Page 17 - 52nd Annual White Marlin Open

The first fifty years

www.WhiteMarlinOpen.com

the
> BUY IT ONLINE >

WHITE MARLIN OPEN
C O F F E E TABL E BO O K

havedoneso.

White marlin will always be the feature fish of the White Marlin Open
but the blue marlin showed up in a big way in 2024 and tried to steal the
show. Three blue marlin, each over 780 lbs., were brought to the scales,
a tournament first.

Leading that group was an 897.5 lb. blue caught by Lance Blakemore of
Horseheads, NY aboard the Stone Cutter. It was the 5th largest blue
marlin winner in the 51-year history of theWMO and earned the Stone
Cutter crew $520,374.

Lest you think only seasoned professionals fish in theWhite Marlin Open,
this was only Blakemore’s second billfish tournament and the first billfish
he has ever caught! Blakemore reflects on his accomplishment. “Never
in a million years could I have imagined a dairy farmer from Upstate NY
would be in this position. That to me meant more than anything.” The beautiful, intricate book

How did he get in that improbable position? “My brother-in-law, Capt. depicting the first 50 years
Paul Menzi, has fished the WMO for 28 years and invited me to fish
with him on the Stone Cutter. Paul is an excellent captain. We were of the White Marlin Open,
fishing in the Poor Man’s and we saw this large dark mass hit a plug.
Everyone immediately knew this was a big fish. It pulled 800 yards of the largest Billfish Tourna-
line out right away.”

ment worldwide, is officially
How did a rookie get the job done? “I had great coaching”, said Blake-
more. “Brad Martin coached me through it. He kept it simple. He said
‘Listen, you have one job. Focus on getting that 800 yards of line back here! This labor of love
evenly on the reel. If you do that, this fish will go to the scales’”.
shines cover to cover, Much
Turns out Blakemore is an excellent student. After nine runs by the fish,
2.5 hours of angling, 5 ½ miles of backing down and lots of cool down like the love and dedication
sprays from a hose, the crew was able to get a gaff in the beast.
that is given to the tourna-
There must have been a rush of adrenaline to help him get that fish to the
boat. Blakemore counters. “There was lots of adrenaline for the first 45 ment every year!
minutes. After that the body sort of goes numb. At that point it becomes
sheer determination.”

Once the marlin was on board, the Stone Cutter headed to the scales.
What was that moment like as this monster blue was weighed? “As they

2 0 2 4 R E V IEW | 17

WMO 52 Magazine.indd 17 7/15/25 8:02AM