Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic

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Last day of fishing today. Scales open at 3 p.m. in Biloxi (Pt. Cadet Marina/Golden Nugget), with at least two blue marlin on the way in. We're expecting lots of big tuna, dolphin and wahoo as well.

Only one marlin weighed last night, but it was a whopper. 843.7 pounds caught by a tiny lady angler on the Iona Louise, an Orange Beach, AL Hatteras.

You can read the blogs and check out the photo galleries here:

http://mgcbc.com

[silverking]

Iona Louise took home $195,040 for first place team and crew awards, third place dolphin and optional entries. Deb Hebert won the Lady Angler award.

Patience pocketed $30,530 for the second-largest marlin, a 680.1-pounder, while Mollie earned $94,500 in the release division. Which just goes to show, you don't have to kill billfish to win some serious coin and it pays to play (with optional entries) at this level.

Reel Worthless/Fuelish, the team whose boat burned before the tourney started, was the feel good story for the week. They boated a 539.1-pound blue and won $105,400 for their tenacity. And the insurance company is going to stroke a big check for the burned 64 Viking.

All my blogs and photo galleries are posted on the site: mgcbc.com

[silverking]

Forgot to mention, there are other attractions at these tournaments besides big fish and sleek boats.

The inaugural Miss Billfish Classic was a huge success, even though I didn't get to judge this one.