Published: June 18, 2009 11:22 pm      

Sea Hunter team wins Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic

Mike Heard and teammates of the Sea Hunter, captained by Captain Ricky McDuffie, took top honors in the annual billfish tournament held out of the Isle of Capri Casino in Biloxi last weekend. Heard was joined by Meridian anglers Billy Humphrey, Lance Brent, Spike Watts, David Burns, and Kevin Anders. Other members of the team were David West and Eddie Booles of Madison, and C. D. Norberg of Birmingham and Charles Thomas of Shuqualak.

“We happened up on a Rip,” said Heard. A rip is a moss bed or grass line that is full of baby crabs, grass, and baitfish. “When you find a rip you’re going to find some fish,” continued Heard.



Honey hole



After finding the rip the team started catching bull dauphin, otherwise known as mahi-mahi. “We were catching 25 to 40 pound bull dauphin and I just knew something was going to happen. Mahi-mahi are like candy to blue marlins and I just knew a blue marlin might happen along” explained Heard.

“Man there were so many frigate birds, and I knew that frigate birds follow marlins and feed on the scraps,” continued the excited angler. By then they had already filled their box full of dauphin and wahoos and were really getting excited.

“Look at them frigate birds!” exclaimed Heard. After spending a day on the water with the group, Captain McDuffie had not yet given up hope. In fact, he had not even left the tower; he was so intent on putting them on a big blue marlin.



Hook up!



At 5 p.m. the big 130 Shimano hooked up with a big blue marlin and started to sing. “Charles Thomas of Shuqualak was the lucky, or unlucky angler in the chair,” related Heard. He was lucky to get hold of the massive billfish but unlucky in the fact that he had to wear the fish down, and that sometimes takes hours. In this case Thomas wore the big fish down in about two hours and their day was done. Would their big blue marlin be big enough to place, or win? That was the question.

As I turned out, when the clock struck 11 p.m. on Saturday night, the Sea Hunter team was in the lead and was ultimately crowned champion! Captain Ricky McDuffie was commended by all of the team for driving the boat and locating the big fish. If you can’t find the fish you can’t catch them and that’s the most critical thing of all!

After the final weigh in the team learned that they had won the top prize for the biggest marlin of the tournament. The 380 pound marlin won the Grand Prize of $128,540.00! And that’s not too bad for a day or two of fishing.