Offshore Insights: Rising Sons Sport Fishing Team

Team Rising Sons Sport Fishing is sitting pretty on the leader board for the 2023 Sport Fishing Championship Series with new personal best fish and great stories to tell after the 2023 Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic in Biloxi!

“Competing in the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic on the Grander Sunrise with Chris Bezos and friends was truly a once in a lifetime tournament for Rising Sons. Great food, great people, and great fishing… the 2023 Mississippi Gulf Shore will be a hard experience to top!” says the team.

“We started on Day one catching two nice Mahi, with mine being my personal best at 32.7 pounds, and winning 3rd overall in the tournament…” says 2022 SFC Angler of the Year, Jaselyn Berthelot.

“The next morning the team was able to see a once in a lifetime fish.” This fish- a potentially tournament winning yellowfin tuna in the 200-250 lb. range- started Jaselyn’s day off with a 2 hour battle that ended in heartbreak. “It was a great fight, and the team did everything they could, but unfortunately the fish broke off at the boat. The whole team was devastated but persevered… we were determined to get another bite.”

Right around lunch time the team’s luck changed. The crew worked together to catch and release a nice sized white marlin for a cool 200 points! Fishing continued to prove slow throughout the rest of the day and Rising Sons knew it would be crunch time for the final 3rd day of the tournament.

On the final day, tensions were high on the docks but Team Rising Sons kept their composure. After a long-awaited bite, a blue marlin came through the spread and smashed the right rigger bait! Once the hook was set, Jaselyn and the blue marlin did battle for nearly 90 minutes. “I was able to keep it within 30 feet of the boat most of the fight… the fish put on a great show jumping right out behind the boat” she says. Jaselyn finally won the battle and got her big blue to the boat.

Her father, Toby, and their mate, Pip, were eagerly waiting to measure the fish boat side. In the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic, blue marlin must measure at least 110-inches “LJFL” to be brought to the tournament scales. All fish measuring less than this length are released to fight another day. After seeing that Jaselyn’s Blue was just shy of the 110-inch mark, the team watched the majestic fish swim freely back to the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. This release scored Rising Sons another 700 points.

Once final weigh-ins were complete and the points were tallied, Rising Sons knew they were headed up in the leaderboards.

Jaselyn had a big smile on her face as she said  “We walked away with a Happy Gilmore check worth nearly $50,000. The team is also now sitting in 5th Place in the Sport Fishing Championship… We can’t wait for our next tournament and truly can’t thank Grander Marine and Chris enough for making this trip possible!”

“Bluefin USA is proud to provide Team Rising Sons with all of their sport fishing gear, and to create Rising Sons’ official custom apparel. The Rising Sons Family is a star of the Bluefin USA Pro-Staff and it is an honor to partner with such an incredible team” says Bluefin USA Pro-Staff Manager, Elijah Bogdansky.

The next stop on Rising Sons’ Sport Fishing Championship tour will be the Emerald Coast Billfish Classic, in Destin, Florida. Tune in to CBS Sports at home for full coverage of the event, or catch up with videos from the SFC on Youtube today.