Article by Larry Budd
This Week Last Year
• The top fish from the The MidAtlantic Tournament in 2020 were the “Griffin” with an 815 lb. blue marlin earning $692,764, the “Blood Money” boated a 91 lb. white marlin that took the top spot and $267,085, no Ocean City boat posted in the top 3 for tuna and the “Billfisher” won 1st place in the Dolphin Division with a 46 lb. bull.
• Boats were still chunking at the Hot Dog and getting limit catches of 18 yellowfin tunas.
• Large catches of bailer dolphins were being found in the Baltimore and Poor Man’s Canyons on the troll.
The offshore action was again dominated by a tournament, specifically the 30th rendition of The MidAtlantic held all last week! This year saw a record 203 boats participate with 128 based in Ocean City berths and 78 in New Jersey slips. That was a noticeable increase over 2019 and 2020 and the ratio between ports also came to bare in this year’s results with Ocean City boats scoring all three tops slots in all the catch Divisions except the 3rd place tuna! To be sure, the 30th MidAtlantic will be talked about for some time to come.
There were more records set as well;
• The record for blue marlin was broken twice, first by the “Wolverine” with their 958 lb. big blue and then another record set for not only the tournament by the “Billfisher” with a 1,135 monster blue, but also a new Maryland State Record!
• A record purse was set at $5,929,050 that bested the previous record set last year by over 145%. This was aided in large part by the special 30th Anniversary Mega Marlin Calcutta with an entry fee of $30,000.
• Both the heaviest white marlin and blue marlin payouts set records with million dollar payouts as did the tuna division with a combined award to the “Pipe Dreamer” well over a million. Overall 9 boats saw payouts over $100,000 with another 5 receiving greater than $50,000.
Several great catches dominated this year’s event, but none more than that of the “Billfisher”. Capt. Jon Duffie entered the tournament with the new boat he just finished at Duffie Boatworks a few weeks ago. Last Friday as he waited for the scales to open, Jon shared it was only the 14th day the boat had been fished. It was angler Billy Gerlach that hooked up with and landed the 1,135 lb. blue below the Washington Canyon in deep water. Capt. Jon and the “Billfishers” past and present have caught over 1,000 blue marlins and it is notable that this one was the first not to be released. This one also bested the existing Maryland State Record by over 70 lbs.
Not to be overshadowed in this category is the fish from the “Wolverine” on Day 3 that broke the tournament record for the first time. Angler Gary Fletcher spent 4 hours on the rod to boat a 958 lb. blue while fishing between the Wilmington and Spencer Canyons.
The white marlin category saw most of the action on the first two days with 7 total qualifying fish making it to the scales. There has been some noise lately about the use of sonar in tournaments and especially around this event so it was nice to see Capt. Donnie White on the “Sea Wolf” with angler Pete Roskovich hold the top spot from Day 2 to win overall on a non-sonar boat! Also of interest were the 2nd and 3rd Place winners as both were in the small boat 50’ and Under Calcutta. The 37 foot “Lucky Duck II” took 2nd Place in the Heaviest White Marlin and 1st Place in the Small Boat Division with the 80 lb. white they caught just east of the Rockpile. 3rd Place overall and 2nd Place in the Small Boat went to “Fish On” with a 75 lb. white they raised in the Norfolk in only 300 feet.
Rounding out the big fish category was the “Pipe Dreamer” with a standout catch of 2 bigeye tuna last Wednesday. Most of the eyeballs we have seen over the past few weeks were in the low 100 pound range so it was a great surprise to see Capt. Bryan Boyle and anglers Chip Caruso and Andy Confortini show up with a pair of 235 and 227 lb. bigeyes locking in both 1st and 2nd Place. They were actually caught as part of a triple hookup in the Wilmington Canyon in only 50 fathoms as the boat was moving from the flats to deeper water searching for blue marlin!
Wahoo and dolphin was also active with the mahi mostly reported off the Baltimore Canyon with mixed reports of catching larger fish while trolling as well as when finding a weed line or other floating debris. The big wahoos came from a little more inshore at the Fingers and Sausages. Longer wire leaders were common comments as many were lost when the fish bit through the line ahead of the wire.
There is a lot more info and details in our tournament review section starting on page 64. Enjoy!
Upcoming Tournaments;
• The Ocean City Marlin Club hosts its 6th Annual Marlin Club vs OC Light Tackle Club Shoot-Out from August 27-29th. There are not weigh-ins for this event and more information may be found at ocmarlinclub.com
• The Ocean City Marlin Club will also host it’s 63rd Annual Labor Day White Marlin Tournament on September 3-5 with anglers fishing 2 of the 3 days. Always a popular end of season event with lively action at the Sunset Marina Tournament Scales from 6-8PM daily. You do not need to be a member of the club to participate in this event.
The main tournament season may be winding down, but we still have some fun ones to go! There are also more fall events, so keep an eye on our schedule in the paper and on-line to keep up to date!
Until next week, I will see you at the scales! §
