Alabama’s Gulf Shores and adjacent Orange Beach feature one of those stretches of coastline that look absolutely fishy. And it is. I’ve been there and experienced it. For example, I’ll never forget a memorable bite, casting XXL topwater lures to schooling bull reds — all 20- to 40-pound fish — just offshore the beaches. I was fishing maybe a quarter- to a half-mile off the beach with Capt. Clif Jones. For several hours I gaped in awe as monster redfish climbed all over each other to be the first to clobber my big surface lure on every cast. The January morning was icy cold, but the reds didn’t mind, and the stiff north wind blew directly off the beach, so we enjoyed calm water.

That was a quarter-century ago. These days Jones (who has recently retired after more than three decades as an active guide out of Orange Beach) sees a paradox with the bull reds on the outside beaches. On the one hand, there’s more bait than ever, so the fish are more scattered versus sitting on fewer, tight groups of bait. On the other hand, “There are also more redfish around now than ever,” he says.

Given my experience, I tend to think of redfish when I consider this stretch of Alabama coast. But while red drum are one of the premier species, there’s so much more. Anglers here tend to separate their fisheries into three categories, relative to the shore: inshore, nearshore and offshore.

Fishing inshore refers to the extensive system of back bays, channels and flats. So many bays — Perdido to the east and massive Mobile Bay to the west, with smaller bays in between — offer year-round fishing in protected waters. Primary targets are redfish, speckled trout, flounder and sheepshead, plus at times Spanish mackerel, jacks and more. You’ll find the best inshore fishing spring and fall. Summer can be productive, but these days Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have become such a popular summer destination that, Jones says, it’s simply too busy and crowded much of the time during the school’s-out season.

Nearshore means fishing along the beaches and out a short distance, but not as far as deep water. Expect plenty of variety depending on the season, conditions, bait and other variables — both red and black drum can be thick and big, particularly in colder months, with 15- to 40-pound fish typical. Other game fish you’ll find in nearshore waters include cobia (especially in the spring), bluefish, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, gray snapper, blacktip shark, triggerfish, tarpon and more.

Connecting inshore and nearshore waters are inlets, notably Perdido Pass at the east end of Orange Beach. With so much tidal flow, Gulf passes like this, and the area just outside the passes, tend to be magnets for bait and predators. These areas also may be crowded in summer, but an angler is likely to find fish in the pass any month.

For anglers venturing offshore and willing to make the run to deeper water (figure 15 to 40 miles), besides scattered rocks and some natural hard bottom, there are oil rigs and artificial reefs. Out here, anglers look for the usual suspects in the northern Gulf: billfish, yellowfin and blackfin tuna, at times mahi and wahoo, red snapper, amberjack, gag grouper, and grey triggerfish. For those making a directed effort, swordfish are available too. 

While sailfish can be a pretty frequent catch, blue water here is dominated by white marlin. Jones says, “We can have great numbers of white marlin. I’ve had days with 12 to 14 bites.” The crowds of summer visitors aren’t a factor offshore, and summer is definitely prime time.

For the most part, the sea floor of the northern Gulf is pretty austere — flat, featureless mud and sand. In that setting, any sort of reef will be a tremendous fish magnet. So it’s not surprising that the artificial reefs off Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are so productive. It might be surprising, however, to learn that in its rather short length of Gulf coastline — just 53 miles — the state of Alabama boasts the largest artificial reef program in the U.S. Reefs can be sunken ships, barges, tanks, bridges, rubble, repurposed concrete culverts and pipes, and more. You can find literally thousands of reefs listed at outdooralabama.com, including the .gpx files to import directly into GPS hardware, as well as interactive maps and a downloadable complete guide to Alabama’s artificial reefs. While some of the artificial reefs sit 50 miles or more offshore, others — known as circalittoral reefs — can be in less than 10 feet of water near shore.

A boat is hardly requisite for fishing coastal Alabama, thanks in part to the Gulf State Park Pier, one of the longest on the Gulf coast at 1,540 feet. Then there are the Orange Beach jetties, offering access to great habitat and moving water, as well as endless beaches for surf fishermen.

Anglers visiting these waters can drive via Interstate 10 or 65. Many major cities are within an easy day’s drive. Commercial airlines serve nearby Pensacola (Florida) and Mobile (Alabama) regional airports. New Orleans international airport is about 3 ½ hours down the road. With so much growth in tourism here, you can be sure the choice of accommodations of all types is extensive. Keep in mind that from roughly Memorial Day through Labor Day, things are booked up long ahead. 

Those who plan to book a charter for one or more days fishing can choose from more than 100 operations, from big offshore convertible sport-fishing yachts to fast, open center consoles for inshore and nearshore. Private boaters who trailer in or boat in will discover a wealth of full-service marinas. Many offer launch ramps, plus public launch areas are scattered throughout the bays. For general information, visit gulfshores.com.

The post Can’t Miss Coastal Alabama Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

When it comes to fishing, Ocean City has a long history, recreationally as well as commercially. Until 1933, the town lacked an inlet. When boats returned to land, full of fish, teams of horses dragged the vessels up the beach. But that changed in 1933 when a powerful unnamed hurricane ripped open what is now the Ocean City Inlet. Suddenly safe, navigable access connected the back bays to the Atlantic.
    
Fishermen took full advantage in ensuing years, and one day in 1939, 171 white marlin were boated out of Ocean City. The label of “white marlin capital of the world” followed shortly after.

Maryland’s main beach-resort community (population just under 7,000) is a nine-mile strip — between Isle of Wight and Assawoman bays and the Atlantic Ocean — that runs from the inlet at the south end north to the Delaware state line.

With so much water, inshore and offshore, the level of interest and effort here in fishing shouldn’t surprise. For one thing, Ocean City is a great jumping-off place to head out to the productive canyons and fish for offshore pelagics such as white marlin, blue marlin, swordfish and tunas — yellowfin, bigeye, bluefin and at times, albacore — as well as wahoo and mahi. 

But simply running out to the canyons and the continental shelf (figure 60 miles to start but at times well past 100) isn’t a guarantee of fast fishing, says Josh Lowery, a captain on the 58 B&B Reel Current. He says the warm-water eddies that spin off — or at times don’t — from the Gulf Stream are critical magnets for bluewater big game. Lowery acknowledges that the 2023 season was a bit lackluster, noting that the ocean off Ocean City didn’t get many good pushes of eddies. But there’s no reason to believe that 2024 won’t be a standout year for eddies again concentrating bait and fish in these waters.

Despite the enduring passion among local-based private yachts and charters for billfish, in recent years, tuna have often taken center stage, Lowery says. Bluefin tuna can be thick at times, though as the season progresses, quotas may limit the fishery. Yellowfin and bigeye frequent the canyons from some time in May into October, Lowery says. Some years, longfin tuna (true albacore) might turn up in the mix, and, closer to shore, expect blackfin tuna.

Though far fewer anglers target swordfish than they do tuna, the action for broadbill can be good from June through early fall, but some years even into December. Most who do seek swords drop deep by day, but Lowery says nighttime drifting can be quite effective.

But Ocean City offers more than bluewater. Less glamorous but much more accessible and easy — and many would argue, no less fun — is the inshore fishing, from just off the beaches to the jetties to the acres of protected back bays. The list of species that inshore anglers catch here is considerable and includes flounder, rockfish (striped bass), tautog, sea bass, red drum, black drum, weakfish, speckled trout, croaker and sheepshead. At times snapper bluefish and Spanish mackerel can be numerous — 2023 proved a better-than-average year, Lowery says. 

While things definitely slow down in the cold-weather months and pick up in the spring for most of these species, tautog and rockfish can be found through the winter. Larger stripers can be found in late spring, when they migrate out of the Chesapeake and head north, then again in the reverse pattern during the fall. 

Tournaments figure large in the fishing picture here. Among the long-running events: the OCMC Labor Day White Marlin Tournament (66th annual coming up in 2024), OCMC Small Boat Tournament (45th annual coming up), Ocean City Marlin Club Canyon Kick-Off (42nd annual coming up), Ocean City Tuna Tournament (37th annual coming up July 12-14), and the White Marlin Open (51st annual coming up August 5-9). At the Open — one of the world’s largest tourneys — 400 boats participated in 2023 with 605 billfish caught and an impressive 602 of those released. Highest single-boat winning total topped $6 million.

Planning a Trip

What to Expect

Anglers will find plenty of infrastructure to serve them. Private boaters are facilitated by full-service marinas, such as the Ocean City Fishing Center and Sunset Marina, where they can launch, moor, and buy bait and supplies. Offshore charters abound and many center consoles offer guided fishing inshore and nearshore. Also popular here are headboats (party boats) that take open groups on large boats to queue up along the rail and drift for flounder, sea bass and pretty much anything the natural baits attract. While largely populated by tourists and casual anglers, these boats do offer a few hours of easy and fun fishing (particularly for families) at an affordable price. Even more affordable and surprisingly productive is fishing the jetties, bridges, piers and surf. 

Helpful Links

For more general information about Ocean City and planning a visit here, visit ococean.com. Also check visitmaryland.org for more information. All fishing regulations can be found at dnr.maryland.gov.

The post There’s More to Ocean City Than White Marlin appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

When you drive down the Route 50 bridge into Ocean City Maryland, the first thing you see is a statue of a jumping marlin and the inscription “White Marlin Capital of the World”.

To prove the proclamation, Ocean City is home to the world’s largest white marlin tournament. This year’s White Marlin Open (WMO) hosted 408 boats fighting for 8.6 million dollars in total prize money.

It’s the tournament format that provides the big draw. Tournament director, Jim Motsko puts it simply: “Anyone can win.” At the WMO, the team weighing the biggest marlin wins the big money. Unlike a release tournament, where the team with the most skill and best equipment has an advantage over the competition, the White Marlin Open puts the bulk of the prize money on one big billfish. Motsko says, “We’ve had winners who were total amateurs, several times guys won with their first marlin.”

The possibility of lucking into a million-dollar fish attracts hundreds of teams to register for the tournament. That means thousands of anglers fishing all day, partying all night and bringing the tourist town to life at the end of the summer. Motsko says, “It’s the biggest week in the city.” For locals and visiting anglers, the event has been a tradition for 49 years.

While the biggest paycheck is reserved for the heaviest marlin, Motsko says the White Marlin Open is primarily a release tournament. In order to qualify for weigh-in, a white marlin or roundscale spearfish must be over 70 pounds. The minimum length assures only trophy fish are brought to the dock. “We average a 97 percent release rate,” Motsko explains.

This year’s tournament presented a new set of challenges. In the first three days, no one brought a white marlin to the scales. Motsko blames poor water conditions driven by a persistent southwest wind for the low numbers. In past years, over a thousand marlin are released during the five-day tournament. This year, only 155 marlin were caught. Marlin fishing was painfully slow and the big money fish eluded thousands of blood-thirsty anglers.

After two days, a yellowfin tuna was atop the leaderboard. The third day of the tournament, Cabana brought in a 511 blue marlin to take the top spot. Motsko sighs, “The blue marlin took off some of the heat.”

On the fourth day, C-Student out of Southside Place, Texas weighed a 71.5 pound marlin that just squeaked onto the leaderboard. With such a narrow margin of victory, the C-Student crew could not feel confident sitting on $2.9 million in prize money for 24 hours.

On the last day, fishing was tough. A few boats released a few whites, sails and blue marlin, but the scales were quiet until the 64-foot sportfish Billfisher pulled into the weigh station. As a huge crowd buzzed and cameras flashed, angler Jeremy Duffie and his brother Captain Jon Duffie along with their parents and kids struggled to lift a large billfish onto the dock.

The weightmaster went to work, slipping a rope around the marlin’s tail, lifting it off the ground, waiting for it to stop swinging. The numbers on the digital scale flashed: 77.5 pounds.

Elation exploded. The Duffie family jumped, hugged, screamed and celebrated their victory. With only a few tense hours left before the scales closed, and no qualifying fish reported, there was little doubt their fish would win. Since the Duffies were in prize categories across the board, they took home a record tournament purse of $4.5 million. Not only did they catch the largest white marlin, but they also won the coveted Top Boat category for the most marlin released.

For the Duffies, winning the White Marlin Open is more than luck of the draw. After decades fishing out of Ocean City, the family’s name is well known on the docks in their homeport and in fishing destinations around the world. Tournament director Jim Motsko says, ““The Duffies and Billfisher are always one of the top boats in Ocean City.”

To set the stage for this drama, winning angler Jeremy Duffie puts the family’s tournament history in context. “We’ve been fishing the White Marlin Open since 1996.” Several years the team came short of the victory, and they’ve won the coveted top team prize twice, but for almost three decades the big prize has stayed out of reach. Duffie laughs, “We’ve been hovering around the win.”

For their first two fishing days, the Billfisher team was hovering again. They were in the run for top boat and looking for the big fish winner. While pre-fishing for the tournament, they had discovered tuna and bait east of the Baltimore Canyon. “The lack of life inshore pushed us into the deep,” Duffie explains.

On the last day of the tournament, the crew had released a white marlin early to increase their standing as top team. Just after 11 o’clock, the they spotted a marlin free jumping ahead of the boat. “It’s not often we can actually hook a free jumper,” he admits.

Captain Jon Duffie turned the boat and marked the fish on his sonar. “When we tournament fish, I hold the left long rigger,” Jeremy Duffie says. The marlin appeared behind Duffie’s bait. He didn’t panic, instead Duffie enticed the billfish to bite, dropped back the bait and hooked the marlin. After fighting and landing the fish, the team realized they had a roundscale spearfish, which are also eligible for the big fish prize.

“My brother keeps copious notes on all aspects of fishing,” Duffie says. Captain Duffie’s notes include size and girth measurements on white marlin and their close cousin the roundscale spearfish. Duffie explains, “Roundscale spearfish tend to weigh more than the same size white marlin.” Looking at a 73-inch spearfish, they estimated it weighed between 73 and 78 pounds.

The team fished for a few more hours, then packed it in and ran for the scales. The Duffie family is already a big part of Ocean City’s fishing history, winning the White Marlin Open adds another chapter.

But this victory isn’t just about home field advantage. Tournament director Jim Motsko points out. “The Duffies have a fine-tuned team, the right boat and the best equipment.” He admits the WMO is won with luck, then adds the more you fish the luckier you get. “In the end the cream rises to the top,” he says.

For Jeremy Duffie and the rest of the family, winning the White Marlin Open is bigger than money. “My brother and I have been fishing out of Ocean City since we were born,” Duffie says. Today, Jon Duffie builds sportfishing boats as Duffie Boatworks on the west side of the city. In fact, Jon built the Billfisher, his tournament winning boat. Brother Jeremy Duffie reflects on the experience, the history and the victory: “Winning has always eluded us, now we’ve done what we wanted to do.”

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Bluefin Tuna

White Marlin

Yellowfin Tuna

Blue Marlin

Swordfish

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(Be sure to click through all the photos in the gallery above.)

What would you do for $1.2 million?

If your answer is “just about anything legal and ethical,” then consider this: That’s how much an 83-pound white marlin won for a crew of anglers at last summer’s 40th Annual White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland. I’m not good at calculating odds, but I would bet that’s a much easier — and more fun — way to become a millionaire than playing the lottery.

Tournament fishing carries that windfall anticipation above and beyond the usual perks of fishing — camaraderie, strategy and adventure. Into that mixture I flew last August, on the invitation of Team Contender, to compete in the White Marlin Open.

First Steps

Contender principal Les Stewart, his son Les Jr. (Contender’s marketing director), Tony Novelli (Northeast sales manager) and New Jersey Capt. Mike Sisto (jerseykeyfishing​.com) formed the team’s nucleus. About two weeks out, we began talking strategy, and I started blogging in an online journal.

Although I was new to the team, Contender had supported and fished the WMO on several occasions. As a sponsor, Contender secured prime real estate in the home port — Harbour Island Marina — where we could quickly leave the inlet each morning and watch the weigh-in each afternoon. We fished Les Sr.’s Contender 39 ST with triple Yamaha F350s, Helm Master controls and an eye-catching Guy Harvey wrap.

Les Jr. and Novelli arranged for prime trolling baits from Baitmaster, including 48 select ballyhoo to build dredges and four dozen peewee, four dozen small, another four dozen select and one dozen horse ballyhoo for bait. Sisto rigged about 40 lures, and respooled his 30-pound and 50-pound Avet reels with hollow-core braid. He tied the main line into 200-yard top shots of 60- and 80-pound-test Momoi Diamond leader and set the strike-drag pressure to 19 pounds. He removed the roller tips from his Bar-Bar custom rods and loosened them up with WD-40 before reinstalling them.

Sisto dialed into reports from buddies fishing from Wilmington to Baltimore canyons (60 to 70 miles from shore). About a week out from the Aug. 5 kickoff, Novelli said white marlin had started showing up in the Washington Canyon; anglers also reported a few bluefins but a meager bigeye tuna bite.

Party Atmosphere

The crowd grew at Harbour Island by Sunday afternoon, Aug. 4. Vendors arranged their booths and tournament organizers checked the weigh-in gantry and the sound system — all pressed into a thin stretch of green space between condos and the marina boardwalk.

Music echoed through the buildings, and sightseeing parents pushed strollers over the grass. Captains and anglers tinkered with tackle in their cockpits, rigging dredges, tying leaders and testing connections.

Inside the marina’s Reel Inn Bar, servers mixed Ocean City’s signature drink: the Orange Crush — orange- or tangerine-flavored vodka, triple sec, ginger ale or Sprite, orange juice, and sugar to taste.

Late in the day, tournament organizers called captains from the 262 teams together and detailed important rules for the event. Teams could choose three of the five days to fish; they had to report a lay day to tourney headquarters before 8:30 a.m.

Everyone listed on the entry form was considered an angler. Prize categories included weighed white marlin, released white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and shark (with minimum weights required). Teams could also win daily prizes, bonuses, top captain, top mate and many other categories.

Novelli showed me the Team Contender entry form after registration. He tried to decipher it for me. But the list looked like some health-care cafeteria plan, and my eyes glazed. Suffice it to say that depending on which categories a team enters, the total fee varies. Our card totaled $1,200. (Yeah, that does cost a little more than a lottery ticket.)

Fish or Sleep

Despite the calendar, an early August front blew us off the water on day one, although 199 boats fished. Sisto brined more ballyhoo, and rigged another full ballyhoo dredge and more than 50 ballyhoo baits, bridling all for circle hooks (tournament rules), weighting some under the chin. He built more unbaited, double-hook stiff rigs using 200-pound fluorocarbon beneath bigger trolling lures.

Day two promised perfect conditions. Sisto had studied Terrafin SST-View satellite imagery and talked to several captains. We would head to Washington Canyon for bigeye tuna and blue marlin; our buddy boat, Rock Doc, a Contender 39 ST captained by SKA pro Bob Wiggins out of Charleston, South Carolina, would try the Baltimore Canyon. Even though white marlin take the top prize, a hefty bigeye scores serious money — and more tuna had been reported the first day than whites.

Knife-edge eager, we idled out of port. Although tournament rules stipulated lines in at 8:30 a.m., we left at first light. The 39s, which top out over 70 mph, rode through the nuisance chop like Cadillacs. Within an hour — at 40 to 45 mph, achieving 1 mpg — we caught up and passed the bigger battlewagons that left before dawn. About 78 miles off Ocean City, we throttled back.

At 8 a.m., our crew readied the baits as we motored over steep canyon walls, studying the water, looking for bait and birds. Sisto’s satellite maps had shown an upwelling with a 2-degree temperature change in the region. The cobalt water clearly held marine life as pods of pilot whales surfaced off our port aft corner. “The fish have been in 75-degree clean water,” Sisto said.

“Lines in, guys,” the radio finally chimed.

Slow Rush

Tournament anglers can’t be the only ones to know the feeling of a “slow rush.” That’s what I call a constant, heightened sense of adrenaline subdued by the droning tick of the clock.

We set out eight rods, including two with teasers, and tapped the throttles to 6½ knots. Six of the rods carried numbered labels so Sisto could assign rod duties. Baits were arranged into a compact pattern. “You want to keep a tight spread because the bigeyes come up in packs and can attack all the lures,” he said.

Les Sr. set the Garmin GPSMAP 7215 to show a depth range from 50 to 200 feet. Sisto tweaked the gain to best pick up fish marks.

Within 10 minutes, the tournament’s VHF channel advertised success somewhere inshore of us: “Boat 120 released a white marlin.” Cloud cover brought a slight chill to the air. 8:57 a.m.: “white marlin release.” 9:01 a.m.: “white marlin release.” Misty rain fell.

Suddenly, a reel screamed. Hoping for tuna, Sisto shouted: “Keep going forward. Let’s see if we can get multiple hookups.” The fish spit the hook almost as quickly as it had hit.

9:19 a.m., the radio chimed: “white marlin release.” Stupid VHF.

Our crew continually scanned the water. We saw a shape near the surface that initially tricked us into wishful thinking. But it was a blue shark. An hour later, a bait school popped at the surface; an anonymous fish whacked the port daisy chain.

“I think it’s going off over there,” Sisto said, pointing to the rest of the fleet of 30 or so boats.

At the weigh-in, we heard that 113 white marlin had been released, with six boated. A 77-pounder took the day-two top spot. Six blue marlin and one sailfish had also been released, bringing the two-day total of billfish released or boated to 233. Numerous bigeye in the 250-pound class came to the scales.

Always Opportunity

The weather declined on day three, but we chose to fish. Both Contenders planned a run to Wilmington Canyon with a strategy change to target white marlin. We took on fuel and ran 87 miles; the first 50 miles challenged us, but the big center-console skipped over the crests and remained dry. We passed a 30-foot walk-around trudging through the seas under dark skies.

Near the canyon the clouds parted, and we saw a whale blowing off the port bow. “The water is 72 degrees,” Sisto said, frowning. “The SST chart said 78 this morning.”

We set out a range of ¼-ounce chin-weighted ballyhoos and two long baits — ballys with circle hooks rigged like traditional J hooks, out through the belly — and began to troll. “We’ve caught some and we’ve lost some that way,” Sisto said of the circle-hook rigs, “but if a tuna hits, it will bite off the back of the bait otherwise.”

Wiggins, aboard our buddy boat, called to tell us he had a white marlin hookup, but the fish jumped off — one of four he would see throughout the day. We spotted small black petrels the guys called “tuna chicks.”

Les Sr. traced a pattern along the canyon wall, trolling between 500- and 800-foot depths. “Whites are tricky,” Sisto told me. “You don’t even see them. They slide in and swipe at the bait. They have small mouths, so they’re hard to hook.”

About noon, we took a hit on the port flat line. The reel clicker shattered the quiet. Novelli picked up the reel and fed the fish. Nothing.

Sisto spotted some flying fish. Something crashed and missed the long bait. Moments later, a rod doubled. “Here we go. Here we go,” Les Jr. yelled. As soon as Novelli reached for the rod, the fish was gone. “I bet there are a lot of little dolphins hanging around,” he offered.

Hours passed and the crew decided to move south to the Baltimore. The temperature gauge read 75 degrees. Hope soared again.

At 3 p.m., the port long rod went off. Sisto reeled in the bait, which was scaleless. “He had it all the way down,” he said. “Damn circle hooks.”

Back at tournament HQ, a total of 83 whites had been reported, with four of those boated — one claimed the top weighed-white spot at 83 pounds. More bigeyes hit the scale — cookie-cutter fish, hovering in the 250- to 260-pound range.

Determined Desperation

With plans A and B dismantled, our crew waffled about a day-four strategy. And while our fishing spirits had dipped, the team humor had not. Novelli, who slept poorly in the team’s shared condo the first two nights, finally took some cough medicine and plugged his ears. As he was soundly sleeping, his teammates strategically placed leftover blue crabs from dinner on his pillow, his body and his bed, and snapped some iPhone photos.

I know you had to be there, but it was hilariously funny the next morning as we motored out of port into a windy, partly cloudy sunrise. Plan C: more bigeye fishing in Washington Canyon.

By the time we reached the deep water, the winds had gone light. Sisto — who has fished the canyons for 19 years — kept schooling me on the bigeye routines. “The bigeye like lures 3 to 4 feet below the surface; usually the bigeye fishing is better around full moons,” he said, and noted the moon was new and the water temperature still just 74. He let the long baits out farther. “I know it’s not anything we’re doing wrong. The spread is good. We’re just not running over fish.”

The Garmin showed clouds of bait at a depth of 400 feet in 800 feet of water as we zigged and zagged from 500 out to 1,200 feet — for hours. I joked with the crew after a long day of semi-silence punctuated by an assortment of rock and hip-hop music from the stereo: “Perhaps we should call in this ‘skunk?’”

As we neared lines out, the radio came alive with supposed last-minute hookups as some crews sought to fish a tiny bit longer. We pulled in lines and ran back to port.

A 261½-pound bigeye energized the weigh-in crowd. Ninety-one more whites had been caught, with three weighed in. With one last day of fishing, the leaderboard remained open; however, only 39 boats were still eligible to fish — Team Contender was not one of them.

Tommy Jones and the Maryland crew of Kingfisher/OdinSpear won the top prize of $1.2 million with the 83-pound white marlin. Overall, 426 billfish were released; 19 boated. The final day of fishing did see the winning bigeye weighed — a 276-pounder that earned James Czaban and the Sushi crew out of Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, a whopping sum of $573,850.83.

The Open paid out $2,475,034 in prize money. Novelli says Team Contender will be in the money next time. That certainly seems worth the gamble.

Ocean City, Maryland

Most of Team Contender’s group stayed at a condo near the tournament site. The area offers many rental opportunities (ococean.com), but those who prefer a little more privacy and perhaps a family environment can choose from a slate of hotels, including the Francis Scott Key Family Resort (fskfamily.com), where I stayed.

The FSK features several pools, a watery playground, choice of cabins or rooms, basketball court, game room and an on-site diner.

The beaches draw vacationers throughout the summer regardless of the tournament timing. And the nearby Assateague Island National Seashore offers beautiful dune topography, miles of white sand and common glimpses of the region’s famous wild horses.

Be sure to top off any visit to the Delmarva Peninsula with a fresh boiled-crab dinner, available at most local seafood restaurants.

Getting to Ocean City usually means flying in to a nearby city such as Philadelphia (my choice) or Baltimore, and renting a vehicle for the roughly three‑hour drive. Ocean City and Salisbury share a regional airport as well.

41st White Marlin Open
Aug. 4-8 (2014)
Harbour Island Marina
Ocean City, Maryland
410-289-9229
whitemarlinopen.com

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49 Marlin Flags

A family aboard the sport-fisher Wave Runner III, fishing off Virginia Beach, recently released 49 white marlin in a single day, qualifying as one of the most memorable marlin trips ever off the U.S. East Coast.

Sure, there’s no way to truly prove it was one of the best marlin days ever, but anytime a family of non-tournament, non-professional anglers hook and release that many marlin — that’s a great day of fishing.

The Downs family, of Virginia Beach, were fishing with Capt. Pat Foster and mate Adrian Colaprete when they came upon a bait ball of sardines being tormented by white marlin. The crew ditched the trolling tackle and instead sight-cast to the mayhem with spinning gear and sardines. Together, they released almost half-a-hundred fish.

After browsing social media, we noticed that some commenters wanted to discount the great day of fishing because they weren’t trolling (a more traditional fishing tactic for marlin).

“The naysayers have me scratching my head,” Foster told Lee Tolliver at The Virginian-Pilot. “We weren’t in a tournament, and we were never in anybody else’s way. We were just trying to show our customers a good time.”

Still, most of us would love to come across this offshore scenario. Bait balls surrounded by marlin only happen in places like Baja Mexico and Panama, right? I (and I’m sure others) will definitely have to rethink this misconception.

“It’s a very exciting way to fish and I’d love to do it again,” said Jayme Downs to The Virginian-Pilot. “Being able to see the fish and watch them attack the baits [was] thrilling. I’d never seen it like this.”

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White Marlin Open winners

While many of the 262 teams that fished this past week’s 40th Annual White Marlin Open out of Ocean City, Maryland, went home with a week full of great memories, a cadre of others attended the event’s awards dinner Saturday and pocketed a check and a handsome trophy to go with those happy recollections.

Tommy Jones and his Kingfisher team from Severna Park, Maryland, came out the biggest winners, accepting more than $1.2 million for an 83-pound white marlin. Another $1.2 million was divvied up among winners in a variety of divisions, including heaviest tuna (a 276-pound bigeye), wahoo (70-pounder), dolphin (34-pounder) and shark (133.5-pound mako), and most releases.

The top boats released a total of seven to nine white marlin each. Of the 394 white marlin reported, 95 percent were released. (Visit the tournament website to see the full results.)

The five-day event pitted teams from all over the East Coast. Boats could choose to fish three of the five days. During my week with Team Contender, we fished Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And though we did not make the leaderboard, we had three excellent days on the water.

Ocean City is a busy hostess for this event. This top-money competition — considered one of the biggest billfish tournaments in the world — draws not only anglers but curious vacationers, who flock to the weigh-in site at Harbour Island by the thousands. Indeed, many who stayed at the Francis Scott Key Family Resort, where I spent the week, rode a shuttle bus to watch the boats come in with their fish.

At the awards banquet Saturday, I talked informally to several crews. And while the payout certainly is a big draw, many said they fish the WMO because they can focus a whole week of their busy lives on fishing. Some said they hosted clients or they simply enjoyed the camaraderie and history of the event.

In my tournament-fishing and tournament-coverage history, I’ve not seen an event with quite as much community interest. Of course, I — along with my teammates — would have preferred a better showing. But we’ve already started talking about next year. The lessons we learned and the moments we shared were priceless.

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boats at the canyons

“Committee boat, committee boat… This is boat 179…. We’d like to weigh in a skunk.” Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself, you know others will, right?

Day three of fishing the White Marlin Open, and our Team Contender boat was skunked. Our buddy boat, the Rock Doc, however, went one for two on white marlin. So they flew the flag, literally, on this our final day offshore for the tournament.

Anglers who have not yet fished three days this week can fish tomorrow. But we wrapped up our three days with a big goose egg. The awards ceremony will be held Saturday.

Our team was buoyant this morning. Everyone had a good feeling as we ran out to the Washington Canyon, the same place we fished the first day. We had decided to go for tuna again. An 83-pound white marlin had been weighed in Wednesday, so the tuna category — with a 248.5-pounder in first place — seemed more attainable. It also seemed more exciting for the whole crew.

We trolled amid a who’s who of tournament boats, many had weighed in tuna the previous two days. Clouds of bait showed on the sounder. Pilot whales, humpback whales, birds — an ocean full of marine and avian creatures — came alive all around us. But as the hours passed, we felt the reality descend.

“Ok, this is it, I’m selling my fishing tackle,” angler Tony Novelli quipped.

“Have we not been living right?” Capt. Mike Sisto asked, hoping to do some kind of penance and lift this awful curse. Sisto said that in his 19 years of fishing the canyons, he has only been skunked three times. He doubled that this week.

But when it was time for lines-out, we still felt fortunate to have had three days at the canyons, with fun companions, in a fabulous, fast boat on the hunt for big fish. So, we’ll sit out tomorrow, watch the weigh-in and await the awards ceremony, where more than a million dollars will pass to some quality fishermen. And we’ll be back next year.

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Weigh-in crowd at White Marlin Open

Today, Team Contender targeted white marlin rather than tuna. This is, after all, the White Marlin Open we are fishing. We pulled ballyhoo along the edge of the Wilmington Canyon. We had three hits. Never saw the fish. Even the radio was quiet today.

The morning started wet. As soon as the rain stopped, the wind picked up and blew a chilly 15 knots with temperatures in the 60s. From the looks of the marina when we left, a good number of boats took a lay day. We were ready for a change of fortune.

We took on fuel and ran out the inlet at about 7. We missed the lines-in call at 8:30 by about 30 minutes, but we made the 87-mile run at a 40 mph clip. The nearshore seas quickly became a snotty 3 to 5 feet, but the Contender 39 ST skimmed over the crests. We passed a 30-plus-foot walkaround slogging through the seas about 20 miles out.

We started a troll near some commercial high flyers (markers for pots or traps). Our mate, Capt. Mike Sisto, saw a flash of silver slash at a bait. Angler Tony Novelli dropped that bait back, but the fish apparently wasn’t hungry enough for a second pass.

Our buddy boat, the Rock Doc, jumped off four white marlin. They just couldn’t get a hook to stay in the fish. That’s common with whites, Sisto says.

As the morning wore on, we had another fish crash a long bait, a heavy-duty Moldcraft soft-plastic that Mike had put back for a stray blue marlin. And with only 30 minutes left before lines out, another fish slammed the port, long rigger bait, completely scaling the ballyhoo.

Throughout the day, we traced the contour lines in 500 to 800 feet of water. We pulled eight baits, two dredges and two daisy chains. The commotion we created should have rung the dinner bell. The buffet was out, but nobody came.

Only one bigeye had been weighed in once we got back to the dock. That 240-pounder is currently the second-place fish.

So what will we do tomorrow… well, we will be discussing that at dinner tonight. Stay tuned and send us your good vibes, prayers and wishes.

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