Page 20 - 52nd Annual White Marlin Open

2024 REVIEW

“This was a liftime fish. All of the fun is in the hunt! We said at the
beginning of the tournament that this was not about the money. If you’re

here to win a paycheck, You are on the wrong boat.” - Shane Moore

pounds lighter than the leader. Was there any disappointment?

“Not one bit”, said Moore.“This was a lifetime fish. All of the fun is in the
hunt! We said at the beginning of the tournament that this was not about
the money. If you are here to win a paycheck, you are on the wrong boat.
The accomplishment was getting a fish like that.”

Although the White Marlin Open is the ‘World’s Largest and Richest Bill-
fish Tournament’, many boats target tuna and one of the best of those is
Team Buckeye Tuna fishing aboard the Blue Runner. In thirteen WMO
tournaments since 2012, they have been to the scales in 9 or 10 of them,
often multiple times in a year, and have placed in the money five times.

Rob Jones, a relative newcomer to Team Buckeye, was on the rod for
their winning 220.5 pound big eye tuna caught on the second day of the
tournament.

“We were out fishing on Tuesday about 75 miles out in the Wilmington”,
said Jones. “There was a school of big fish out there and they were biting.
Boats were catching fish all over the place.There were lots of 150-170
pounders. We just happened to catch the big boy of the bunch.”

How did that fateful catch play out? “I let him run for about 30 seconds
which seemed like forever. I was in a standup harness the entire time and
stood inthecorneroftheboat”, saysJones. “Iwasableto gainabouta
foot at a time. There were 5-6’ seas, so during the fight, the water kept
coming over the stern which added to the challenge. After an hour or so,
we got him to the boat and we got a gaff in him. I am thankful he didn’t
make a big run. I was spent. Not sure what would have happened if it
would have lasted much longer.”

Once to the scales, the big eye vaulted into first place, and despite many
challengers, held that spot the rest of the week and earned the crew of
the Blue Runner a cool $1,007,012.
B O B OJO Jones, who was quick to give credit to team captain Jamie Greer and boat

TO P B O AT captain Mark DeBlasio, says this fish story is about much more than the
money. “It’s a pretty cool story. I mean, how many people can say they

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WMO 52 Magazine.indd 20 7/15/25 8:02AM