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Tuesday, August 08, 2017

Insane First Day at the White Marlin Open

When I use the word “insane” to describe the first day of scales action at the 44th Annual White Marlin Open I don’t mean it in the big fish, lots of fish, awesome action kind of way. I mean it in it’s literal sense. It was a run for cover, Noah’s Ark rain, hold on to your a$$ with both hands kind of insane. “I’ve never been in a tornado” might be words that I can’t say tomorrow……because I just may have been. At around 6 PM during our live broadcast coverage of the tournament a small tornado or powerful microburst landed at Harbour Island and had us all running for our vehicles. I was under the big tee shirt tent when it happened and it honestly felt like it was going to fly away. The wind lasted for several minutes and at the end of it there was some pretty significant damage at Harbour Island. The porta potties were blown over and 10 feet from where they were set up, tent stakes for a 50′ x 50′ tent were pulled from the ground and from what I hear the small shed on the fuel dock at Harbour Island was blown off of the dock and destroyed. Thankfully there were no major injuries and we were able to get the live feed up about 2 hours later. Even then we had to deal with monsoon type rains and even some thunder and lightning. Dave Messick and Gregory Benn stuck it out in the deluge and got me some great video for the stream and Dave took this killer pic of a boat leaving the inlet this morning….which they probably regretted later.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Coast Guard should have Made > them ALL stay in ..........

common sense .....not worth dieing to go fishing !!! Dugh

Anonymous said...

many are not qualified to be out in the ocean that far out
in bad weather esp .......lucky nothing happened !
Need some rules to make the call to hold All in when needed

Anonymous said...

9:11 You have no idea what you are talking about.

Anonymous said...

I bet the ones that went out yesterday got to taste breakfast over and over and over again.

Anonymous said...

Bet plenty were Drunk and sick ........had to learn the Hard
Way ........

Anonymous said...

ea boat should have an Offical to watch the rules so NO more
scandals and court cases to ruin the image of Whole thing !

Anonymous said...

What's really beyond belief is that close to $5 million in prize money is available to an idiotic fishing contest.

Anonymous said...

Most boat owners are already doing well in business or
they could not even afford to be a Player in the thing
at the prices it cost to do it.....they don't need the $$$

Anonymous said...

At least they're working and making a living.don't hate

Anonymous said...

So, what's the score????

Anonymous said...

Only fools go out in a storm .....some captains they are !!

Anonymous said...

Their Luck will run out , going out in Rough Ocean

They will get the Hell scared out of them in rough seas !!!