A winning catch

In the final hour of competition, a Stokesdale fisherman and his crew caught the winning tuna and netted $7,000 in prize money in a tournament on North Carolina’s coast

by CHRIS BURRITT

STOKESDALE – Fishing for tuna, Stokesdale’s Travis Cantrell and his crew weren’t sure what they had hooked an hour before the end of the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in Morehead City, North Carolina.

“We fought it for a good 15 minutes and got it really close to the boat,” Cantrell recalled. “Then it took off again, straight down to the bottom. That’s always scary because a lot of times that’s when you lose your fish.”

The crew of Reel Priority, a 47-foot Viking sport fishing boat, managed to catch the fish. It weighed 52.8 pounds, edging out another catch just slightly lighter, on the final day of the tournament in mid-June.

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