A big fish day at the WMO

After bigeyes featured the first day of the 51st White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Md., very big blue marlin were featured yesterday.

Stone Cutter was involved in a 2 1/2-hour battle before boating an 897.5-pounder — and Ho Bo Jo followed with a 789.5-pounder!

All of the previous day’s bigeyes had to stand aside when Capt. Mark DeBlasio’s Blue Runner from Point Pleasant weighed a 220.5-pounder that could be worth over a million dollars. No Limit added a 183-pound bigeye. The biggest money is in white marlin, and the first weigh-in was of a 77.5-pounder on Waste Knot.

A couple of dolphin over 20 pounds finally came to the scales, as Double Nickel had a 31-pounder before Catch 25 weighed a 32.5-pounder.

With most entrants scrambling to get in days before Debbie creates problems, he catch count for the first day was 111 released whites, 15 releases blues plus a spearfish and a sail –as 10 tuna were weighed. Yesterday it was 96 released whites and one weighed along with the two big blues and four released plus 4 sails — while 7 tuna and two dolphin were weighed. The contest continues through Saturday.

A big ground swell has been tough on NY/NJ Bight fluke fishing.