BIG ROCK: Mercenaria remains first as day 1 wraps up

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (WITN) - The first day of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament wrapped up with five separate boats catching a blue marlin.

Mercenaria boated the current first-place 572.6-pound big blue at 11:30 a.m. The owners of the boat won $777,750 for the catch in the Fabulous Fisherman’s contest. They can still win a grand prize of $3.4 million total.

Wall Hanger boated a blue marlin at about 5:06 p.m. Just after 7:30 p.m., their catch weighed in at 556.4 pounds, good for second place.

At 2:53 p.m., tournament staff said High Yield also boated a blue marlin. At 5 p.m., High Yield’s catch weighed in at 536.8 pounds, good enough for third place in the tournament.

At 3:44 p.m., tournament staff said Bad Habit boated a blue marlin. Shortly after 7 p.m., the boat’s catch weighed in at 526.7 pounds, good for third place in the competition.

Sylva Lining boated a blue marlin at 1:07 p.m. and when its team weighed in just before 5:30 p.m., the catch weighed in at 401.3 pounds. That is good enough for fifth place.

The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament leaderboard currently looks like this:

This is the 64th year for the tournament, with 266 boats competing for the record purse of $5,858,875.

Fans were excited to be in attendance.

“I’ve been coming to Morehead and Beaufort probably since I was a little girl so every year we come down, but with the children,” Shawna Rader said.

On the first day, 246 teams are fishing while 20 boats took a layday.

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