Article by Hunter "Buck" Mann
The White Marlin Open is the world’s largest and richest billfish tournament. Now in its 45th year, it brings anglers from all over the world to participate for prize money; in 2018, over five million dollars were awarded in several different classifications. In addition to the namesake white marlin, anglers can compete in categories such as blue marlin, tuna, wahoo, shark, and mahi-mahi (dolphin fish).
The tournament began in 1974 with 20,000 dollars in prize money and a top award of 5,000 dollars. That year 57 boats with 150 anglers took the challenge. Founded and still overseen by local resident Jim Motsko and his family, the White Marlin Open has grown to become one of the premier events of the summer season. It definitely contributes to Ocean City’s title as “The White Marlin Capital of the World.” Held the first week of August each year, the tournament brings thousands of visitors to town. Many of them gather at the Inlet in the pre-dawn darkness to watch the boats head out to sea. Hundreds of others assemble at the weigh-in area on Harbour Island to watch each afternoon as potential trophy fish are hauled up on the scales. The anticipation of seeing a potential million-dollar winner can leave memories that few are unlikely ever to forget.
The White Marlin Open is truly an “Open;” there are no age, sex, or skill level restrictions. In 1993 the first-place white marlin was caught by a 14-year-old boy, and in 2016 the winning angler won over $1.5 million for his catch; the first white marlin that he had ever caught. Records are kept and have become part of the mystique of the competition. The largest white marlin weighed was caught by Steve Bass in 1980 and weighed 99 pounds; the biggest fish ever caught during the tournament was a 1062-pound blue marlin caught in 2009 by angler Robert Farris. The most money awarded for a single fish was $2,584,260 dollars which was won in 2018 for the 83-pound white marlin caught by Pascual Jimenez of Puerto Aventuras, Mexico.
The White Marlin Open has become one of Ocean City’s most famous and popular events. Thousands of people look forward to it each year, and many even plan their vacation around it. With the continued growth of the tournament and the national publicity it brings to Maryland’s seaside resort there is little doubt that Ocean City will retain the title of “The White Marlin Capital of the World” for many years to come.
“The White Marlin Open began in 1974 with 57 boats entered in the tournament and a top prize of $20,000 dollars. In 2018 we had 382 boats entered and paid out over $5,450,000 dollars in prize money. It’s grown a lot since the beginning.” - Jim Motsko
“The White Marlin Open is the biggest game fishing tournament in the world and brings people from all over to Ocean City, MD. It’s worth a lot to the town and is the biggest single event in Ocean City every year.” – Steve Pappas
“Each boat chooses which day they plan to fish. The tournament runs five days, and they can fish any three of the five days. A lot of time and effort goes into checking weather conditions because it might be beautiful in Ocean City but 75 miles of offshore where the fishing actually takes place it can be four to six-foot seas and raining.” – Mike Hannon
“The biggest year at the White Marlin Open we had 449 boats entered. We were going crazy as we had prepared for 400 boats at the most and it looked like we were going to run out of everything including entry forms. I had to quickly run down to my dad’s house and make photocopies. It was an experience!” – Madelyn Motsko Rowan
“The unsung heroes of the White Marlin Open are the tournament’s volunteers. All the folks at the scale are volunteers, and they’ve been doing it for years. They take their vacations and leave their jobs for a week to work at the weigh-ins. They all have regular jobs. Mike Hannon works for the post office, and Alex Davis is a pharmacist at Walmart, but they come back year after year to be part of the event.” – Larry Jock
“The rules of the White Marlin Open say that a fish must be weighed in by a certain time on the day it is caught. In 2017 a man fishing out of Virginia Beach caught a wahoo that would possibly put him with a chance to win a potential two thousand dollars. He stuck the fish in a cooler and with his wife and infant twins drove up from Virginia to attempt to make it to Ocean City in time to make the weigh-in. With worries about traffic, crossing the Bay Bridge Tunnel, and red lights along the way, he made it with about a minute to spare. When he learned that the fish was a prize winner, he said, ‘I’m double parked, could I go get my wife and twins so they can be in the picture?’ The WMO is not just about winning money; it’s also about the pride of being part of something very special.” - Madelyn Motsko Rowan
“It’s always held the first full week in August because the water is warm. Marlins follow the warm Gulf Stream, and it fits into a good spot with the other big tournaments. The White Marlin Open is the largest billfish tournament in the world.” – Mike Hannon
“One year we weighed fish from the minute the scales opened until after 10 pm because so many boats were lined up to weigh their catch. The scales usually close at 9:15 pm, but if you are in line, then you are still able to weigh-in. The guys at the scales were exhausted when that day was over.” – Larry Jock
“I’ve fished the White Marlin Open every year. In 2017 we pulled into the scales at Harbour Island with a white marlin that weighed in at 79 and a half pounds that was good for second place and a potential $1,200,000 in prize money. Unfortunately for us, the boat right behind us bumped us into third place; we were in second place for only ten minutes!” – Lloyd Lewis
“One year a boat broke down on their way out to where they had planned to fish. They were nowhere close to where they had wanted to go, but the captain decided that they might as well fish there rather than give up and call it a day. It turned out they caught the heaviest white marlin in the tournament.” – Jim Motsko
“A ton of spectators go to the Inlet early in the morning to watch all the boats go out. It must be exciting for the participants to ride through the Inlet with all those people cheering and waving. We have a very loyal group of fans and followers, and that’s one of the things that sets us apart from the other fishing tournaments.” – Sasha Motsko
“It’s a two and a half hour or more trip to get to the Gulf Stream from the Inlet, and most of the boats go fast. The Gulf Stream used to flow closer to Ocean City back in the 1940s, and ‘50s and boats didn’t have to go as far. It was a good thing because they were slower and smaller and couldn’t carry as much gas. A lot of the fishing at the White Marlin Open is done 69 miles or more offshore today.” – Mike Hannon
“One year a small tornado ripped through Harbour Island during the White Marlin Open. It came out of nowhere and sounded like a freight train roaring through. The stakes holding the tents were lifted out of the ground, and one of the porta-potties was lifted 50 feet up in the air. Fortunately, nobody was in it at the time!”
– Larry Jock
“We lost money on the tournament the first couple years, and I had to go to the bank to borrow enough to pay the expenses. I always believed that it would be successful, and fortunately, I was right. I remember that Mayor Harry Kelley was there the night of the first award ceremony and presented the check to the winner.” – Jim Motsko
“It’s the leading marlin tournament in the world. I’ve fished it many times in the past and have always enjoyed being part of it. They hold their Annual Awards Banquet at the Clarion today.” – Lenny Berger
“The best thing about the White Marlin Open is that anybody can win; you don’t have to be rich or a professional fisherman to win. If God is blessing you that day, you could get lucky. A 13-year-old boy caught the biggest white marlin one year.” – Jim Motsko
“I’ve worked the scales every year since 1990 and have seen a lot of fish come in. It’s exciting because you can never anticipate what’s going to come in on any given day. One day it could be smaller fish such as dolphin or tuna, and the next you could see a huge blue marlin. I was there the day we hoisted the first ‘grander’ (a fish weighing over 1,000 pounds) up on the scales. The crowd went absolutely wild. That was in 2009, and we had another one the very next year. Those have been the only two ‘granders’ as of 2018.” – Mike Hannon
“When they weighed the 1062-pound blue marlin in 2009, it actually bent the scale. You could hear it squeaking as the fish was going up and I remember wondering if we were going to have to make a run for it. It was so crowded there that there were not many places to run.” – Larry Jock
“The controversy from the 2016 White Marlin Open was very hard on us, but we did what we had to do. It was a contract issue and ended in Federal Court. We were in a no-win situation, and if we had paid that one person, we would no longer have had a tournament. The court (US Court of Special Appeals) ruled in our favor, and the money was distributed to the winners in several other categories. It ended up the way it should have.” – Jim Motsko
“Some people think we get to keep the money if there is no winner in one or more categories, but that’s not true. If there’s no winner in a category, the money is spread among the winners of other categories. For example, if there is no blue marlin brought in, then the heaviest tuna would receive the prize money and so on. All the prize money is always distributed.” – Sasha Motsko
“The heaviest white marlin caught was 99 pounds (the state record is 135 lbs) by an angler named Steve Bass in 1980 on a boat from Florida called ‘Top Hat.’ The heaviest blue marlin was caught by Robert Farris on the ‘No Problem’ out of South Carolina in 2009. It was a big one weighing 1062 pounds.” – Jim Motsko
“I was fishing in the White Marlin Open one year in the late ‘70s on my 46-foot Hatteras with Sonny Esslinger as my captain. I was the only angler on board, and I hooked into a big white about 80 miles offshore at the Norfolk Canyon. Sonny radioed that there were fish in the canyon, and the ‘Seven Days’ showed up to fish. They hooked into a fish about five minutes before the closing time. If you had a fish on before 3 pm, you were allowed to keep fishing, and it turned out to be the tournament winner. It was an exciting time.” – Lenny Berger
“The White Marlin Open is one of Ocean City’s top events, and I’ve finished in it every year since 1989. In 1996 I caught the first white marlin in the tournament, it weighed 72 pounds, and I got beat for the top prize by just half a pound by the only other qualifying fish boated that year. I was fishing 50 miles out on a cigarette boat; just me, the mate, and the captain. When we pulled it in, there was not enough room in the boat to put it in, so I rode all the way back in straddling that fish and hitting it with a pair of pliers trying to knock it out. That was a helluva ride!” – Buddy Trala
“One year, we had what I believe would have been the winning fish on the line. My son Stephen had fought it for over an hour and had brought it right up to the boat when it got loose and swam away. If the gaff handle had been three feet longer, we would have boated that fish. I’d guess it weighed 90 pounds. It was really thick. Everybody just shook their heads because that’s fishing.” – Lloyd Lewis
“I don’t ever remember a time in my life that didn’t include the White Marlin Open. I remember stuffing envelopes to mail to contestants when I was six or seven years old. I grew up with the event and have watched it grow into the premier marlin fishing tournament it has become today.” - Madelyn Motsko Rowan
“I grew up on 6th Street in Ocean City, and everything has revolved around the family business, the White Marlin Open, as long as I can remember. Our family vacations were always places we’d go, such as the Florida Keys and the Outer Banks to promote the event. My sister Madelyne and I began stuffing envelopes when we were about six years old.” – Sasha Motsko
“I couldn’t run this tournament without the help of my family. My daughters Sasha and Madelyne have slowly been taking over some of the things I used to do, and my grandchildren have begun working with us in the warehouse and with the online store. The kids take a lot of pride in their work; they are learning to become entrepreneurs. Someday it will all pass on to them.” – Jim Motsko
“I take a lot of pride in the White Marlin Open. I’m very fortunate to have an opportunity to work with my family and see the event come together each year. It’s just the three of us; it’s not a Town of Ocean City run tournament. I work with the sponsors, my sister Madelyn handles the bookkeeping and website, and Dad (Jim Motsko) know all about the fishing. It seems like every single boat that comes up to register; he knows at least one person on that boat. That means a lot to people who fish the tournament every year.” – Sasha Motsko
“I have run a contest at the Sunset Grill for several years now called the ‘Teaser Cup.’ It goes to the crew of the boat entered in the White Marlin Open that runs the biggest bar tab of the week. We post the standings each day, and at the end of the week, the winner gets a big trophy and a suit covered with 100-dollar bills. In 2017 the contest went viral when the winning tab was posted to Facebook.” – Buddy Trala
“The t-shirts for the White Marlin Open have become very popular, and we sell tens of thousands each year. People collect them, and you can find them on Ebay from past years. The first one was made in 1977 because my dad thought they would be a form of advertising; a kind of walking billboard. He never expected such a response.” – Madelyn Motsko Rowan
Copies of “Ghosts in the Surf” can be purchased online at vanishingoc.com or at Wockenfuss Candies in West Ocean City.
