Special delivery: Sign up for the free Marlin email newsletter. Subscribe to Marlin magazine and get a year of highly collectible, keepsake editions – plus access to the digital edition and archives.
Renowned sportfishing teams from all along the Atlantic coast turned up to fish this year’s South Carolina Blue Marlin Invitational, a 39-day-long tournament which allows competitors to select three fishing days from May 1 through June 8. The 34 participating boats racked up 46 blue marlin releases and boated two fish, one of which would go on to clinch the tournament’s most coveted prize – first place in the Duffie Boatworks Blue Marlin Jackpot.
The two blue marlin that hit the scales during this year’s SCBMI were caught within just 24 hours of each other in mid-May. Charleston-based Sportin’ Life and Capt. Mike Glaesner first set the tone for the tournament after the boat’s owner, Graham Eubank, weighed a 449.4-pound blue marlin at Toler’s Cove Marina. Although the fish slid Sportin’ Life into first place in the tournament, its time atop the fleet would be short lived.
The next day, Capt. Blaine Champlin and Pachanga, a boat hailing from Ocean City, Maryland, and owned by David and Michael Reeves, left Charleston with hopes for a leaderboard shakeup. When a thick blue marlin launched into their spread just 15 minutes before lines out that afternoon, the crew felt they’d found the fish to do the job. Michael Reeves took the rod and battled the healthy blue for about an hour before successfully boating it. The fish weighed in at 517.9-pounds, launching Pachanga to the top of the tournament’s standings.
Pachanga’s crew would have to wait three long weeks while other boats hunted for their own tournament-winning blue marlin. As lines finally came out of the water on the last day of the SCBMI, Pachanga received the official news that their 517.9-pound fish had held the lead and earned the tournament’s top honor, winning first place in the Duffie Boatworks Blue Marlin Jackpot and a check for $210,000. Sportin’ Life finished in second place, winning $90,000.
The tournament also offered exceptional payouts for its various release categories, including the three KryptoQuiet Blue Marlin Release Daily awards. Each release daily winner took home a check for $47,520, as well as a set of KryptoQuiet marine bearings. This year, the tournament was also proud to announce a brand-new division for its participants with the KryptoQuiet Overall Blue Marlin Release category worth $67,000.
Capt. Phillip Fender and Jon Clay’s Claytime won the Day 1 Daily with four blue marlin releases. The team would go on to release a total of five blue marlin in the tournament, a tally good enough to clinch the award for overall blue marlin release. With both categories to their credit, Claytime earned a total cash payout of $114,520. Glazed, owned by Miles Herring and captained by Ben Polk, took the Day 2 Daily with four blue marlin releases. John Darby’s Artemis with Capt. Drew Demaree won the Day 3 Daily with one blue marlin release.
Following the tournament, the SCBMI donated $5,000 to the South Carolina Memorial Reef, an initiative which creates life after life to honor sportsmen that have passed. This year’s donation, made in honor of Christopher Lee Martin on behalf of Pachanga, will help support future South Carolina Memorial Reef projects, benefiting the broader sportfishing community and conservation efforts for pelagic species, as well as a myriad of at-risk reef fishes.
