It was a whopper, plain and simple. And although it took a lot of work to finally catch it, the angler Edward Carreiro’s efforts paid off not only in cash but also in prestige and the sound knowledge that he and his crew had accomplished a benchmark that would be established for many years.

As it happened, the catch was made after an earlier catch had already been weighed in that was clearly eligible at more than 500 pounds. Spare a thought for the feelings of that particular crew when the word came back late that afternoon that the measurements of the big fish just caught could not be provided because they could not get the fish into the boat — 1,268 pounds is a huge fish, by any standard, and is the best publicity a tournament can get.

With another day to fish, boats headed out on the final morning with mixed feelings — was the die already cast or was there still another twist in the tale?

When all was said and done, the Bermuda Big Game Classic had its winners. The top tournament team with 4,000 points was Captain Pete Zook’s Sea Striker. In second place, on time, also with 4,000 points, was Captain Sean Dooley’s Viking 82. Captain Michael Tickle’s Wastenot was third with 3,500 points.

With 125 blue marlin caught over the three days, along with seven white marlin and a variety of other game species, it was not surprising that the points were well spread among boats, making competition stiff.

Sea Striker’s performance also earned that team both levels of the Overall Billfish Release Points and the Release Jackpot.

The Heaviest Blue Marlin category was won handily by Captain Chris Osborne’s Unwined amid much ado and the Heaviest Game Fish award went to a nice 145.6-pound yellowfin caught by Dalton Edwards on Captain Kyle Liane’s Bree.

Unwined’s big fish and two other releases also earned them the Non-Sonar Boat Jackpot. A great result from a Bermuda boat and one of the smallest craft in a fleet of leviathans.

It would have been a fish of a lifetime for any one of a very elite group of very lucky anglers out of a big bunch who literally spend their lives, and an enormous amount of money, looking to succeed in catching a grander.

“Grander” is the accepted term for a blue marlin weighing more than 1,000 pounds, the dream of many a saltwater sportsman or woman. Historically, this mark took many years to achieve in the Atlantic Ocean with an 845-pounder set as the world record in 1968. Seemingly unassailable, the mark was broken with an 1,142-pounder off North Carolina in 1974. The record then returned to the US Virgin Islands in 1977 when a 1,282-pound blue was caught there. That record held for many years, until 1992 when a 1,402-pound fish was caught off Brazil, setting a mark that has yet to be bettered. Then, gradually, large fish started being caught more frequently. This trend continued as more and more isolated islands became accessible to wealthy anglers who were able to work some waters that were virtually unfished.

Now, to set the record straight as some media provided confusing information as to the size of Unwined’s fish relative to other large blue marlin. The International Game Fish Association, which is the organisation that maintains records for angling and sets the rules governing the sport, has long maintained records for the Atlantic blue marlin as separate from those for the Pacific blue marlin, making it unrealistic to compare the two. The existing Pacific record is a 1,376-pound fish caught in 1982, although many granders are caught fairly regularly off the Hawaiian Islands, site of this particular record.

Putting things into perspective, Bermuda is one of those remote islands that is known to produce big fish, which accounts for the influx of foreign boats for July 4 and the other tournaments here this month. Quite apart from the fish making this week’s headlines, there have been a considerable number of granders and near-granders taken over the past 20 years. In fact, the present Bermuda record is not far short of the world mark, standing at 1,352 pounds.

While fish of this class are rare and highly sought after, there is evidence that they grow considerably larger. One Pacific fish weighed 1,805 pounds and the Japanese commercial high-seas fishing fleet, which provided many valuable statistics over the years, has always maintained that the blue marlin is the largest of the billfish — growing to well over 2,000 pounds. Such lore has often raised the idea of a “tonner”, a fish over 2,000 pounds!

This weekend the final leg of the Bermuda Triple Crown will play out in the form of the Sea Horse Anglers Club Billfish Tournament, the island’s oldest such event.

Looking further ahead, on Friday at Docksider will be the captains’ meeting for the Bermuda Release Challenge, a fun and much less costly alternative billfish competition.

For those unaffected by these developments, there are still a few wahoo out there that will please, now often invading chum slicks and taking advantage of monofilament leaders. Yellowfin tuna and blackfins are also available in good numbers with school-sized fish being the norm. Note should be taken of the large tuna caught in the Classic: tuna tend to travel in schools, so obviously there are some around here more than capable of providing some very Tight Lines!!!