The third day of fishing in the HMY Viking Billfish Tournament at Charleston Harbor Marina Resort was a fitting finale for the most successful billfish tournament ever in South Carolina. Despite the tournament's largest blue marlin brought to the scales on the final day, a WBS angler remained the winner on release points.
Boats can fish only two out of the three available days.
One billfish was brought to the scales Saturday. With a 479.0-pound blue marlin caught in an earlier Governor's Cup tournament, Rookie IV has the two largest blues in the 1999 Series. We had seen some fish there on Thursday, so we decided to give it a try again. In addition to Runey's blue marlin, Rookie IV also tagged and released another blue marlin and one sailfish. Even with Rookie IV 's good day, it was not quite enough to overtake Day 2 leader, Bluewater , a 55-foot Viking owned by World Billfish Series angler Smyth McKissick of Greenville, SC and captained by John Bayliss.