Article by Larry Budd
This Week Last Year
• Tropical Storm Fay dominated the news this week last year and put the 33rd Annual Ocean City Tuna in question. The storm did move through quickly so the tourney was changed to a ‘fish 1 of 2 days’ format. The “Big Stick” took 1st place in the Heaviest Fish Division with a 195 lb. bigeye tuna and the “Espadon” won the Heaviest Stringer Division at 443 lbs.
• Bigeyes were in between the Poor Man’s and Baltimore Canyons where captains found slightly cooler waters in the mid to low 70 degrees
• The crew of the “Lights Out” headed out to the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons and came back to the dock with 15 release flags flying.
Coming off of the July 4th weekend, the weather was hot and the bite slowed down quite a bit. The number of boats heading offshore also went down as is more normal mid week, however many were in their slips prepping for the 34th Ocean City Tuna Tournament. Friday turned into a blowout as the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa moved through the area, so most of the action from last week came from the tourney, so let’s do a roundup!
Tournament Roundup
The Ocean City Tuna Tournament set another record this year with the Total Tournament Payout exceeding one million dollars for the first time! Despite ‘Elsa’ moving through the area late last week, 106 boats registered for this year’s event showing strong interest and probably attracting a lot of pandemic boat buyers as more small boats entered this year. No boats went out on the first day due to weather, so the event became a 2 day/fish 2 day contest with all 106 boats heading out on both Saturday and Sunday. This made for busy days at the scales!
The “Hydrosphere” was first to the dock and was waiting for the scales to open on Saturday. When someone is waiting like that, it is a sure sign they have something special and we were not disappointed. The crew put 2 bigeye tunas on the dock followed by 7 yellowfin. They caught the bigeyes early in the morning in the Washington Canyon, having both on the hook at the same time. After selecting the largest from the catch, they set the bar high at 233 lb. for a single tuna and 488 lbs. for a stringer of up to 5 fish. These weights remained unchallenged on Saturday and the single tuna at 233 lbs. held on to take 1st Place in the Tuna-Single Division. Their stringer ended the weekend in 3rd Place in the Tuna-Stringer Division earning the “Hydrosphere” a combined $93, 787 in award money.
Day two started slower with the first boat arriving at just before 5PM, then a steady stream until well past the scheduled close of 7PM as we worked through the backlog of boats waiting in the Inlet to get to the scales. First to make a move was the “Bar South”. They found a couple bigeyes below the Norfolk in 100 fathoms and set a new 3rd Place at the time for a single at 119 lbs. as well as raising their 2 day stringer total to 562 lbs. Their single fish would not hold onto the top 3 slots, but their stringer earned them 2nd Place in that Division with a $63,540 payout. It was the “Instigator” that bumped them in the single category, putting a 170 lb. bigeye on the scale that they pulled from the Wilmington Canyon. That fish ended up in 3rd Place in the Tuna-Single Division putting $59,865 in the pockets of the crew. 2nd Place in the single tuna category changed hands a few more times throughout the day, but it was the “Tara Jessica” as the second to last boat at the scales that locked in with a 199 lb. bigeye from the Baltimore on the 100 fathoms line. This was a catch that almost wasn’t as they did not get the fish into the boat until 3:58PM after fighting the fish for over an hour. Not being the fastest boat either, Capt. Greg Wendell did not spare the diesels getting to the tournament boat with just 1 minute to spare with engines smoking and alarms sounding! Last year’s winner for heaviest single tuna, “Big Stick” rocked the Stringer Division this year, bringing a batch of bigeyes in the 80-99 lb. range to the scales late day. This 445 lb. stringer, combined with Saturdays catch took their 2 day total to 638 lbs. More than enough to secure top honors in the Stringer Division and taking home the largest prize for the event of $305,880.
Other notable catches occurred in the Dolphin Division as well as the Ladies Division. Only a handful of mahi were brought to the scales and it was Sunset Grille’s Buddy Trala on the “Christine Marie” that had the only one that qualified at the tournament minimum of 20 lbs. That solo dolphin earned the boat a cool $27,070 in prize money. Angler Kristin Quinn on the “Husuevo” aka “Reel Naughty” locked the top spot in the Ladies Division with a 150 lb. bigeye she caught late day in the Wilmington Canyon. This one kept diving and it took Kristin 1:15 hours to get to the boat, not a fight she will soon forget.
Tuna & Mahi
Most crews had to work to find tunas over the past week, with catches in the single digits. This did improve over the weekend with several tournament boats like the “Marli” reporting catches in the high teens. They were running from the Washington Canyon to the Norfolk Canyon with larger catches in the Norfolk. Many captains reported losing a number of yellowfins to sharks mainly to the south, worse they have ever seen most commented.
Bigeye tuna came from the northern and southern canyons. The big boys came from the Wilmington with the Norfolk producing fish in the 100 pound range and having shark issues.
The mahi bite remains light with a few gaffers showing up, again from the south.
Billfish
Billfishing has been very slow, probably due to a drop in anglers as described above and a focus on tuna. The “Under Taker” did report 2 blue marlin releases between the Washington & Norfolk estimated at 500 & 300 lbs. as well as 2 whites. Several boats in the tourney reported single and double releases of white marlin and singles of blue marlin, mainly in the southern.
Upcoming Tournaments;• This weekend is the 17th Annual Ocean City Marlin Club Kid’s Classic. This event is open to all anglers 19 years old or younger with scales open from 3:00 - 6:30 pm on Saturday and 3:00 - 6:00 pm on Sunday. Details are on the Marlin Club’s website, ocmarlinclub.com.
• Next week sees the 2021 HUK Big Fish Classic held at the Talbot Street Pier running from July 23rd - 25th. Always a lively event with big fish coming to the dock and the Big Fish Village! Sales are open at Talbot Street from 4 - 9 pm on Friday and Saturday with Sundays hours from 4 - 8 pm. Details at BigFishClassic.com.
• Follow our Tournament Schedule in the paper and on-line to keep up to date!
Until next week, I will see you at the scales!
