Lucky Fisherman Reels In $2.6 Million Dollars in Cash at High-Stakes Fishing Tournament
The best competition to compete in? A fishing competition…
By Ashley Mazerolle, Marketing —
When you think of fishing, what comes to mind? I think of the smell of the pine trees, the mud and water, and having wet shoes. I don’t think about reeling in a fish for a cash prize, but that is exactly what happened to Roy Schwalbach.
There is a week-long competition held ever August called The White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland. This is basically the World Series of the fishing world. Last year, the prize money got up to well over 11 million, making it the richest fishing competition in the world.
$2.6 million dollars for a fish
Every year the jackpot is divided in more than a dozen prizes. In 2018, the prizes ranged from $900,000 to several million dollars. Obviously, this competition is no joke. For a chance to pull money out of the ocean, the anglers, including Schwalbach have to pay the tournament fees which start at $1,100 per boat and up to $25,000 per boat.
Between entry fees, hiring a boat captain, chartering a yacht, fuel for the boat, and paying crew members, these trips can cost up to $45,000. The players typically compete as teams and split all the prize money.
Fish, poles, and lie detectors…
As you can imagine, with all of this money on the line, there are some pretty strict rules in place. There are a lot of cheaters out there so the organizers put lie detectors out there to keep all competitors honest.
Polygraph exams can take anywhere from 2-5 hours to conduct. That’s a lot of time wasted that could be spent fishing or testing other competitors. EyeDetect is a lie detector that measures involuntary changes in the eyes when someone is lying. It is 90 percent accurate when conducting diagnostic tests. The tests last 15 to 30 minutes and cost a significant amount less than a standard polygraph test.
Perhaps next year, The White Marlin Open could utilize EyeDetect to test the winners of the week-long competition?
Source
Photo by / Mathieu le Roux
