Stars | Top Billfish Tournament Photographer
What a turn of events this year has allowed. This year marks the launch of The Wild Blue Films and we are hitting the ground running! We have fully dedicated our business model to further help fellow business owners in the sportfishing world all the while promoting sportfishing in general. We got our first start at basically the World Series…that being The White Marlin Open in Ocen City, MD. This was the kickoff to our 12-day stint along the eastern seaboard covering sportfishing tournaments for the week. It was almost over before it began though. Heading out the very first morning in the pitch dark, we headed to the point to see the first round of boats going out at 4:00am. It was quite the spectacle down there as there were probably close to 1,500 watching.
Unbeknownst to me, as I am walking to get in position on the beach, that there is a sand cliff wall carved out by the waves that is every bit of 4-ft. in height…meaning I walked right off it and landed face down in the sand. That was a brief moment of reflection for me as I just layed there and embraced the pain for a good ten seconds. But if western hospitality taught me anything and life in general is that you got to get back up and dust your self off and get back at it. I have been thrown off a horse or two and one of those times in Dubios, WY I really did think I was done for. So I am trading in dust and dirt for face fulls of sand and salty water.
This week was an action packed week of lots of early and late call times and of course the daily weigh-ins at the scales. A huge highlight is of course all the boats coming in from the wild blue and blowing past the point full-speed for all to see them in their glory as they throttle back and start hoisting up their flags indicating their species of catch for the day. Of course their are rumors throughout the day about report of a white marlin landed or a big blue marlin landed and coming to the scales. They second evening at the scales was one for the events history books as we saw two giant blue marlin hoisted up, one after the other. The Stone Cutter boat out of NY quickly took first place for largest blue weighing in a whopping 897.50 lbs. RIght behind them was Bobojo out of Virginia with a 789.50 lb. blue marlin. That night we also saw the overall winning fis for the tournament, a white marlin from Waste Knot that ended up weighing in at 77.50 lbs.
Each night after the scales was spent cooking with the family and my business partner over cheap beer and fresh caught ahi-tuna or shrimp….blackening everything of course. The rest of the week went amazing even after eating a face full of gritty sand but those are the stories we will remember.
We would like to sincerely thank the entire Motsko Family for being such wonderful hosts, clients, and now friends! They truly are such a tight-knit family and genuinely care about relationships. We hope to see you all next year and thank you so very much for the most amazing opportunity…we are forever in debt to you for placing your trust in us!
