Area captains claimed top spots in most every division in the Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic held at Sandestin June 18-22.
Out of 78 teams participating, Capt. Jason Hallmark on the Devotion, a 61-foot Viking out of Orange Beach, Alabama, came close to placing first with a 640.4-pound blue marlin.
Although Hallmark currently lives in Alabama, he lived and fished out of Destin for many years. In 2016, while running the Rise Up, Hallmark brought in the winning blue marlin of the ECBC, an 838.2-pounder.
this past weekend, they didn’t have the biggest, but they placed second behind All-In Southern Charm, which hauled in a 654.6-pound blue marlin, caught by Ron Davis.
As for Hallmark and the team aboard the Devotion, they went five-for-five on blue marlin during the three-day tournament.
Hallmark, who has fished the ECBC about eight or nine times, said they caught one blue marlin on Thursday and four on Friday.
And the last one was the one that counted.
Hallmark explained that a marlin must be 110 inches to keep.
“It was the only one that was big enough,” he said.
“Anytime you are fishing a tournament like this and you get a chance to catch a legal fish, you pretty much take it, unless you have a bunch of release points,” Hallmark said.
After catching and releasing four blues, Hallmark said they were riding around looking for one on sonar and marked one. They were fishing about 230 miles from Destin off Louisiana.
“We let our bait down and got a bite on it. The fish never jumped, so we didn’t know how big it was until we got it all the way up to the boat and got it on the wire the first time,” Hallmark said.
“We probably had him on the wire in about 45 minutes, but he was still so green. We couldn’t pull any harder on it than we already were,” he said.
Hallmark said they had to fight the fish a little bit longer and finally got a good shot at it with a flying gaff and was able to get it in.
“The fish didn’t do anything real crazy,” he said.
But it did take about three hours to get on the boat.
Nathan Bearden was the angler on the rod.
Hallmark said they caught the marlin on a Tiagra 130 with a 300-pound leader, and a live blackfin tuna for bait.
Counting all their catch and release and their big blue, team Devotion pulled in $238,660.75 in prize money.
Capt. Chase Lake of the Team Supreme and his crew won the catch and release division, with five fish for first place and $216,912.50 in prize money.
“It was awesome,” Lake said of the tournament.
Lake said they traveled so far out they only had one day to really concentrate on fish.
“The fish are really starting to feel the pressure up close, so we went way down far,” Lake said.
Team Supreme caught four blue marlin and a sailfish all in one day – Friday.
“We only got to fish for a little while and then it was time to come home,” Lake said, noting they were about 300 miles away from Destin.
All the marlin they released were in the 300-pound range, he said.
Team Supreme has now caught and released 28 billfish this year.
“Our hooking ratio has been good,” he said, noting they are a bit behind where they were at this time last year.
Team Supreme set a record last year for the most billfish caught and released in a year, with 64.
Destin’s Capt. B.J. Teems on the Knot Done Yet took first place in the Tuna Division with a 181.4-pounder caught by Blake Garland. Knot Done Yet went home with $122,693.76 in prize money.
Teems said they were about 100 miles out when they hooked the big tuna and that it took Garland about 45 minutes to get it in.
Brad Layton fishing on the Sea Wolff with Capt. Jared Quick (Destin) took third place with a 127.4-pounder.
In the Wahoo Division, Destin Capt. Travis Marlin aboard the Squid Row landed the winning wahoo at 54.9 pounds. The angler was Buck Gosnay. Squid Row came away with $85,838.76 in prize money.
In the Dolphin Division, Sea Wolff placed second with a 34.1-pounder and Capt. Jordan Hutchison on the Done Pickin came in third with a 31.7-pounder. Capt. Jeff Shoults of the Mollie placed fourth with a 29.4-pounder.
This article originally appeared on The Destin Log: Local captains haul big fish for big money in Sandestin’s Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic
Reporting by Tina Harbuck, The Destin Log / The Destin Log
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
