that, to where the fish is down deep.

It's more common than you would think. Yeah, they go the big ones. When they jump like that, they expend so much energy. And when they go down deep like that. You know, there's a lot of guys that have more experience at it than me, but I've caught a few, and uh, when they go deep like that, they generally go down there their heart explodes, they have a heart attack, and they die. So the thing about the shark that

Okay, so eventually, let's jump ahead. Eventually, here he is boat side.

We brought him up. He was straight up and down. Those last four hours. I sat up on the helm chair with my feet up in the air, just watching those guys do their thing. A couple of times I told them we're gonna lose some line. I gotta bring the boat up into the current, and then we're gonna come back hard. We're gonna get them stretched out. We'll come back hard. Hopefully we'll gain more line. Hopefully we'll get them floating in the current.

You know. And you and you, but you feel like the fish is dead. Yes, no head shakes, nothing but that in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with that.

No, it's dead, dead weight at that point. So then what I'm.

Saying, like from a from a rule perspective, that fish being dead or alive doesn't matter.

No, no, no, no not. Everything was done there was to that point within the rules. And now it's just I mean, we can't uh. You know, we didn't tell the fish to go down there. We didn't tell them to die. Uh, And we're just We're just trying to get them back.

The reason I'm bringing this up is there a like, for instance, I got uh, we got guys that are on the show quite often, uh, Seth and Chester. They like to fish swalleye tournaments. Some of those tournaments the fish has to be alive, right, as you all know, in all the bass tournaments, the fish has gotta be alive. I'm just saying, like, that's not an issue. Now, there's no there's no crime in hauling up a dead fish.

You're exactly correct.

Let me ask you this question, not that this happened to you, but let's say you're let's say there's some freak occurrence, you're cruising along a snag and already dead fish.

Is that a problem, It's Holly, It's highly unlikely.

Yes, I'll just say, like, theoretically, that's probably not even addressed in the rules.

I mean, yeah, you might not know it's done, so you might call it in as being hooked up because you're trolling it seven eight nots.

Anyways, I guess what I'm getting at with my wild hypothetical is in the rules, and I haven't I haven't personally read the rules. In the rules, there's not much consideration of there's not much consideration of the the sort of timeline of the fish's death, right right, God.

Well you're bringing it. If you do boat of fish, it's gonna be dead by the time you get back to the scales anyway.

Got it? So any fish coming in is coming in dead, yes, sir. And the short of bringing a there's no werner into doing a knee cropsy. You don't know what died in the water. Out of the water where there's no.

Live Well, it's gonna fit a six pound marline.

So eventually get him up and here he is. Yeah, and is he and is he like uh like money python? Is he like mostly dead or is he dead?

He's dead at the doornail?

Yeah, No, that's not my I thought that's Princess Bride, isn't it? Philm mostly dead? So he's dead.

These guys keep asking me, can you see him on the screen because we're straight up and down. So at some point I'm going to see the fish on my uh on my sounder.

Yeah, And it.

Took Finally, at about twenty five fathoms, here comes this line across the screen.

I knew that was a fish vertical.

Uh, well, it was horizontal because the sounder is always making a it's like a ticker tape, just.

Because that's how it strikes me. Right, Yeah, but that fish is coming up, so.

I see the line. I says, he's at twenty five fathoms. Guys, I see him now, and uh, these guys started to get a little more energized that they were tall. They were tired. Man, it's hard. You know, we'd been on it for hours and hours and people were you know, there's always a chance you're pulling up six hundred some pounds of dead weight, So yeah, pull the hook, break the line anything, you know.

Yeah, there was some serious phrase in the line.

Yeah, really starting to come up. And what are the other mugs who are in the tournament? They're now back at the marina.

Oh they're they're calling in. Are you sure the sensation is still hooked up? Or you know I'm sitting Is.

There a number two fish sitting there already?

No, nobody had boded one that day. There were what three total boats that were still hooked up after the lines out?

What really? Yes?

And all of them basically called in released, meaning that they knew it wasn't big enough to play, so they weren't going to kill the fish and let it go.

At that time, there were four books, four boats fighting marlins, three total boats, so you and two other boats at the closing time, right, But they weren't fighting tankers, right.

They were released and gone home well before we ever saw our.

So they didn't have contempt.

Here is the only boat fighting fish.

But here they are. The world can't move on, that's right, because we got to see what these guys got.

And you got guys that are on the leaderboard back there, and you know what part of their bodies puckering at that time.

Okay, so here the boat comes. Now walk me through how you secure the fish.

Well, I'm reeling it up, and Scooter's right there looking over the bike. And as soon as we see the leader come touch the tip of the rod, that's considered a catch. And so Scooter reaches over there and grabs the that's a catch. Yes, he can shake at boat side. Yeah, and well how do.

You can't enter them?

Well, it's considered a release. So if he comes up and you've touched it and then he gets off, then it's called a release, even though he's dead.

Oh I got Yeah, there's a point category for releases.

That fish got scent, right, Yeah, you doot.

If they're small and you catch one, as soon as you touch the leader, it's considered a release and you get points four hundred points for blue marlin, one hundred and twenty five for sale or a white.

Even if you're you grab that leader, he shakes the hook right, doesn't matter, got it?

So uh, Scooter grabs it, wraps, pulls up and we see the bill come up like this on the side of the boat. And so Scooter doesn't even put gloves on, reaches you gets so excited, reaches over the side and grabs the bill right there, holding on and it's just like open the door, open the door. And so we finally got the door open, and uh, he shoves the fish backwards and then below the transom and comes back in and the fish is dead, but his mouth is

Yeah, it was laying on the opposite side of the bikes.

So we do gotcha, gotcha.

So I go up to the bridge and they're all, you know, getting positioned for pictures and I'm taking pictures from the bridge for everybody. And then they're secure and everything have you.

And at this moment do you call in? Do you call into the tournament organizers and say, hey, we're coming in with a big, fatty.

Yes, and uh, matter of fact, I mean the boat we were on. The guy that's over the mic the whole day, through the whole tournament. His name is Randy Ramsey, and he used to be the owner of Pro Wrestler, but he built that boat. That was the very first Jarrett Bay ever built, the Sensation is and so he built it for himself so to be able to call in to him and say, Sensation just boated the fish.

Port wall, how many miles did you have to motor?

Fifty five.

And that's nautical miles, So it's not like a straight shot where we've a straight shot a lot of times would be a good way to get in, but we have to. We have the lookout shoals that come off of the beach out to what we call the knuckle, so you can either if it's good weather or in daylight you can shoot the shoals. There's a passage through there, or at night you really want to go around the knuckle to make sure you don't sit there on two

And at this point you have, Okay, at this point, what is your awareness and what is your concern about the bite mark on it?

Zero didn't even know, I mean just total in the moment, people sitting three stories up, hanging off of buildings, people in the Marinas, standing it on the bio cheering forest. I mean, motoring through that whole area from Jack's Bar all the way through where our slip is to the Gulf docks and Southern Salt, I mean, it was just mind blowing. That experience was, you know, I just I

Okay, let me let me hit you with a couple hypotheticals. Let's say you'd pull the fish up and the tail had been gone.

Oh that we would call that in. Then you knew it was over. Yeah, you know it was over.

Or it's a half a fish, sure got it. So so there's an aware like there is a there's a scenario on which you would recognize that there was a problem, but this scenario was just zero problem, zero problem. And and as as people, what's the first chance that people get to come up and see the fish clearly.

We backed into the big rock land and they tossed us the lines. We secured the boat. The way master gets on the boat and start suspecting the fish. We actually, it's in a blanket, so it's covered up, and we got blankets over top of it.

You don't want weight loss from driving it out.

So we peel all that stuff back and he asked us questions like did you stick any foreign objects in it? A lot of times in these bigger fish when they gaff him sometimes they will use a tampon and stick it in there to keep it from bleeding out. God, And so we said, no, there's nothing in nothing in the fish. Just know we didn't put ice down its throat. We didn't do anything to add any weight, no, sir. And so then he.

Starts he inspects the fish. Yes, as you run a metal detector on the fish.

I didn't see any sign of a metal detector. But that's a good question. I just wonder how nitpicky they get. Not really, I mean, I mean he was being precise, but it just when he he looked at something around the tail and he was like, what's this And we looked at him like, I don't know and he's like, it looks like a shark bite. And I was like, I can assure you nobody on this boat has seen a shark the whole time, the whole week, we have

Yeah. The crowd was getting into mob mentality. They they wanted to see that fish hung up and wait and is that right? But you call it you were When I call in and tell them, you know, we voted our fish, he they'll call you back. And they say, all right, once you get up and running, cap, you know, give us an eta so they put the word out it's on streaming on streaming services, and people start coming from miles around.

And you had thrown an estimate their way, right, I.

Told them we'll be in probably about eleventh estimate. Oh no, no, I didn't. I says, we'll be in around eleven thirty and we've got one to put on a show. I did tell him that.

Ye, And I was staying in constant contact with Randy directly by end reach out there because where we were at it was a little spotted on the voice over on the VHF. So he was well aware of everything through in reach.

Okay, So so you go up to these boys and there and there, and their attention is focused on this mark. Yeah, and uh, is there? Is there? What is the primary question they're looking at? I mean, is there in your mind a question about that the mark had been there before that it happened while you were fighting the fish, Like what what is the initial debate?

They give us no kind of inclination of what they're looking for. They're just trying to collect data.

And so but when he says we're not we might not weigh the fish, He's he had to have given you like a because.

It was just and he just said, you know, based off of this, we're not gonna We're not gonna wait the fish. And I was like, I don't. I don't think that's gonna be the best idea. We need to hang this fish. And fully, because the way it was bent in the back of the cockpit, you really couldn't. I mean, six hundred pounds you can't really flip it around and maneuver. So they finally decided to go ahead

Four I think there was one hundred and twelve from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tails.

Got it, but you throw the bill in there, it's twelve foot fish.

Yeah.

So then Tommy Bennett gets on the MC and he's up there, he's like, well, based off of rule twenty three, we're going to looking at disqualifying the fish. And then the.

Okay, tell me what rule twenty three says.

Rule twenty three talks about weight alter casecation alteration, yeah, alteration. Yeah. So it's more so you know, for situations like the Walleye tournament and things of that nature.

Stuff in marlin yeah or dolphin yeah, yeah, I got you.

Yeah, but uh, none of that occurred. I mean, that's not but in one blip of it, it refers to IGF rules apply to mutilation, and so that's it's just like a very small blip. It's it's like playing Super Mario Brothers and you got to go over here or Zelda. You gotta go over here and find out what you got to do in order to go over here and do the thing that you need to do, and it's

Well it's IGF A that the ride can't change hands.

Right, and there's so many different facets of that. You can't handline, you can't there's just it's so rigid to be able to just pass off this one rule to IGFA standards. What it tells me is the Big Rock really didn't spend their time with their attorneys to spell it out themselves. I mean, it's very easy to take the same language and just type it in there instead of just being you know, haphazard and saying, oh, well, there's two rule books to IGFA, the tournament ones, so.

They take fish mutilate, fish mutilation, and it's a note within the rule about weight alteration. Weight alteration being that you've added weight.

The leadoff of rule twenty three, and the Big Rocks rule book is in big bold itals sized letters says altercation of weight, and then it goes on down through there about how you can't add weight to the fish. This you can't put water down at stru can't put ice in it.

That's all Rule twenty three, and then at the.

Bottom Ashley was referring to it says about mutilation. IGFA rule of mutilation and that's about all it says there. And you know, did I see a mark on the fish? Yes?

I did, but.

Like Ashley said, there was no concern in my mind, it was very superficial mark. And I mean people can argue I didn't do my homework, I didn't know the rules. I've read the rules one hundred times over, backwards forwards. I didn't really not have any concern that this was going to be a case to disqualify the fish.

How do you explain the mark on the fish? I mean, is it like just is it just objectively true that that's a bite mark from a shark? Or is that not objectively true.

I don't know whether it was a short or it was a barracuda, or I don't know what it was. Honestly,

But you feel that is it certain that the fish was we'll use bit, Okay, Is it certain that the fish was bit after you hooked it? Based off your video evidence there that there's that not even app.

It's not even absolutely true on it.

We can't let's say you knew. Let's say let's say it, let's say that the fish had been bit before, meaning how often have you caught a fish that's scarred up from having been bit?

I mean, it just obviously depends on where you're fishing at.

But yeah, let me get it. For instance, when we're fishing where we fish salmon? Okay, I don't know. One in definitely, one, one in six, one and seven have some kind of mark from U seals, birds, whatever, right, And these are fish that are eating a hook, right, Okay, So it's it's it's like it's common that it would happen. But I mean, is the nature of the injury such that someone would look and say, ah, that there's no way that a fish with that mark would have ever been in the mood to hit a bait.

No, nothing has ever been said about that.

And do the rules say anything about that. You can't catch and submit a fish that had had a bad thing happened to it in the past.

No.

On the contrary, what it's what they're they're relying to on and that where i GFA points that out is when it's an competitive advantage for the angler, that basically saying that you're not fighting one hundred percent of that fish. So to answer your question, you're exactly right. There's nothing in there language wise to say that if that fish had encountered something minutes before it the bit the hook. But we saw no definition normally if it encounters a shark.

And then that's what I thought was so puzzling, yeah, is why would he if you're bringing a fish up inches at a time, how would there be anything and you got like a shortfin mako down there there wouldn't be no fish.

They wouldn't.

That's what.

That's what.

That's one thing that puzzled me by is like, how would how would the shark ever be like yeah, never mind, Yeah, they wouldn't make any sense. Like it's like hanging there right. You couldn't ask for a better chance for a shark to devower.

Your freemale like that.

But the fact that he would just be like, nah, that might I had enough energy to nip it, but I don't want to eat it just doesn't make sense.

Right, And that's where we're kind of coming at with it. That though IGFA has their rules and I respect them ole hardly. I've talked to Zach at IGFA about this whole situation and he says, actually, we don't really have a dog in the fight because they're not IGFA sanctioned. They don't answer to us. They chose to arbitrarily pull one of our rules out and reference it. You know, that's between you and the tournament.

But that but the IGFA rule does have language about getting mauled by a shark.

It has about that coming into any counter with marine mammals, the propeller of the boat. I mean, it's kind of more so back in the day, a lot of people would if they couldn't stop a big fish, they'd run it over, you know, trying to give a competitive advantage. Got it my argument totally beyond a shadow of doubt. They have not proved that based off of the mutilation rule it has satisfactory persuaded anybody that's been on that

How many fish historically at this tournament have been pitched for this type of violation?

Realistically, in the past three tournaments, there's been two, I mean, the two winning the two potential winning fish have been utilized, had to utilize that particular rule that being the top dog in ours, and so that's just.

How much Tell me what was up with the other incident?

Well, the other instance, it was a record setting fish that they say that the top dog had already landed the fish. Now, there's no real definition of landed. Some people think it's when the bill covered passes the horizon of the transommer, your full control of the fish, or the fight is over, which is even more ambiguous. That they encountered sharks. There was two sharp bites on it got numerous news articles talking about the sharp bites on it.

So picture that you had a bunch of with all brought classified documents home to their house and then one of them got in trouble. Yeah, so imagine that. But like, why was that fish?

Okay, Well, they're trying to say that there was indisputable video documentation that that mutilation happened after the fight was over and the boat the fish had been boated.

So they're saying, oh, I got bit by a shark, but it got bit by a shark after the bill broke the transom.

Or landed the quote unquote landed.

But I would see in that case, I would argue just putting my argument hat on. In that case, I would be like, well, must that have been that landed?

Right?

If it's gitting eaten by shark.

They on the last interview I did, got asked pose the same question. I said, well, guys, I've Marlon fished a lot in my day, and I've never come into contact with anybody that said, hey, you'll never believe this story. We had a landed marlin that jumped in the cockpit of the boat, bit the shark, bit the Marlon twice and then jumped back overboard. I mean, if it was landed, it should have in a situation where a shark wasn't

But but but on that case, uh, there's no observer right right?

No, they did.

They polygraph polygraph you guys, they did they polygraphed greg.

The next morning, would they ask and they had They had already made their decision before I even finished.

The place raft.

They asked there was It was a long process kind of unnerving, you know, they strap you all this stuff, and they asked a couple of base questions. Is it the month of June? That type of thing. They're all yes or no questions. Sure, did anybody, anyone of you or your crew knowingly cheat in the Big Rock Tournament to alter the weight of your fish? Blah blah blah. No, you know, so several questions like that. They did focus on the mark on the fish and a few questions.

Like what.

When did you become aware?

Yeah, when did you become aware? Were you aware of the uh uh mark on the fish when you first put it on the boat? No? You know, and then I mean I saw the mark on them again, I didn't have much concern that it was going to be a problem, you know, no thing with this whole rule. Uh. There's been a moratorium on commercial shark fishing for a dozen years now, and there are a whole bunch of sharks out there, so it's going to get worse and worse.

Oh do they know?

Man throw the water? So these sharks, it's like bringing the dinner bell.

It's unbelievable. I don't understand how they know about how they know there's a fish stressed. Yeah, it's incredible.

Absolutely. So you're you know, you're talking about your seals and stuff out here. You know, we're a little different with our with the sharks and stuff.

Yeah. So that did they wind up getting Did you get a certified weight so that this can get sorted out? Yes, so they did that. They at least banked a certified weight.

Six hundred and nineteen point four pounds.

Okay, they wrote unofficial, but they agreed, like there's there's a there's an absolute agreement on what the weight is, right, Okay.

With respect to this encounter of mutilation, Over the past twenty years, there's about eight different cases where the Big Rock has allowed four fish that had been had come in contact and had been bitten by other fish to still hang, to still be weighed, and to still remained

Yep, yep. They got the certified weight the asterisk. But but but they can later agree to the certified weight.

They put unofficial on the board. Yeah, that's another thing they didn't Usually they'll put a uh, they pin a placard right to the fish with the weight on it. We didn't get that, you know, we didn't get any of the interviews they normally do.

Got plenty of interviews.

Well yeah, one not for you, but.

So okay that there's there's two remaining things I want to talk I want to talk about the what's next? Want but I just to get a little bit of an understanding. How did how did this based on your perspective, how did this spread so much?

I think the uh, the outrage of the crowd, Like I actually said, there's probably twelve thousand people there.

I mean, and they were on your side, and oh yeah, really.

Okay, we're going to tear down the gates and start a riot. I mean they they had hated me. The microphone has said actually we're gonna hang this fish. But on the on the consideration that you calmed the crowd. And I looked right at Tommy, I said, look, man, this is you don't want to hand me that microphone right now. I was like this.

People were like, people were basically this.

Is bullshit, yes, one hundred percent.

Yeah, there's videos of people they're chating.

Yeah, this is ridiculous, and a lot more uncertain terms, huh, and I and people that would know what they're talking about, yes, And they basically were trying to put us off to the next day for the decision, basically for crowd control. It had nothing. They had already made their minds up of what they were going to do. We had to really push the issue to be able to get them to hang the fish, to wait to fish, to announce the wake. Because they kept telling me Ashley, it's enough wake,

I don't want to don't don't name the person, but is it ultimately is it ultimately at the discretion of one individual, or is that the discretion of a panel of judges.

It's a panel of judges. I think there's about forty forty people that are on the board of but it's where they split. There's a rules committee that's made up of a percentage of them that the whole overall board is forty. I don't know exactly how many are on the rules committee. They would not give me a verdict. The only thing that I've heard from the Big Rock is two things since this whole thing went down that

It didn't hinge on the results of that polygay exactly.

They also cut the live streaming feed that they have going on, and that was I had several people, man, I was watching it on the streaming and all of a sudden it just went out, really and they cut that on purpose, so that everybody, I mean probably hundreds of thousands were watching that live stream and now all of a sudden it just got cut off. I had people tell me, I'm searching the internet to try to find another fee.

Is it a is there a Is there a appeals process and articulated appeals process.

Yes, it's spelled out in the contract, in the application that we all sign, and it basically says, this is my second point. I just remember, I'm glad you. It says that we have the ability to protest, you know, based off of you know, being a member of the entry we entered a tournament, and I have filed no paperwork of lawsuit.

You haven't.

No, this has been totally just about the protest. And so the only thing I did was retain counsel to be able to help me through the situation, through the mediation portion of it. And so, in a knee jerk reaction, the Big Rock Committee sends an text message to my attorney telling me that I have been barred from any Big Rock events moving forward indefinitely because of what because I protested a rule that they are that they had. All I'm doing is asking for clarification, and so they've taken it.

I could see if you were like storm the gates.

I'm not been anything like that. On the contrary, I've been very accommodating and very proactive.

You're fighting for your fish, that's right.

I'm fighting for all the English too. I'm fighting for a rule change, not necessarily on my fish, but moving forward as one of the situations that we need to bring a platform too. But they have barred us from the kids Big Rock, which does nothing but cause harm to the kids that want to be involved. It's the KWLA, our future charters that want to be involved in with the Big Rock. I mean, it's just it's almost like

So if I ask them why you were barred, they'd say, because you're you're being a sore loser.

I guess that's the only thing.

But that's what they'd have.

In their rules, that there's a provision for protest. I mean, we're just following their rule book at this point.

Man, I don't have people picketing out in front of their office. I don't have you know, any negative directed towards them personally.

So they have a rule that you can challenge, and you challenge within the rule.

Right.

They say, how you have to do it before the awards are given out, which actually did to the letter, and now before they're even their due process is done in their rules with this mediation, they've sent them a letter saying that we're no longer allowed to enter any you too, Well, I guess I don't know if it's the boat, him or me or what. Maybe I need to find a new job, huh.

Ashually, I wouldn't let you job hinge on just that tournament. We'll win the next.

One, man, So if you so, what will happen now?

Well, we've got mediations starting Thursday morning, and that's going to include Big Rock, the Sushi and the second and third place boats where we're all going to kind of meet and try to try to hash this out and whatnot.

And are they holding all that jingle and escrow right now or have they handed it out?

Yeah, nothing's been dispersed as far as the funds and whatnot. And rightfully, so I mean, I don't think anybody is necessarily trying to make their fuel bill off of the winnings of that particular tournament, though it would be nice to having their account. But I think a week later.

The people that are giving us backlash, and that is a very small minorities. We have an incredible amount of support, but the ones that are saying, oh, you're being selfish, you're holding out these other people's money, and again, we're just following the protocol what is set forth.

Yeah, and we've had a lot of people. It was amazing. A lot of people didn't think I was going to show up to the awards ceremony because of the emotional roller coaster of the night before. I'm the type of person I'm I'm gonna be there regardless. So I show up up and we're going through the wards and everything, and they're handing out the checks and whatnot, and they're announcing such and such boat won this. Uh is there a representative for this boat? Nope? All right, Uh that

I feel that I don't really know, and this is all new to me, and I'm only getting what you guys are telling me. But man, I feel like I feel if you had if you if you took it to it, let's say you had to take it to a jury, Okay, a jury of your peers, like in

One thing we can take away is we entered that tournament at fifty two five hundred dollars. We put together a group of people that have unconditionally supported each other. We've fished against all types of opposition, being the omni sonar and all the other things. Uh. We fished against the world's best fishermen, and by god, we brought the biggest freaking fish to the landing. Yeah.

Yeah, they can't take that away from us. No, No, it's oh so Uh how much would the fish for to one three.

Point around three point five million dollars? The first place Sushi only got like two point seven because the fish was the two categories that they won were the biggest fish, but they didn't qualify. It wasn't over five hundred pounds, so they didn't get the Fabulous Fishermen, which was the extra three quarters of a million dollars.

What's uh are you guys friends at that other boat?

I never met him in my life?

What's what's that? What's what's that dynamic? If you don't want to speak to what that dynamic looks like right now, you don't need to.

We really haven't spoken much much to them, so I mean I still hold them in respect of you know, where they're at in their position.

And sure they're in a delicate position to right. Yeah, got it? Huh man. I used to think that if I was going to go back at the time, I'd become a raffle in sweepstakes lawyer. I can't it take me a long time to explain my frustrations with raffle and sweepstakes law But I feel like I might if I went to law school, man might become a fish tournament lawyer.

What's been cool about talking with you too?

Is?

Uh? You know what we've done all these I told some of my friends, I think I need a press secretary. You know, I got all these people, and but it's only been little blurbs, and all they want to do is talk about the contrary. So what got lost in all this is the epicness of catching this fish for the last hour of the last day and we're out there for six hours and they're just listening back on the OC on the radio, you know, and our supporters

There if you're gonna do a movie, and this is.

One of them. You know, we went uh what five hours into overtime, you know, and probably every other boat by that point in the tournament was back in their slip. You know, we're the only ones out there. We're still we're watching the sun go down, We're still trying to get this fish to the surface, you know. So and that's kind of what I got lost. What I say about them not putting the weight placard on not giving us our time on the microphone. At the Big Rock,

The boat dasting granted etched in there.

We're not going to get that, you know. So and it's a huge story. Now. We had a comment. I made a comment in one interview that you know, a year from now, nobody's gonna care. And and somebody made a comment on one of these social media as well, you're right, they won't care. All those T shirts are selling, it will just be in the thrift stores by then, you know.

And what are the T shirts?

The T shirt's just my daughter. I left her in charge of She's twelve years old and she has been a huge supporter and she loves that boat more than any people. And so she came up and she's like, Dad, we really need to have a T shirt that says Team Sensation People's Champ twenty twenty three Big Rock and have the boat on it. I said, you know, girl, you've done such a good job and marketing and everything, and if you're twelve years old, and if you want

She's I'm gonna bring her into my law offer man, my fish Turny law fer marketing wing.

And her name is Bristol Blue. Just as a shot out, that's great.

Well, I'll say this, I hope justice is done, you know without like, I'm just not a subject matter expert, and to be honest with you, I'm not going to go read everything about it. But I mean, like, like I said, like if you look at it for me, you know, looking at the story, like at just kind of when you put a I was exposed to an argument the other day and some person in the argument said, I'm using common sense? What are you using?

Right?

Taken from that angle, it's it's unfortunate, right, But but I realized that that that's not always the measure we apply to stuff. So, but if I heard down the road you guys want your appeal, I'd feel pretty good about it. Yes, without without knowing that you know, I'm not the judge, right, I'm not the judge. I'm just I'm just a guy listened to a fish story, you know.

Yeah, we appreciate this opportunity, and you've got a great platform, and it's just an honor to be here.

Well, I'm glad you guys came and told the full story, and you're right man like just I mean, just such a wild story to hook it.

And we should get fight at the end of the sett and sun.

You know it's great.

We should get meat Eater out to the East coast and do an episode on the sensation.

I'd like to well me and Kran. I was telling her it wasn't I Kran. Before it even happened. I was telling her how if we ought to go down. I was telling the Kream, we need to take our equipment go down. And she gets bad seasick, she told me. So, I don't know what we're gonna do with her, but bring her down there and load her up on all the bracelets and things behind her ears and whatnot. And uh, and we wanted to make like a like an audio

Man.

I'll be anxious to see what all happens. And I don't think those t shirts are gonna wind up at the where they say they're gonna wind up.

Yeah, at the at the Salvation Army store or something like that. People, I can't go on my phone. I can't barely scroll because it's ping, ping ping, going to the you know sensation. Uh, the Facebook is I mean I can't even barely get on my phone to do make call my friend or something. Oh really, because there's so many messages coming through. If people wanting these shirts and stuff, you.

Know you was all married, yes you want You're not married. No, you've been leveraging this for dates and stuff.

You might as.

No. I have a beautiful girlfriend. And yeah, she was there at the Big Rock Land and I could hear her yelling.

Gregg, I love you.

So that was pretty cool. Yeah, when we were backing in and I'm looking for you know, it was pretty cool.

Well, like I said, man, I hope justice is served, trying to choose my words carefully. I hope justice is served. If I hear that you got your money, I'd be tickled. So thank you man.

Thanks coming on, guys, Seal Gray John like silver in the sun, Ride ride, ride on alone, sweetheart.

We're done, beat this damp horse to death, taking a new one and ride away. We're done, beat this damn horse death. So take a new one and ride on.