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See Legs Bigeye Caps Breakout Tuesday at White Marlin Open
After rough seas limited Monday’s opening-day fleet to only 17 boats, the 53rd Annual White Marlin Open came alive Tuesday as 255 of the tournament’s 334 registered boats headed offshore.
Monday’s 6- to 9-foot seas produced only three fish at the Harbour Island scales, all tuna, leaving every other division without a qualifying catch. Tuesday brought a much different picture, with crowded scales, a strong billfish bite and a late-arriving bigeye tuna that changed the tournament’s projected payouts.
The tuna action began at 4:05 p.m. when Kevin Patane of Queenstown, Maryland, weighed an 81-pound bluefin aboard HaloRick 2.
At 5:20 p.m., Reel Blessed of Ocean City moved into first place with a 91.5-pound bluefin caught by Jordan “Jordy” Mitchell of Forest Hill, Maryland.
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53 Years and Over $121,000,000 in Prize Money
The White Marlin Open is a 53-year-old deep-sea fishing tournament held annually in Ocean City, Maryland. Long known as the “World’s Largest Billfishing Tournament,” the Open has awarded over $121 million for catches of the gamefish that migrate up the Gulf Stream each summer. The first tournament was held in 1974 and drew 57 boats, 150 anglers, and paid $20,000 in prize money. The 2025 event drew 282 boats, over 3,000 contestants, and awarded over $7.24 million dollars in prize money, including the top individual prize of $3.9 million dollars.