Article by Larry Budd
Well, the 50th Annual White Marlin Open is in the books and it again set several records. This year 400 boats competed for a Tournament Record payout of $10,497,049! Unlike other recent tournaments, the weather even cooperated with only a couple days being sporty in the canyons.
The most notable component of this year’s event was the lack of billfish making their way to the scales! While significantly better than 2022’s numbers, through day 4 of the event, none had been seen at the dock despite over 400 white marlin and 39 blue marlin being released. Credit is due to the over 1,000 anglers in the tournament for returning these non qualifying fish to swim another day. With such a large purse, I am sure it was tempting to consider bringing one close to the minimums in. We know of one case where a 71” white was boated, meeting the 70” minimum, but the crew saw the fish was thin. After a quick estimate based on dimensions, they knew it would not meet the 70 lb. minimum and released it. For the full 5 days only 1 white marlin was weighed by the “Skirt Chaser” out of Manteo, NC. It met the 70” minimum, but just missed the qualifying weight by 2.5 lbs. Blue marlin had no weight minimum but needed to be at least 114” to qualify. Only 2 blues were brought in, the first on the charter boat “No Limit” out of the Indian River Marina falling just short of the minimum at 112”. It is not uncommon for fish that large to shrink while the boat heads home. The second one on the Harbour Island based “Floor Reel” left no doubt it would qualify when the crew at the scales yelled out 118”! That fish is on our cover and proved to be the only billfish to qualify in the 50th Annual White Marlin Open. These conditions also made for one of the most conservation focused White Marlin Opens on the books. 99.98% of all white marlin caught were released, as were 99.6% of the blue marlin.
Capt. Dave Warren on the “Floor Reel” covered a lot of territory during their 21 hours of fishing. Their first two days ended without a single bite of any type. Their last day, Friday, seemed to continue the trend as they worked their way south from the Baltimore Canyon to just below the Poor Man’s. It was just a little after 1PM with only 45 minutes left to fish for the day that boat owner John Ols hooked into the blue. Surprisingly for its size, the big blue only took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the boat, never breaching the surface. So they had one bite, one fish and a world record payday of $6,235,436!
The tuna bite was a different story. It was slow coming into the week and proved to be the same on day 1 last Monday. 378 boats headed out that day with 26 making their way to the scales. The Ocean City based “Instigator” ended the day on top of the tuna board with a 199 lb. bigeye tuna, followed by the “Bow Down” from Shark River, NJ with a 118 lb. eyeball in 2nd and a 64.5 lb. yellowfin tuna from the OC boat “Skid Row” filling out the top 3.
Day 2 on Tuesday was a different story. With a forecast of 10’ to 12’ waves, only 22 boats dared to venture out. Three boats brought in some yellowfins, but not enough to change the leaderboard.
Wednesday saw clear skies and saw an impressive 383 boats hit the rip and some damage to the leaderboard. First in was the “Fishlik”. They had departed from Chincoteague, VA and headed to the Washington Canyon to chunk. They had good action on yellowfin tuna, but Capt. Chris Mentlik reported 75% of those got sharked. That did not really matter once Chris got hooked up on a big fish he knew was a bigeye. It took 2 hours to land and once on the scales it registered at 247.5 lbs. putting them in 1st Place for Tuna. The “Full Service” from Ocean City put up a challenger they caught on the chunk as well from the Washington. It joined the 200 club at 203.5 lbs. moving into 2nd Place. Monday’s 199 lb. bigeye from the “Instigator” slipped to third in just a matter of hours. The other notable catch of the day came from the “Reel Oppor-Tuna-Ty”. Angler Ed Quick caught a 162.5 allison tuna that hit on a diving plug in the Poor Man’s Canyon. We don’t see many of these big yellowfin sub species for the year, yet it was the first of 3 allisons weighed over the 5 days.
Thursday saw rougher weather and only 60 boats took to the waves. While only 5 brought fish to be weighed, it was enough to rattle the tuna board again. The “Game Over” was first to make changes. They spent the day above and outside the Washington Canyon in deep water trolling in rough seas and weather. It was during one of the days thunderstorms that John Zimmerman connected with a bigeye spending 45 minutes fighting the fish and the weather. It was worth it when the beast weighed in at 221.5 lbs. moving into 2nd Place. They were followed by the “Ro Sham Bo”. Capt. Willie Zimmerman had the crew inside the Washington Canyon when Rusty Shriver caught a 71” and 215 bigeye tuna taking third place with all three top tuna over 200 lbs. As they say however, don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched, but the “Ro Sham Bo” would not have to worry. More on that later.
The skies cleared again for the last day, Friday and another flotilla of 357 boats headed out. With big tuna on the board and millions of dollars up for grabs for marlin, it is safe to say only a few were tuna fishing! Owner and Capt. of the “Reel Tight” Steven Pilipauskis however was one of those. He had fished their first 2 days above the Washington Canyon in deep water with no bites, but stuck to their strategy and planned the same for Friday. So, it was an awesome surprise when after only 20 minutes with lines in, they hooked up on a bigeye. Brian Stewart was on the rod and as he described it, he “...cranked, cranked, cranked and then the reel went bzzz, bzzz, bzzz and he then cranked cranked, cranked some more and got the fish to the boat”. It’s like we were there with him! The detailed description aside, the bigeye tipped the scales at a whopping 265 lbs. jumping into 1st Place where it finished the tournament and set a new record for Heaviest Bigeye for the year!
There was also good action in the mahi and wahoo divisions as well. Overall, 8 mahi met the tournament minimum of 20 lbs. Andrew Spangenberger on the local boat “Roncito” crushed the leaderboard with a 50.5 lb. dolphin he caught on Friday in the Washington Canyon. They were fishing for marlin when the unusually large mahi hit on the right long. It and one other small mahi were the only bites for the day, but enough to take the Top Spot in the Mahi Division. 2nd Place went to the crew on the “Aquila” from Beach Haven, NJ with a 32 lb. fish. They also won the Small Boat Dolphin award. Another local boat, the “Maverick”, rounded out the top 3 slots with a 31 lb. mahi they caught in the Wilmington Canyon in 500 fathoms.
While many times we see no wahoo at the scales, this year saw 5 that beat the 40 lb. minimum. 1st Place went to the “Shooting Star” out of Millsboro, DE. It was owner and Coastal Fisherman subscriber Ricky Rothenberger’s first time in the WMO. Interestingly he chose to fish day 2 on their 29’ Sea Swirl walk around cuddy. Remember, that was the day of 10 - 12 foot seas! They stayed inshore as the waves were too much as they headed further out, ending up at the Dump Site. They were not targeting wahoo, but got lucky and David Hass snagged a 57 pounder on a tuna rig. 2nd Place went to the “Captain Deadly” down from Long Island, NY. Capt. and owner Mike Kahoud was also tuna fishing when they managed to hook a 55 lb. speedster in the lip with a circle hook. Angler Chad Jackson reported the wahoo put on quite a show jumping high in the air. The 3rd Place wahoo came from a long time WMO fishing family, the Gessler’s. 15 year old Matthew Gessler caught a 46 lb. wahoo while fishing with his uncle, Capt. Tommy Gessler on the “Boy’s Toy”. Capt. Tommy won the Open when he was 15 in 1993!
There were many more great stories from this year’s event. You can see the full results and key payouts starting on page 60.
We have the Poor Girl’s Open coming up next weekend followed by a full week of the MidAtlantic, so there is a lot more offshore action coming up. I suspect reports this week will be light as anglers prep and keep their practice locations secret!
So until then, look for us at the scales and share your catches to [email protected]! §
