Day 1 Recap
The offshore weather forecast for Monday was perfect and a tournament record 389 of the 404 registered boats went fishing. Each boat is eligible to fish any 3 of the 5 fishing days and with the good weather forecast offshore most boats fished today and the scales were busy.
The first fish weighed was a big winner. At 4:55 PM the “Chasing Tails” out of VA Beach, VA slipped under the Kelley Bridge flying a boated white marlin flag. The white was 68.5” long and tipped the scales at 74 pounds to take first place in the white marlin division. An hour Nate Walker from VA Beach was the angler and is currently winning $1,450,000. The 2ndwhite marlin to qualify was Brandon Dick-Giordano fishing on the “Reel Chaos”. The white weighed 70 pounds to take 2ndplace and is now holding $1,500,000. How does a 70-pound fish win more money than the 74 pounder? Boats can choose to enter Added Entry Levels and the 70-pound white was in more Levels than the 74...
World Record Prize Money!
The 404 registered boats carrying over 3,100 competitors will be vying for a world record fishing purse of $6.1 million during the 5 day event. The 46th edition of the "World's Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament" has all of the elements to produce even bigger fish stories than the 45 previous tournaments. The prize money is $700,000 more than last year's winnings and coupled with good weather and warm water at the canyons, the 2019 Open could be the most dramatic tournament ever.
The White Marlin Open awards money for catches of white and blue marlin, tuna, wahoo, dolphin and shark. It is the billfish that bring the biggest prize money and last year's top white marlin won over $2.5 million with the top blue marlin netting $924,936. But the tuna category has been nearing the $1,000,000 mark as well. The top tuna in 2016 and 2017 earned $750,000 and $860,000 respectively and the top tuna in 2018 earned...
