Fishing only their second Bahamas Billfish Championship tournament, Frank Holtham’s Inappropriate tallied 2,400 points with four blue marlin releases to win the Treasure Cay Championship, the final leg of the five tournament series. Veteran BBC captain, Jack Plachter guided the Viking 61 to blue marlin each of the three days and two on day one of the tournament sponsored by HMY Yacht Sales and Viking Yachts.

For their win, the Hackensak, New Jersey team won a Randy Rich designed First Place trophy and as Top Release Team for the Treasure Cay Championship, Inappropriate  was presented with an original bronze trophy awarded by BBC sponsors Murray Products, High Seas Technology and PipeWelders. Steve Lewis of the Lewis Marine Group presented Top Crew trophies to Capt. Jack Plachter  and Pete Zebinski.

If a person gets caught fishing without a license, in most cases, it results in a fine of perhaps a few hundred dollars.


For those aboard Citation, however, the infraction represents a setback of nearly $1 million.

The vessel's anglers had been participating in the 52nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, June 11-19 off North Carolina. Andy Thomossan landed what was by far the biggest fish: an 883-pound marlin, a tournament record.

The team on Saturday was declared winner of the prestigious competition, and there was plenty of celebration.

However, there also was a post-event lie-detector test, after which it was revealed that one of the hired crew did not possess a valid fishing license, available in North Carolina for only $15, or $30 for non-residents.

That was a violation of tournament rules and after lengthy deliberation, according to Evans Kistler of the Carteret County News-Times, tournament officials late Tuesday disqualified the catch and and denied the Citation team the winning purse.