Castrodale: The 1.2 million-dollar fishing prize that got away

In addition to her many other talents, Jelisa Castrodale can fish like nobody’s business. And since she’s a North Carolina resident who actually participated in this tournament, this story was made for her. Cast off!
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By Jelisa Castrodale
Three hours and eighteen minutes is a long time to do anything, with or without your clothes on. If you’re naked, you’re either married to Sting or enduring an overly complicated colonoscopy. If you’re fully dressed you might be watching a Kevin Costner movie, which is equally unpleasant. Or you could be 63-year old Andy Thomossan, who endured three blister-filled hours and eighteen-ibuprofen-earning minutes fighting an 883-pound blue marlin during North Carolina’s annual Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament.
Thomossan’s SmartCar-sized catch put his boat, Citation, on top of the leaderboard and in the record book with the biggest fish in the tournament’s fifty-two year history. It also almost guaranteed that at Saturday night’s awards ceremony, he would get an oversized cardboard check with an equally oversized first prize of $912,825. Almost. Before the Citation co-owners, captain and crew could toast each other with complimentary lime-spiked cocktails, they’d been cited for a rules violation. Almost. Two days later, they’d been disqualified. Almost. They lost almost a million dollars because of a $10 mistake.

For one of the world’s premier sportfishing tournaments and one that shells out $1.66 million in prize money, the Big Rock has a manageable twenty rules. The regulations are easier to decipher than the instructions for most IKEA furniture, covering everything from the boundaries of the fishing territory (Rule 6) to the length of your lines (Rule 4) to the fact that you aren’t allowed to shoot the fish (also Rule 4). Rule 9 states that “The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries will require a recreational fishing license for anyone participating in fishing aboard a vessel. This includes a license for the captain, the mate and the anglers.”
Unfortunately for the Citation, first mate Peter Wann’s license expired last July. As a Virginia resident, Wann could’ve gotten a ten-day license for ten bucks by making a trip to even the most dismal of coastal Walmarts. Why he didn’t, why the captain didn’t discover this in advance, or why the owner didn’t purchase a standard “blanket” license that would’ve covered the entire boat are questions bigger than anything pulled out of the Atlantic last week.
On Dan Patrick’s radio show yesterday, Big Rock president Randy Ramsey said that the oversight was discovered during the pre-awards polygraph exams given to the top money winners. “During those interviews it became apparent to us that there was a problem,” Ramsey explained. “After continuing discussions with the captain and the mate, it came to light that the mate did not possess a valid fishing license when they started [...] the tournament.”
Ramsey also stated that the license requirements were discussed at length during the captain’s meeting on the Saturday before fishing began. “We reminded all the participants again that a valid North Carolina fishing license was required for each person on the boat.” Citation captain Eric Holmes did not attend the meeting, even though Big Rock Rule 2 states “At least one person from each boat should be represented.”
Since their official disqualification on Tuesday night, anyone involved with Citation and their almost-win has a bad taste in their mouth, like week-old billfish with a side of bitterness and maybe just a hint of cilantro. Everyone is pointing fingers and no one is willing to take full responsibility for the oversight.
“It was a bad mistake on my part, a bad mistake on the captain’s part for not making sure I had one, and a bad mistake on the owner’s part for not making sure we all had one.” Wann told WNCT [Greenville, NC].
Meanwhile, Thomossan told the Jacksonville [NC] Daily News, “We didn’t do anything wrong but one of our people did. He told us he had [a fishing license]. He didn’t. So you take a man for his word, you know?” Citation co-owner Michael Topp gives an ominous sounding “no comment” when asked if he’ll take legal action.
The person who has clammed up like the proverbial bivalve is captain Eric Holmes, on whose tanned shoulders I place a lot of the responsibility. He was for-hire personnel — much like Peter Wann — and chose not to attend the captain’s meeting where they discussed the rules that could’ve saved them from getting, um, cited. It seems like if your job title is followed by the word “Meeting”, that may be something you’d like to attend.
As for the Big Rock Board of Directors, their statements have been spun in enough directions to warrant an overdose of Dramamine. To me, they acted appropriately and the only way they could have. They faced a similar situation in 2005, when the then-second place Tuna Trappe was disqualified for not having the required HMS (Highly Migratory Species) license. That decision didn’t cost anyone a million clams, but at least the board is being consistent.
“It’s like if you don’t turn in your scorecard in [after a PGA event],” Ramsey explained. “It’s not cheating but it does disqualify you.”
Almost immediately after the board’s final decision, all non-press released references to the Citation were erased from the Big Rock’s website. Their pictures have been taken down and their name was removed from Monday’s list of hookups, which are the same two things I do after my relationships inevitably end.
The new winner of the 52nd Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament is now officially — and without an asterisk — listed as Carnivore, captained by Ed Petrilli of Cape Carteret, North Carolina. They boated a 528-pound blue last week and will endorse a check for $999,453, an upgrade from their previous earnings of $217,570. The winner is now three hundred pounds lighter but gets a $781,00 raise? Petrelli must feel like Jared Fogle when he signed his endorsement deal with Subway.
In a prepared statement, Petrilli said, “It is with mixed emotion that I accept the first place position for the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament. It is extremely unfortunate that the 883-pound first place blue marlin captured aboard the Citation was disqualified for a very technical reason.”
Peter Wann told WNCT that he hasn’t decided whether he’ll work during next year’s Big Rock. He was fined $35 — plus $125 in court costs — for fishing without a license, although he did renew his fishing license. Wann did it online last Monday, while the Citation was en route to the weigh station with Thomossan’s marlin. It was a waste of $10.
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Jelisa Castrodale is a writer and comedian who has learned a lot about life by making a mess of her own. She chronicles her failures at The Typing Makes Me Sound Busy, covers music for London’s BitchBuzz and twitters while she waits at stoplights. Castrodale was featured in the book Twitter Wit and was named one of Mashable’s 10 Funniest Twitterers.
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