Membership growth has been on the rise since the late ’70s to include more locals, which has been key in keeping the club vibrant year-round and maintaining the local connection within the Hatteras Village community. Once a member, each person and their family have full access to the club’s amenities, including the restaurant, pool, boat ramp, annual tournaments and any other facilities. A candidate must be sponsored by two current members and then voted on. While the current membership has grown to near the capped number of 200, the process to become a member remains unchanged. While blue marlin is the focus, Hatteras is also home to an amazing number of white marlin, sailfish, dolphin, tunas (yellowfin, bluefin, blackfin and bigeye), wahoo, swordfish, king mackerel and even deep-drop species. The club’s stated goal has been, and remains to this day, to create awareness of the amazing fishery available just off the coast, where the cold Labrador Current and swirling warmer Gulf Stream waters collide, forming the basis for a world-class fishery for a variety of species throughout the year. If there is one person who I would deem important, it would be Jim, for stepping up and saving the Hatteras Marlin Club.” “It was he and Sam Clark who issued bonds and converted the club to stock ownership by members. “It is important to remember Jim Hackney of Washington, North Carolina, who literally saved the club and briefly took ownership during the time of low membership,” Miller says. Ken Miller, who has been a member, commodore and board member, joined shortly after the near-demise of the club. Happy memories and a flourishing membership had been the norm for many years however, there was a time in the late 1960s and early ’70s when membership waned as the original guard grew older. Watch: We show you how to rig one of the best baits for blue marlin: the swimming mackerel. The four original founders not only changed the community of Hatteras through the club, but they also made an impact on the lives of untold numbers of fishermen around the world. Many of the early members would keep their boats in the neighboring slips all summer, not traveling as many operations do today. At that time, it was primarily a gentlemen’s sporting club, where men from out of town could get away for the weekend to hunt, fish, play cards and swap stories. Homer Styron’s parents owned the restaurant that housed that first meeting it took a couple of years to purchase the property and put all the pieces in place, but the Hatteras Marlin Club was born when it opened its doors in 1959. That day, Charles Johnson, Luther Hodges, Earl Phillips and Willis Slane laid the groundwork that would lead to the creation of the Hatteras Marlin Club in 1959, giving the tiny coastal village on the edge of the Outer Banks the moniker of Blue Marlin Capital of the World. They were keenly aware of the growing fishery just offshore and wanted to find a way to make it known to the rest of the world. In 1957, four sportsmen met at a restaurant overlooking a few boat slips in Hatteras, North Carolina, after a morning of duck hunting. An aerial view of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
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