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...
Day Three Recap
There were 120 boats that fished today that had a hard ride in while 284 boats laid in to recoup. Each boat gets to choose which 3 days to fish. Even in calm seas, a day’s fishing can be draining. Up at 4:00 AM to make a 3-hour run to the canyons and 7 hours of trolling under a hot sun before the 3-hour return trip to the docks. Most boats fished Monday and Tuesday and needed a day of rest. When the seas kick up the boat and passengers can take a beating. That happened to the some of the 120 boats that fish today as the seas picked up on their run home.
The big story of the 46th White Marlin Open is not visible to spectators, but the fishing is red hot and over 900 whites were released the first two days. The Open record is 1,358 whites caught in 2016 and the sea temperatures for 2019 are very similar to 2016.
In the money categories there was not too much movement. The top fish in all divisions remained in place. “Chasin Tail” is still holding...
