Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
I had a really good idea for my column this week. It actually came to me as I was writing my column last week. I have spent so much time writing about the White Marlin Open over the past few weeks that I thought it would be really cool to write about my experience as it happened this year. I was going to keep a journal from bait rigging on Sunday through fishing on Monday and beyond. This journal would have a breakdown of times, fish caught and anecdotal info from the week. For the folks that are fishing the tourney it would be a chance to see it through another pair of eyes. And for those who didn’t have the chance to fish the tournament it would let them join in the fun. A really cool idea. Or so I thought. Well maybe it still is. Let me show you how it has panned out thus far. It is currently Thursday morning and I am on my second lay day.
Sunday August 6: First thought of the day, Sheeeweeee! I am a little hungover! Nothing better than a breakfast at the Full Moon Saloon to clear the cobwebs and get me ready for some bait rigging. After wolfing down the Longliner Special it is time to head to the “Last Call” and get a little fishy. My mate, Mr. Evans, and I prep somewhere around four dozen baits, double check the tackle and give the boat a clean-up after fishing in the Ocean City Marlin Club Heels and Reels Tournament the previous day (Love me some mahi!!! My girls came through yet again!)
My charter for the week shows up around noon to square away our game plan. Three of the guys have been with me for a while and two of them are new. We make our acquaintances. Enthusiasm level is high. To quote our leader for the week (and make sure you are singing it in tune) “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” The guys depart for the sign-up and tournament meeting. Mr. Evans and I square away the rigging, ice the drink coolers and triple check everything one last time. This has all been done under the watchful eye of my Dad, the senior captain on duty. The guys call and let me know that we are boat #241.
We will now pause for a brief highlight of Sunday evening. Over 350 boats in the tournament. Close to 5 million in prize money up for grabs. My good luck rum cake from Miss Paula of Sea Witch Rum Cakes was finally delivered by her hubby Capt. JoJo of the American Lady (best darn rum cake on the planet!!!). Sharknado 5 is on the TV. Look out Whitey, here we come!
Monday August 7: At 4:00 am the rods are out and ready. Everything is all loaded up. We are a little apprehensive about the weather, but the wind isn’t blowing yet. All the guys arrive by 4:15 and we are out of the slip by 4:30. There is a steady line of boats coming out the Ocean City Inlet, but it’s not too crowded. The WMO fan base along the sea wall is there and cheering. I know I have friends waving and rooting us on, but it is too dark to pick them out. We pass the Sea Buoy and turn to our heading of 165 degrees. Southbound and down. Time to harass Whitey!
YO! WHITEY! Didn’t you get the memo? Where are you? Why are you ignoring me? WT (ok, family friendly publication, we will just stop at What The???)
Several hours and building seas later, my day is wrapping up with 3 lonely mahi in the box. Nothing big enough to weigh. Thank goodness the seas are behind us or this could be an awful ride home.
At this point I think it is appropriate for you, my loyal reader, to set the paper down and go fill a bucket with water. After all I thought this would be a good way for you to share in the WMO experience with me. Ok great. Do you have your bucket of water? Good. Dump it on your head. That’s right, you heard me, dump it on your head. Because that is what it was like for the 3 hour ride home on Monday. Buckets of water dumping on our heads, the whole way. Talk about rain! But I guess it was even worse at the beach all day. Tornados tearing through the WMO headquarters at Harbour Island. All sorts of damage. And to top it off, no qualifying marlin at the scales.
Tuesday August 8: Lay Day! Regrouping time. Most of the fleet thought the same way as I did. After 130 some boats fished Monday, only 12 ventured out on Tuesday. The day starts with breakfast with my Mom and Wife. Dad was worried he would have to pick up the check so he stayed home… (and now we can pause for him to hit me with a rolled up Coastal Fisherman as he reads this!!!) But seriously, Mr. Evans stayed home for the exact same reason! Breakfast is followed up by trips to Walmart, Atlantic Tackle and All Tackle. No matter how prepared you are, there are always more dollars to be spent in the fishing world (and we will pause for Dad to hit me with a rolled up paper again). Several dozen ballyhoo later we are all set for fishing on Wednesday. It has to be better than Monday. As the scales close on Tuesday there are still no qualifying marlin.
Wednesday August 9: No wind. No rain. We roll out a little after 4:15 am. We are heading a little north of where we fished on Monday. And a little deeper. The seas are calm. For those of you that don’t know, most boats have a Gremlin that lives on them. Apparently the Gremlin that lives in the engine room on my boat got mischievous during all of the rain on Monday. One of my electric outlets for my dredge teaser set up on the port side isn’t working. Thankfully we have redundant systems, and with a quick switch up of tackle we are back in business. Around 10:30 something grabbed a hold of my port dredge teaser. After a game of tug-of-war, I pull in a balled-up mess of my red Squidnation dredge. The fish is never sighted and it never bites anything else. But the Gremlin was still going about his dirty business and now my electric dredge reel is stuck in the retrieve setting. So now we are out of electrically assisted back-ups. Good thing we have a manual back-up plan. Two hours later something grabs our 80 pound outfit in the center of the spread. Unfortunately for us the excitement is very short lived and as quick as the bite came it went away. With the exception of some incredible laughs, we come home empty handed. El Skunkaroo. Yuck. Actually double yuck. WT!?!?! I hate getting skunked.
Overall, fishing was pretty slow on Wednesday, but a handful of white marlin were weighed, and a few of them made the minimum weight of 70 pounds. Right now, 86, 76, and 70.5 pounders are on the board. All of them are good sized fish.
Thursday August 10: That brings us to now. Lay Day number 2 at 10:15 am. I am almost done my column. Mr. Evans is meeting me at the boat in about 20 minutes to put some new worms on the hooks, so to speak. My truck needs an oil change. I have a Gremlin to track down and spank. Some bills need to be paid. I hear about people having all sorts of fun on Lay Days. Maybe next year for me.
How will my 2017 WMO journey end? What does the tourney have in store for everyone today and tomorrow? Will I capture the Gremlin before he wrecks anything else on my boat? And more importantly, will I find the right fish tomorrow? All of these questions, and I am sure many others, including the roast beef for marlin bait technique, will be answered in next week’s Fish Stories.
Capt. Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” and President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
