To say there were plenty of of anxious moments for the crew of the Charleston boat High Yield during the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament would be a major understatement.

It was nearly a week's worth of angst after the anglers  landed on the leaderboard on the first day of the rich $5,858,875 tournament fished June 13-18 out of Morehead City, N.C.

High Yield's 536.8-pound blue marlin earned the crew a $283,525 payday as the third heaviest fish of the tournament, but every hookup over the remaining five days of the tournament was a reason for the anglers to hold their breaths with the potential that someone else could pass them for one of the three big payouts.

"It wasn't until 3:02 p.m. on Saturday that we were certain," said High Yield crew member Ryan Murphy. "Randy Ramsey (of the Big Rock tournament) came on the radio at 3 o'clock and said lines were in but one boat was hooked up. You could hear a pin drop in the boat. And then at 3:02 he came back on the radio and said the last boat hooked up didn't catch their fish so the tournament was over. The celebrating commenced at that point."

High Yield is a 57-foot Spencer sportfishing boat owned by Mount Pleasant businessman Bernard Linney, who was the team's angler during the Big Rock. Paul Wiseman captains the boat which fishes out of Ripley Light Yacht Club, and crew members during the Big Rock included Murphy, Rayburn Mulkey, Bobby Westburry, Robbie Westburry, Wayne Dent and Erik Mater.

The boat Mercenaria, owned by Chad Ballard of Cherrystone, Va., won the tournament with a 572.6-pound catch and earned a whopping $3,489,813, which included a $777,750 bonus for being the first boat to the scales with a 500-pound catch.

Mercenaria hooked its fish at 11:30 a.m. and was at the dock at 2:04 p.m.; High Yield got its hookup at at 2:10 p.m. and got back to the dock at 5:14 p.m., but the $777,750 Fabulous Fisherman prize for a 500-pound blue was a winner-take-all for the first boat.

Murphy said this was the second year High Yield had fished the Big Rock but first time winning a big prize. Linney's crew participated in the KWLA tournament, a ladies only event fished in conjunction with Big Rock, a couple of days prior to the main event and used it as a practice session.

"We ended up finding a blue marlin that day and a pretty good body of water. We went back to that same general area Monday and we were seeing tons of life. But we didn't get our bite until 2:10, and we ended up having the fish in the boat at 2:39 p.m. It was the only bite we got all day," Murphy said.

"When the fish hit, we didn't see the bit. Maybe 30 seconds later the fish swam toward the boat and made five or six big jumps, tail-walking. We knew it was a good-sized fish but didn't think it was a kill fish until we got it beside the boat and put a tape measure on it. Once we got the tape on, we knew the fish was going for a boat ride."

High Yield held second place for a couple of hours before the boat Wall Hanger made its way back to the weigh-in with a 556.4-pound blue marlin, that was worth $426,287, knocking the Charleston crew back to third. Two other blues were weighed Monday, another was brought in Wednesday and two blues were caught Thursday, but High Yield held on. The remainder of the blues caught by participants were all released., including a blue marlin release on Thursday.

"If you follow the Big Rock, it's usually down to the bitter end. It's rare a fish holds up all week," Murphy said. "We had five more days to sweat it out, and sweat we did."

Murphy said going to the awards ceremony was a cool experience. None of the crew knew what to expect, but when they arrived they had a sign up for the High Yield team and a table reserved.

"It was a nail-biter," Murphy said, "but I can tell you it was a dream come true for every single one of us on that crew."

• The Charleston boat Benchmark finished third in the release division of the tournament with 1,600 points, releasing three blue marlin on June 13 and the fourth on June 18. Benchmark won $44,625.

America's Boating Club

America's Boating Club Charleston will hold boating safety classes July 9, July 23 and Aug. 6 at 1376 Orange Grove Road in Charleston. The classes begin at 9 a.m. and end around 4 p.m. Successful participants earn the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Boater Education Card. The cost is $25 for adults and youth 12-18 are free. Call 843-312-2876 or email lynes@tds.net.

Taylor's Landing Bream Tournament

Troy Weatherford and Robbie Hill caught a 24.5-pound stringer to win the Taylor's Landing Bream Tournament. Donald Weatherford and Darryl Pratts finished second with 22.8 pounds, while Ricky Gerald and Eric Pratt placed third with 15 pounds.