Article by Larry Jock
The 41st Annual White Marlin Open is in the books, and the action at the scales was both exciting and surprising, depending on the day.
Everyone was nervous when the first 3 days saw no qualifying white marlin weighed. Several were brought to the scales that reached the minimum length requirement, but did not meet the minimum weight of 70 lbs.
On Thursday, the 4th day of the tournament, the “Dream Time”, a beautiful 80-foot Bayliss, arrived at the scale with John Bayliss’ 71.5-inch white marlin that weighed in at 78 lbs. Capt. Rob Mahoney said that they hooked the winning white marlin in 47 fathoms inside the Wilmington Canyon. Bayliss’ fish ended up being the only qualifying white marlin caught in the tournament and won the “Dream Time” over $1.2 million dollars.
On Monday, most of the action centered around bigeye tuna being caught in the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyons and points in between. “Burn n Bills” arrived with a 170 pounder caught in the Wilmington Canyon and ended up winning the Small Boat Tuna Division. Right behind them was the “Plane Simple” with a 182 lb. bigeye, caught in the Baltimore Canyon and held on to win 2nd place in the Tuna Division. The “Constant Threat” then came to the scale with a 183.5 lb. eyeball, caught between the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyons. The anglers had to sweat out the next 4 days before winning 1st place in the Tuna Division. Unfortunately for them, they were not in the tuna calcuttas, so their winnings were only $2,000 compared to the 2nd place finishers who took home close to $400,000. The third place tuna was a 180 lb. bigeye caught on the “Pez Machine”, also on Monday, while fishing in the Wilmington Canyon.
The only qualifying shark weighed in the tournament was a mako that was caught in the Norfolk Canyon on Monday aboard the “Edge Ryder II”.
Tuesday was a relatively quiet day with not much activity at the scale. Ken Lord on the “Iceman” did weigh what ended up being the 1st place wahoo when he brought in a 66 pounder. The rest of the day was dominated by good size dolphins and white marlins that did not qualify.
Wednesday orignally looked like a good lay day with bad weather forecasted, but conditions changed on Tuesday afternoon and 120 boats headed offshore. The “Trophy Hunter” ended up weighing the 1st place dolphin, a 38 pounder caught in the Norfolk Canyon. We also saw a few bigeyes, between 160 and 170 lbs., hit the scale before the lights went out.
Thursday was an exciting day with 2 blue marlin arriving at Harbour Island in addition to Bayliss’ winning white marlin. The “Gratitude” showed up with a 738.5 pounder that was caught between the Wilmington and Spencer Canyons. The fish ended up in 1st place in the Blue Marlin Division and was caught at the same time, only a 1/4 mile away from the 3rd place, 564.5 lb. blue marlin caught on the “Generation”. Finally, on Wednesday the “Evidently” weighed a 34.5 lb. dolphin that ended the tournament tied for 2nd place.
Historically, the final day of the White Marlin Open always sees some exciting changes to the leaderboard and this year was no exception. “Off the Hook” weighed a 34.5 lb. dolphin to tie the “Evidently” for 2nd place in the Dolphin Division. Their mahi was caught between the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyons. The “Shadow Fax” arrived a short time later with their 43.5 lb. wahoo, caught in 90 fathoms inside the Poor Man’s Canyon, and won 2nd place in the Wahoo Division. A few non-qualifying white marlin were weighed before the crowd was on it’s feet, watching “Rhonda’s Osprey” pull up with Lawrence Julio’s 723.5 lb. blue marlin that took over 2nd place in the Blue Marlin Division. The blue marlin was caught on a Pakula lure in the Baltimore Canyon and took 1 hour to get to the boat.
Overall, it was another fun tournament to witness with 288 boats competing, 26 more than last year.
Tuna
As stated earlier, most of the tuna action in the WMO was in the Wilmington and Baltimore Canyons. Over the weekend, we continued to see yellowfins caught by chunkers in the Wilmington Canyon, but also in the Washington Canyon as well. The best bite was early and the whales were still in the Wilmington when the “Reel Chaos” boated 10 yellowfins on Sunday. The “Boss Hogg” also had 10 yellowfins caught while chunking during the morning in the Washington Canyon. They added to their good time by catching a load of blueline tilefish, sea bass and a couple of dolphin.
Flounder
Flounder fishing continues the typical summer tradition of smaller fish in the bay and larger ones being caught on ocean structure. Although the reef sites off the coast of Ocean City are holding nice fish, the better catches are coming in from Site 10 and Site 11 further north off the coast of Delaware. If you want to stay closer to home, the African Queen, Russell’s Reef and the Bass Grounds have all been producing good catches of flat ties.
In the bay, it looks like the charter boats are doing best when drifting in the Middle Channel, north of the Rt. 50 Bridge. Most of the fish are in the 16-18 inch range, but a few nice ones are sprinkled in like the one caught at press time, a 25-inch, 6 lb. fish landed behind the Ocean City Airport. Minnows continue to be the top producer lately with white or pink Gulp! Swimming Mullet or live bunker coming in a close second.
Upcoming Tournament
This week is the 21st Annual Capt. Steve Harman Poor Girl’s Open at Bahia Marina. This is the largest ladies only billfish tournament in the world and is always a great tournament to both participate in and also watch at the scales. The tournament is Thursday, Friday and Saturday with lady anglers allowed to fish 1 of the 3 days. Weigh-ins are Bahia Marina each day from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
Right after the Poor Girl’s Open is The Mid Atlantic, formally known as the Mid-Atlantic $500,000. This is a 5-day tournament, beginning on Monday, with weigh-ins each night at Sunset Marina from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. With the tournament being held in Cape May, NJ and in Ocean City, MD, it appears a rivalry has formed in recent years between the 2 sites and Ocean City has come out ahead for the past several years. This year should also be competitive, so the action at the scales could be very exciting.
See you at the scales!