In a stunning surprise, the 50-foot sportfishing yacht, Southern Exposure, owned by the Gollahons and fishing out of Pirate's Cove Marina on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, brought in a 763-pound blue marlin Sunday to win the 15th annual World Cup Blue Marlin Championship.   The event is fished worldwide each July 4th.

A record 113 boats spanning the globe from Portugal's Madeira Island in the North Atlantic to Midway Atoll 800 miles west of Hawaii in the far west Pacific Ocean, competed with one another to see who could catch the heaviest Blue Marlin.

Robert Gollahon of King George, Virginia, whose company, Southern Resources Management, Inc., is in the timber business, as well as real estate development, needed only 38 minutes to reel in the giant blue marlin after it struck a 10-pound tuna bait.  The action took place 38 miles east of the famed black and white candy-striped Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  Gollahon and his crew, which included his son Rob, earned a record $113,000 for his efforts.

"How fitting that on the Fourth of July, an American boat brought the World Cup back to the mainland of the United States after a 10-year absence," said Tex Schramm, from his home in Dallas, Texas.  "It was a great day for American with cyclist Lance Armstrong winning a trial in the Tour de France plus Lindsay Davenport and Pete Sampras winning at Wimbledon."

Schramm, president of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys for 30 years before retiring, was founder of the World Cup Blue Marlin Championship.  He is an avid angler who keeps his sportfishing yacht, Key Ventlure II, at Key West, Florida.   Newspaperman Jim Hardie of Miami, Florida, is Commissioner of Fishing for the World Cup and runs the tournament.

A large holiday weekend crowd gathered at the sprawling Pirate's Cove Resort for the weigh-in when word spread that Captain Charley Locke was steering Southern Exposure for historic Oregon Inlet.  In ship-to shore radio Communications, Rob Gollahon had modestly estimated the Blue Marlin "..at something over 500 pounds."  When the weighmaster, Tony Russ, announced the actual weight as 763 pounds, the crowd erupted with cheers.  The Gollahons had the largest Blue Marlin in 1998 Pirate's Cove Tournament.  It weighed in at 973.5 pounds.

"Two amazing things happened in this tournament, aside from the record number of boats and big payout," said Jim Hardie.  "As soon as word spread that the winning catch came from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, congratulations came flooding in..there was sincere happiness over the location of this winning catch.  The other thing is only three Blue Marlin were killed out of 113 boats fishing all day.  We strive to save fish."

The last time a World Cup winning catch was made from the U.S. mainland was in 1989 when Paul Davis of Houston, Texas brought in a 544-pound Blue Marlin at Freeport, Texas.

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and Madeira, Portugal, are tied with three World Cup victories each.  The heaviest fish ever to win was a 1,195-pounder at Bermuda in 1993, this is the World Cup record and was caught aboard Alan Card's Challenger by angler Don Hunt....No angler has ever won the Wold Cup twice.

Sunday, the boat Ops Locks at Las Palmas, Canary Islands, with Javier Esquivel of Madrid, Spain, led the World Cup most of the day with a 487-pound Blue Marlin.  Largest single fleet was Hawaii's 48 boats.

Click here for Sportfish Hawaii's story about the winning catch