Legend of the Bay Point “Grander” lives on at Boshamps in Destin

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - We’re now in the midst of the Blue Marlin Tournament season. The Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic is just over two weeks away. And the return of the Bay Point tournament, now the Bay Point Billfish Open comes the last week of June. In regards to the Bay Point tourney, certainly the high point of that event’s 27 years was the one thousand-46 pound blue that was hauled in by Conrad Hawkins aboard “Lucky Two” a Destin based boat in 2001. And now the legend of that “grander” lives on at Destin restaurant Boshamps, getting the mounted version of that fish when another restaurant that had it on display, closed!

”The owners of Marlin Grill called us,” says Miller Phillips, owner of Boshamps “They called my family, called my mother and my father and said you know we’ve got this fish out here, Captain Browning’s fish. If you guys are interested in having it, we’ll work out a deal. And you can come get it. We got it and brought it back here. Had to bring it back, obviously on the Destin Harbor which is where we feel like it needs to be anyway.”

And that’s because the “Lucky Two”, the boat captained by Tommy Browning of Destin, was based on the Harbor. Phillips and his people mounted that one-thousand-forty six pound blue on the wall inside the restaurant. But only after an adventurous trip getting it from Sandestin. “Yeah the first trailer that we brought wasn’t big enough.” Miller told me. “So we so we had to go back and get another trailer and pick the fish up. Obviously very careful about how we did that. Everybody stopping us on the road, beeping their horns at us, wanting to see, wanting to know what it is. Just like people here. There’s a lot of things to see here in this restaurant, but everybody always wants to know about this fish and what’s going on? That’s why we ended up doing the mural here so we could better explain the story of what happened with this fish. So it’s really neat to have that.” That mural he’s talking about is the wall to the left of the mounted fish. Newspaper articles, photos of the fish, the crew, captain Tommy Browning and his family with the fish. And the State record certificate from the IGFA and FWC! So thousands of tourists and locals alike can appreciate that great day back in July of 2001, when the grander hit the stage! “The Bay Point tournament when I was a kid, that was always the big tournament.” says Phillips. “Mom and Dad fished the tournament circuit, I was a young guy. And obviously Captain Tommy, he’s a legend. And this fish is a legend. And having it in our restaurant is an honor. To have this kind of, this piece of memorabilia, and to have something like this to show people, and to be a part of that. So we’re honored to have him in here.” Captain Tommy on hand when we interviewed Miller. We’ll share his story about this record fish, and how his family figured into it all, later on this month during the week of the Bay Point Billfish Open!

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