Capt. Rom Whitaker on Release was feeling pretty good as he rolled up to the scale on Day One of the Hatteras Village Offshore Open with a 404.1-pound blue marlin on deck. The fish had not been off the scale for more than a few minutes when Sea Toy‘s Capt. Bull Tolson gingerly maneuvered his fish to the weigh station, knocking out Whitaker in the heaviest blue marlin division. At 690.4 pounds, Sea Toy took the lead with his blue marlin and would remain at the top of the big fish category for the rest of the tournament. Tolson added to his score in the two billfish divisions – released and/or boated – with another blue marlin release on time, netting his team close to $36,000 of the $72,420 purse.
Second place in the two billfish divisions went to Calypso with two blue marlin releases, and in third was Goombay, also with two blue marlin releases.
Each of the Hatteras Village Offshore Open teams fished three of the possible four days, with a fine showing of 20 blue marlin (400 points each) and two white marlin (200 points each) released during the course of the week, with only two blues boated.
The daily release category winners were Sea Striker on Day One with one blue and one white released, Hog Wild on Day Two with one blue marlin release, Goombay on Day Three with two blues released, and J&B with one blue released on Day Four.
The Hatteras Village Offshore Open, in its second decade of tournament fishing, is sponsored in part by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and is the first leg of the North Carolina Governor’s Cup, which consists of eight participating tournaments which run through mid-August.
2019 will mark the event’s 25th anniversary and is scheduled for May 14-18, 2019 in Hatteras, North Carolina.
