Madison Struyk \u201915 recalls early years fishing off the coast of her native Morehead City, N.C. \u201cMy dad used to take me fishing all the time,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was 8 or 9, I remember coming down to the Big Rock to see the weigh-in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWeigh-in\u201d is the revelatory moment when competitors in the Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament record the weight of their catch, chasing a $3.3 million purse that annually attracts 200-plus participants from across the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was 8 or 9, I remember coming down to the Big Rock to see the weigh-in.
\u2014<\/strong> Madison Struyk \u201915<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nToday, Struyk, 28, is the executive director of the Big Rock Tournament\u2009\u2014\u2009the oldest and largest of its kind in the U.S. She supervises the team planning the tournament, recruiting sponsors, registering competitors, seeking grants, handling retail sales and administering charitable contributions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wear a lot of hats,\u201d she says. \u201cI love how rewarding this is, what with \u2018charity first\u2019 being our motto.\u201d Last year, $1 million was donated to nonprofits like hospice, scouting, soup kitchens and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1957, the tournament has drawn participants to the Gulf Stream waters off Morehead, hunting one of the most beautiful and elusive of fighting fish. The marlins caught for the tournament can weigh from 420 to 650 pounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struyk considered leveraging her sport management degree with professional sports, maybe the Hurricanes in Raleigh or the Panthers in Charlotte. But after graduation, she interned with Big Rock\u2009\u2014\u2009and she was hooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working first as retail assistant\/social media coordinator, she was promoted to director of the tournament\u2019s women\u2019s category, and in 2019 she was named the tournament\u2019s assistant director. Last year she was promoted to executive director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s tournament, held in June, was broadcast over its Big Rock TV social media channel, catching more than two million viewers in 71 countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struyk\u2019s first catch? \u201cLikely a Spanish mackerel,\u201d she says. \u201cBut once I got a white marlin when I was 16 or 17. It was a lot stronger than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
By Ed Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Madison Struyk \u201915 recalls early years fishing off the coast of her native Morehead City, N.C. \u201cMy dad used to take me fishing all the time,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was 8 or 9, I remember coming down to the Big Rock to see the weigh-in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWeigh-in\u201d is the revelatory moment when competitors in the Big Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament record the weight of their catch, chasing a $3.3 million purse that annually attracts 200-plus participants from across the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was 8 or 9, I remember coming down to the Big Rock to see the weigh-in.
\u2014<\/strong> Madison Struyk \u201915<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nToday, Struyk, 28, is the executive director of the Big Rock Tournament\u2009\u2014\u2009the oldest and largest of its kind in the U.S. She supervises the team planning the tournament, recruiting sponsors, registering competitors, seeking grants, handling retail sales and administering charitable contributions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wear a lot of hats,\u201d she says. \u201cI love how rewarding this is, what with \u2018charity first\u2019 being our motto.\u201d Last year, $1 million was donated to nonprofits like hospice, scouting, soup kitchens and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1957, the tournament has drawn participants to the Gulf Stream waters off Morehead, hunting one of the most beautiful and elusive of fighting fish. The marlins caught for the tournament can weigh from 420 to 650 pounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struyk considered leveraging her sport management degree with professional sports, maybe the Hurricanes in Raleigh or the Panthers in Charlotte. But after graduation, she interned with Big Rock\u2009\u2014\u2009and she was hooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working first as retail assistant\/social media coordinator, she was promoted to director of the tournament\u2019s women\u2019s category, and in 2019 she was named the tournament\u2019s assistant director. Last year she was promoted to executive director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s tournament, held in June, was broadcast over its Big Rock TV social media channel, catching more than two million viewers in 71 countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Struyk\u2019s first catch? \u201cLikely a Spanish mackerel,\u201d she says. \u201cBut once I got a white marlin when I was 16 or 17. It was a lot stronger than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madison Struyk \u201915 runs the nation\u2019s largest blue marlin fishing tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Madison Struyk \u201915 runs the nation\u2019s largest blue marlin fishing tournament.\",\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":5}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[139,389,438,741,813],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-2019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-act","category-stories","tag-big-rock-blue-marlin-fishing-tournament","tag-ed-williams","tag-fishing","tag-madison-stryuk","tag-morehead-city"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5027,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2019\/revisions\/5027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2019"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=2019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}