We watched the drag come effortlessly off the reel, the Posiden sword rod was bent over to the water and Dan kept the motors in gear as we followed the line through the night. Every bit of line we worked so hard to gain was going away and we could do nothing about it. This was a very powerful fish in the battle for its life. We passed the 1500ft mark on the line and knew this was going to be a long battle. We had been at sea for over 40 hours, we were all exhausted but this fish is why we were here….
Here…. This was biggest stage many of us had ever stood on The Mississippi Gulf Coast Bill Fish Classic. The best of the best, a tournament known for monster fish, with anglers from all over the country, professional crews that work together day in and day out. 120 boats were in the tournament all with hopes and dreams of catching the biggest fish in a list of categories. Sport fishing boats over 100 feet long. Heck the average length was around 60 feet. We were fishing for a purse of over $2 million! Just a day and a half ago we were parading out of the inlet in Mississippi leaving confines of the Golden nugget for 3 days and 2 nights of fishing looking for the one big one. I was invited to fish with team Paydirt. Captain Brad Benners assembled a great group of guys that knew sword and offshore fishing, Nick Stanczyk, Bobby, Dan, Ryan, Clay, and myself. We were fishing on a Freeman 37VH powered by quad 350 Mercury outboards, using the best tools available in the industry, Posiden rods, Marsh tacky gaffs, Killer Bee squid, and all the offshore telemetry and sea surface temperature information from Hiltons. It was a bit of David vs Goliath comparing us to the other teams with much larger boats but we were going to play to our strengths, mobility, fuel efficiency, speed, and a desire to succeed.
Once the parade hit the last bouy it was go time! The Mercury’s came to life as
