What is really out there in the ocean?

Robert Young

Crestview News Bulletin

Did anyone get to read about team Dreamin’ and the 627.7 pound marlin they pulled in?

They definitely set the standard as the first weigh-in that day, with no participants really coming close to the poundage.

Here’s a question for you. If you just caught something that big out of the water, doesn’t it make you think of the things bigger than that waiting for you to jump right in?

A total of 84 boats circled the waters in hopes to grab the biggest marlin out in the gulf so that they can go home hundreds of thousands of dollars richer. The initial prize money was over $1.3 million, but then it was broken into brackets for each category.

There was the top release, top crew, top blue marlin, top dolphin (not Flipper), top tuna, top wahoo and some individual awards.

Pretty much everyone who placed went home with more than a couple thousand dollars; with the majority going home with more than $10,000.

Let me tell you something, if that type of money is on the table to reel in fish, where’s my rod and lure? I’m ready to go.

Team Dreamin’s Steve Keinath said he’s been doing tourneys like this for the last 15 years of his life.

It took him around 40 minutes to finally pull his winning marlin in.

Now, if you have 15 years of experience fishing large game fish and it takes you 40 minutes, does that mean it’ll take me around three days?

Being that I have no real fishing tournament experience I would figure the fish would catch on and just pull my little dingy into international waters.

Though, I’m proud to be in an area that knows everything there is about fishing.

Let’s face it.

Fishing is the emerald coast.

It’s what a lot of people look forward to every weekend or maybe even every day.

Avid fisherman fish sub consciously. It’s like sleepwalking but with a four hundred dollar rod.

If you have a chance look at the photo galleries on www.fishecbc.com. Are these people having fun or what?

With the weigh-ins, dock in and boat parade, the community and the participants are really celebrating the Blue Marlin.

Want to know what you would do if you wanted to get into the tournament?

Well, first off you need to decide what level you want to enter. The Classic pretty much sectioned the tourney into level 1 and level 2 with additional sub-brackets available.

The real different between both levels is that level 1 includes cash Blue Marlin and cash game fish divisions, as opposed to level 2

having the cash release division.

Fees were $5,000 for level 1 and $2,500 for level 2 ($2,000 if you also signed up for level 1).

Along with state sales tax and a fishing license you’re ready to fish.

I really think these tournaments are interesting and very exciting. I can’t wait till our next local tourney to pop up so I can write about it.

Who knows what size or type of fish someone will pull to throw on the scales.

The ocean is a big place.

It houses more than 20,000 species of fish with maybe more than 20,000 left to be discovered.

On top of that we’re just now finding and researching those mythical sea creatures that once used to lace the pages of every fictional, undersea book.

Mythical sea creatures?

Yes, I’m talking about giant squid and better yet colossal squid.

Off the coast of New Zealand this past February researchers and scientists had caught a fully intact specimen of a colossal squid.

This catch, which easily eclipsed the very first colossal catch by more than 430 pounds, was measured to be more than 33 feet long.

Scientists still admit though that this catch is still smaller than they are predicting they’ll encounter in the future.

That’s a little scary.

You think Jaws is scary?

I think Jaws would cower at the size and aggressiveness of this sea beast.

Check back next week for some real fishing stories of catching animals a little more itimidating then regualr game fish.