The 2009 Zane Grey Invitational was one for the record books. A light field of 12 boats were treated some of the best Southern California marlin fishing that has been experienced in years. The bite was centered on the back side of the island, starting around Cat Harbor on Monday, and moving east as the tournament progressed. Overall, 66 marlin were landed in the tournament, with 61 released.
Monday started strong, with a very exciting finish. There were 16 marlin caught by the fleet, 14 released and two boated. First to the scales were team Chaser aboard the 54 Viking Bad Company Edition. They had scored 1 release, and had a fish to weigh. The fish just toped the tournament minimum of 165 pounds and weighed in at at 167.5 pounds. This earned team Chaser a total of 436 points according to the scoring method and a commanding lead. Team Gambler hooked a fish in the closing moments before lines out and boated the fish. Based on Chasers release, the Gambler fish would need to top the scales at 201 pounds to take the lead and the Day 1 daily jackpots of $38,888. The fish was a nice one, but fell 3 pounds short at 198 pounds, and Chaser took the lead and a sweep of the day 1 daily jackpots. Teams Ruckus, and C Bandit had big days with 3 releases each, followed by Sharks Parlour with a pair. Bandit, Exta Sea, Shannon Rose, Acero Azul, and Good Karma each scored one release.
Day 2 was one of the most exciting days in Zane Grey history. The action started early with Acero Azul releasing a marlin, then team Exta Sea got hot, as did team Scrambler and team Bandit. The action was fast and furious, with several double hookups for the teams. The lead was changing by the minute, and Tournament Control operator Mike “Beak” Hurt was kept busy recording hook ups and releases all day long. When lines out was called at 4 p.m., there had been 41 marlin caught, with 38 releases and three boated. Many boats had multiple releases, but teams Scrambler and Exta Sea were at the top the pack with 6 releases and 1 boated fish each. Team bandit scored 5 releases, Gambler, Ruckus, and C Bandit each scored 4, Chaser had 3, Shannon Rose2, Good Karma had 1 release and 1 boated fish, and Acero Azul and Out of Range each had one. Back at the scales, Scramber was first to weigh in with a 172 pound fish and the lead with 957 points. Next came Good Karma, but their fish did not meet the minimum size of 165 pounds, although it did meet the minimum length of 84 inches. Then came team Exta Sea, run by husband and wife team of Bob and Marilyn Stephens. Their fish looked big on the swim step, and when it toped the scales at 195 pounds Exta Sea had taken the tournament lead and a one day tournament record 1020 points. The daily jackpots were split between three teams, with Exta Sea taking the $500 daily of $4,250, Scrambler took the $250, $1,000, and $2,000 daily jackpots of $17,638, and Bandit with 5 releases and 500 points took the $5,000 daily of $17,000. What a day.
Day 3 started fast with Scrambler releasing both fish out of a double to pass Exta Sea for the tournament lead. Then team Chaser started chipping away at the lead with an early release. Sharks Parlour got one out of a double, and Acero Azul and Out of Range both scored releases. But it was team Chaser that was steadily getting fish. They would need 5 releases to take the lead, and about an hour before lines out they released their fifth marlin of the day to sweep the daily jackpots one more time and to win the tournament by a very slim margin.
At the awards banquet that night, the awards, raffles, and checks were distributed. Bandit collected $17,000 for day 2 jackpot, Exta Sea claimed third place with 1,120 points, earning $$8,570 including their day 2 jackpot. They also earned a standing ovation from the field for their record breaking day. Team Scrambler earned second place with 1,157 points and a total of $26,818 including their day 2 jackpots. Team Chaser claimed first place with 1,236 points, for a total payout of $99,376 for first place and sweeping day 1 and 3 jackpots.