OCEAN CITY- A private sportfishing boat out of Ocean City made a big splash at the 61st Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament last weekend, weighing a tournament-record 914-pounder to take first place and a check for over $793,000.
The Top Dog, a family-owned private boat based in Ocean City during the summer, competed in the 61st Annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in North Carolina last week and hauled in a monster 914-pound blue marlin to take the tournament’s top prize. The Top Dog, captained by Ocean City’s Ryan Knapp, fought the big blue for over five hours with angler and boat co-owner Todd Dickerson on the reel.
Once the big blue was landed, the next challenge was getting it onto the boat and getting it back to the scale to weigh at the tournament’s home base in Morehead City, N.C. After several attempts to boat the 914-pounder, the Top Dog crew pulled the beast through the tuna door in the transom and returned to the dock with the fish hanging half in and half out of the boat.
The big crowd on hand learned the Top Dog was returning with a big blue that could erase the tournament’s leaderboard and huge cheers went up when the fish was pulled from the boat and run up the scale, topping out at 914-pounds. The 914-pound blue set a new Big Rock record, replacing the 831-pounder that held that distinction for nearly two decades since 2000.
