Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament 2008 Day 3: Lady Lou V Scores Big
The third day of the Big Rock's 50th tournament saw more than half of the fleet stay close to home after Tuesday saw the slowest bite all week. Of the 177 boats entered in this year's event, only 73 decided to try their luck on day three. The big shakeup came from Paul Spencer and Jose Valdes on the 60-foot Spencer yacht, the Lady Lou V. Fishing numbers supplied by Spencer's son and Captain of the Sizzler, they hooked up early with a sizeable fish. Just 24 minutes after the hook-up and a scant hour and five minutes into the fishing day they were boating a blue and heading for the scales.
The other big news came from one of the smallest boats in the field, a 27-foot Albemarle called the Tiger Runner and Captained by Scott Earp. The Tiger Runner stood tied with the leader in the release division Buckwild, going into the third day with 800 points. They kept up their steady pace and released a sailfish to take the lead in the category at the hour and a half mark of the first day. The boat seemed to be in the right place all day as soon they had pulled the hook on another fish and then added a late day blue marlin to lock up 1325 release points and the lead in the release category for the week.
Back at the scales the Lady Lou V had their blue hanging before lunch. It was a good fish and pushed the team into third place when it weighed in at 553.5 pounds. That was just enough to beat out the Tuna Trappe III and only missed the second place mark set by Melina on Day 2 by 2 pounds. It was also the second 500-plus pound marlin that had been put on the scales at the Big Rock, having put the first up in 2005.
On the gamefish score the big news at the scales on Day 3 was the Tuna Trappe III who after losing their third place spot on the marlin leader board exchanged it for second place in the wahoo category with a 61.7-pound skinny. They were the only boat to gain ground in the gamefish scores and took first place for the day in the wahoo scores. The Jolly Mon took second place honors with an 11.2 pound wahoo that didn't shake the overall standings. On the dolphin side it was the Carolina Lady who took honors for the day with 39.85 pounds, while the Laurel Point had a 39.35-pound dolphin for second largest of the day. For the third straight day no qualifying tuna were brought to the scale so that category remained wide open for the first weigh-in on day 4.
The 73 boats that headed out found the strongest bite so far with 26 billfish being released and 1 coming back to the dock. The Billistic had the first release of the day, totaled two blues on the day to score 800 points and are just behind the Buckwild in third based on time but tied on points. The Big Hunter had two releases today, including the 50th billfish and scored 800 points to set up as the third boat at 800 points on the week. One more boat would equal the point total as the Blue Water also released a pair of blues to tally 800 points and set up a race for the rest of the week.
With only 73 boats fishing the action was the best so far on day 3 and the catch ratio was also the best. There were 48 boats that called in hook-ups on day 3 and of those, 26 were released successfully. This should lead to an action packed day 4 as light and variable winds and nice weather should greet a large cross-section of the fleet out looking to find the hot bite that came to life on day 3. The Artemis still holds the lead with their late entry on day 1 of 640 pounds while the Melina stands in second with 555.5 pounds and the Lady Lou V has secured third place with 553.5 pounds.
