Her e-mail address refers to her as "Prissy Fish," but Amanda Whichard Van Staalduinen and her all-girl team of fisherwomen known as The Marlin Darlins are anything but prim when they're deep-sea fishing.

Although Amanda, a mother of three from Williamston, and her friends love to dress up for tournaments in pink feather boas or matching bikini tops, the group of women — most of whom live in eastern North Carolina — don't mind getting their hands dirty to catch a huge fish.

Contributed photos (ENLARGE)

Amanda Van Staalduinen of Williamston shows off her wahoo.

(ENLARGE)

Marlin Darlins Karen Nowell, Amanda Van Staalduinen, Suze Bragg wear colorful wigs during a tournament.

(ENLARGE)

Marlin Darlins Pat Johnson, left, Suze Bragg, Anita Gill, Amanda Van Staalduinen, Jane Doggett Evans, and Karen Nowell in their pink feather boas.

(ENLARGE)

Elizabeth Semple of Greenville, left, reels in a wahoo with the help of Amanda Van Staalduinen.

"The group began 13 years ago over a bottle of Merlot and the realization that the men in our lives were having loads of fun doing 'guy things' — golfing, hunting, fishing — while our outings usually consisted of dinner, wine and juicy gossip," said Amanda.

Amanda began deep-sea fishing the summer after she graduated from East Carolina University, when she was working at Pirate's Cove Yacht Club and Marina in Nags Head. "My plans were to look for a real job in my major of elementary education in the fall, but they offered me a job as recreation director and special events planner at Pirates Cove, so I stayed," she said. "Living at the Yacht Club and hanging out at the docks every afternoon after work got me really interested in fishing. I would ride out with friends who were captains on boats on my days off and learn about the art of fishing. In the winters, when things die on the Outer Banks and all the boats go south, I would usually go south, too, for a week to fish with them in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico."

Amanda wanted to share her passion with her friends, so she suggested — over a glass of wine or two — that they participate in a fishing event for women: The Alice Kelly Memorial Ladies Only Billfish Tournament, founded in 1989 to memorialize a respected Outer Banks lady angler who had died of cancer the year before. Women from throughout the East Coast to honor Alice's memory by spending the day fishing out of Oregon Inlet and raising money to fund the Outer Banks Cancer Support Group.

Amanda and five of her friends — who decided to call their fishing team The Marlin Darlins — entered their first Alice Kelly tournament in 1995. The first time was a charm: They earned first place in the tournament by landing seven white marlins as well as one 580-pound blue marlin, caught by Amanda.

"I must say that this day goes down as the most memorable in my life, as of yet," Amanda recalled recently. "I felt invincible. I dominated over something four times my size — adrenaline works wonders.

"When we returned to the dock, we were greeted with champagne and caviar. In keeping with tradition, I was tossed into the water for catching my first marlin. I was hooked."

The Marlin Darlins have fished the Alice Kelly Ladies Memorial Tournament as a team for 13 years now, and The Big Rock Blue Marlin Lady Anglers Tournament for five years.

On a June 24 fishing trip out of Oregon Inlet on the charter fishing boat The Qualifier, Amanda and four female friends caught a 550-pound Blue Marlin, a sailfish, and seven white marlins plus 19 dolphins. They were the first anglers this year to land a "grand slam," signifying a day's catch of a blue marlin, a white marlin and a sailfish; Karen Sealock reeled in one of each.

"Fin Gaddy, the captain of The Qualifier, is 40 years old and has been fishing since he was 12 — and this is only the second grand slam he's ever caught," Amanda said.

When The Marlin Darlins fish in tournaments, they wear flip flops that are color-coordinated with their bathing suits and sun visors embroidered with their Marlin Darlins logo.

"Months before the tournament, we have a planning party where we drink wine, eat, drink a little more, then voila!, we invent our theme for the big event. We order lots of crazy props to support our theme," Amanda said.

Here's what it's like on the day of a tournament:

The Marlin Darlins arrive at the boat before dawn, carrying bags of props and ingredients for sandwiches, which Amanda calls "the ultimate boat food — they're easy to hang on to when it gets a little choppy." They make sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and snacks.

After sunrise, the captain launches the boat and The Marlin Darlins crash for a two-hour nap while their boat heads out to sea. They awake when the captain pulls back on the throttle and the boat comes to a slow halt in the ocean where he thinks the fishing will be good. As the boat begins rocking and the mate puts out the lines, The Marlin Darlins don their tournament apparel: one year it was grass skirts, flowered bikinis and leis; another year it was pink feather boas and silver tiaras.

Then it's time for the girls to get down to some serious fishing, with the help of the experienced charter captain and mate.

"There is no sound as sweet as the humming and whining of a line as it's being pulled off the reel," Amanda said. "That is the sweet signal to let you know you have one on the line.

"Fishing takes a tremendous amount of patience because you never know how long it may take to get the fish to the boat. I've fought a fish for an hour (that was my blue marlin). The weird thing is that I've also fought smaller fish for almost as long. They tend to dive down deeper after getting hooked and when they do down deep, so does your line. Sometimes you are reeling in a line and getting your fish closer to the boat only to cringe as you watch the fish dive and run and pull your line out again. It can make you want to give up to lose all that distance you just gained when they run with the line.

"Another heart-wrenching thing is to fight a fish for a good length of time, then it comes off the line and you lose it. If you aren't the type of person who can shake those disappointments off quickly then deep sea fishing is not for you!

"The anticipation of waiting to meet the fish eye to eye is really a rush for me. You hook a fish and, at that point usually the only ones who've seen the fish are the captain and mate — who I'm convinced have X-ray vision. They assure you that you do indeed have a fish on the other end of the line, but it's a test of faith to believe them and keep on reeling — because you may reel for 30 minutes and see nothing. And then the moment comes when the fish surfaces and all the waiting was well worth it.

"Fishing is like a religious experience for me. There is nothing any more humbling than to be on this 'tiny' 54-foot vessel bobbing up and down in the middle of a vast blue ocean. It really helps me stay grounded and keep things in perspective!

"All the chaos of being a mother of three children under age 5 melts away, as do any problems I have. I just feel so small and I realize that I'm just a teeny tiny part of this great big universe."

Marlin Darlins include:

Amanda Van Staalduinen, Lucia Peel and Anita Roberson of Williamston; Elizabeth Semple of Greenville; Pam Tutor of Scotland Neck; Jennifer Martin Taylor, Pat Johnson, Anita Gill, Jane Doggett Evans of Raleigh; Monica Witt and Karen Sealock of Nags Head; Suze Bragg of Winston-Salem; Brandi Brinson of Wilmington; and Karen Nowell of Charleston, S.C.