Page 60 - 52nd Annual White Marlin Open

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There is a fish story for every catch, but when that WMO official handing my Dad a paper bag with a big stack of

catch is the winner of the World’s Largest and Richest cash in it.”
Billfish Tournament, the story can take on epic propor-
Things were different with the crowds too. In only its fifth year
tions. What follows are accounts of what it feels like to of operation, the WMO had yet to have the massive crowds
win the White Marlin Open, the story behind the glory. it now has. “The crowds were significantly smaller in 1978”,

says Grossman, “but I still remember it having the same ex-
Honoring A Fathers Legacy citement. For my Dad, it was the thrill of a lifetime.”
To hear David Grossman tell it, the winning fish caught aboard
his Canyon Blues was just all about following in his father’s Fast forward to 2020 and the year of Covid. Grossman’s father
footsteps. had passed away the year before. Angler Brandon Golueke’s
Dad had passed away a few years earlier. Brandon’s Dad used
“When I was a kid”, Grossman recounts, “my Dad mostly to bring him to the Harbour Island scales every year to watch
fished the back bay in Ocean City. A friend invited him for the WMO weigh-ins. Both men went into that year’s tourna-
his first offshore trip and he was immediately hooked. Shortly ment with heavy hearts but content that they were carrying on
thereafter he bought a 40’ Jersey from Sewards Point Marina in the spirit of their fathers.
and we entered the WMO. We fished the 1978 tournament
with a bunch of borrowed rods and reels. I was 14 years old For Grossman, he was using more than just the spirit of his
at the time”. father for motivation. “Dad took the money from the 1978
tournament and outfitted the boat properly with a bunch of
The Grossman’s did quite well in the ’78 WMO, catching the custom rods and reels. While I was getting ready for the 2020
second place white (87 lbs.) but winning the most money due WMO, I found one of those old rods, still with the name of my
to the Calcuttas they entered. According to Grossman, things Dad’s first boat on it, and took it up to Shore Tackle to be refur-
were different back then. Cash was king. “I still remember a bished. That was one of the rods we used that year.”

As luck (or perhaps a heavenly hand?) would have it, a 97

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