Tuna Still Dominate While Big Billfish Elude Capture
There was leaderboard movement in a few categories on day 3 of the 50th Annual White Marlin Open. The Fishlik out of Chincoteague, Va weighed a 247.5-pound bigeye that jumped into first place and now holds the $1,200,000 1st place prize money. The fish was caught by Chris Mentlik of Street, MD, and knocked Robert Wagner’s 199-pound bigeye caught Monday into second place. Soon after the Fishlik weighed their fish, the Full Service out of Ocean City, MD pulled to the docks with a 203.5-pound bigeye caught by Jack Roesner from Middle River, MD. Is now worth $95,000.00. Wagner’s tuna dropped from over a million dollars to $38,000 in just a few hours.
Fishermen Out Class Fish
What you don’t see during the White Marlin Open are the fish that never make the scales. While only 22 boats fished today, and there were changes on the leaderboard, the story so far after the 2nd day of fishing is about the fisherman, not the fish. On Monday, the first fishing day, no marlin were weighed. However, 220 white marlin and 16 blue marlin were caught were released. With well over $7,000,000 dollars still riding on weighed billfish, you would think that at least one angler with visions of a lottery-sized payout would bring a marlin to weigh. On Tuesday, the boats that fished caught and released one white marlin and one blue marlin.