3-23 SS Blue Marlin
I was visiting an outfitter that took people on Whitetail and elk hunts when I came across this very unusual guy. He was sitting around watching Sunday night football, tattered T-shirt with a picture of a Blue Marlin. I’m an inquisitive guy. I said here we are with a bunch of deer and elk hunters, are you a fisherman as well? Apparently that was like asking Greg Norman, the great white shark, if he had ever picked up a golf club.Tom Shumate won the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic held annually out of Biloxi Mississippi.
“It’s a two-day fishing tournament, blue marlin, tuna, dolphin categories, we were fishing mainly for the blue Marlin. 1st day of the tournament about 3 o’clock we hook into a large marlin, he starts jumping, we knew he was a qualifier, to be able to qualify they have to be over 101 inches long. I fought the fish for 30 to 40 min., got it to the boat and gaffed it, put it in the boat, brought it back in, we got in and there were already 2 other fish weighed, a 591 pounds and a 585, we weighed ours in at 702 pounds, which was first-place for that tournament and is one of the top 20 largest fishes ever caught in the gulf of Mexico as far as a blue marlin is concerned. The 2nd day we caught a few more white marlin, we got some more tag and release points for those and we ended up winning grand champion for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic and the fish also qualified for the Triple Crown in the Florida- Mississippi Gulf Coast Tournament out of Destin, Florida. There are 4 tournaments you fish in and you get points, and that gave us enough points to win everything overall for that Triple Crown. That fish one us hundred and $151,000 and an extra $20,000 in bonus money as well.
