Day 4 Recap
Thursday has long been known as Moving Day during the White Marlin Open. It makes sense for a few reasons. By Thursday, the captains know where the fish are, and the crew has already worked together for 1 or 2 days to get the kinks out. It’s also usually a busy day for tournament.
This year was different as just 103 boats went out today. That leaves 268 boats eligible to fish on Friday, the last day of the tournament. The big stories are the great billfishing, two anglers winning $1.5 million for white marlin, a $740,000 blue marlin and a tuna worth $940,000. Only 103 boats fished today which leaves 268 boats eligible to fish Friday, the last day of the tournament. The scales were slow, but the spectators still generated a lot of energy.
The pirate ship of the day was the “Fish Whistle” out of Indian River, Delaware. The boat made the 3:55 bridge and arrived at the scales just as weigh ins began for Day 4. The 79.5-pound white...
Big Blue on Tuesday
With light wind and calm seas again today, 335 boats carrying 2,345 anglers and crew passed through the inlet heading through calm seas for the fishing grounds 50 to 70 miles offshore.
Each boat gets to fish any 3 of the 5 days but it’s rare to have so many boats fish Monday and Tuesday back to back, but the fishing is red hot. Warm sea temperatures inside the canyons are similar to the conditions in 2016 when 1,412 billfish were caught. Monday saw 423 white marlin and 18 blue marlin caught. We’re still tabulating the release for Tuesday, but it looks to be around 400.
All fish have minimum weight limits but the few brought to the docks have been produced some big winners. The 74-pound white caught yesterday on “Chasin Tail” is still holding $1,450,000 . There were 2 more qualifying whites weighed that caused $1.5 million to change hands by the tip of a scale. These are like modern day pirates who raid the treasure chest of others, not with...