Blue marlin boated on first day of Quest for the Ring

Jimmy Johnson’s Quest for the Ring Tournament out of Atlantic City got under way today, and at least one big fish has been boated. Unfortunately, I had dinner at the time the blue marlin was weighed — and as of this writing it still hasn’t been posted on the leaderboard. Thus, there could be a protest involved which hasn’t been straightened out as yet. It’s hard to get info about this event, but I thought I heard someone say that only 34 of the 80-boat field sailed today.

The only other weigh-ins were of a 29.1-pound dolphin on Polarizer, which also released a white marlin, and yellowfins of 57.4 and 55.7 on Miss Melani — and one other smaller dolphin. I’ll catch up on this tomorrow.

Tuesday’s inshore forecast is for south winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to 10-15 in the afternoon. There’s a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning and afternoon.

At Belmar, the Golden Eagle reported chumming up chub mackerel along with some sea bass, blues and ling on a beautiful day.

Cabana won the Ocean City, Md. Tuna Tournament with a 236-pound bigeye that was worth $495,000.