Slow day at MidAtlantic, but first dolphin weighed

Jeff Merrill reports on the MidAtlantic Tournament as follows:

“It’s Day Three and we’ve reached the midway point of the 2024 MidAtlantic tournament. The cool breeze of the past couple days continues and although refreshing, a more favorable offshore forecast for the remaining two days of the tournament kept much of the tournament fleet tied to the host marinas in Cape May and Ocean City today. That being said, 50 boats, including 15 from Cape May and 35 from Ocean City headed out on Day Three. Reports relayed from offshore indicated sea conditions had improved dramatically from yesterday afternoon’s rough ride home. With nearly the entire tournament fleet fishing the remaining two days of the tournament, there was plenty of work to do dockside today. A walk around the docks of the host marinas found crews rigging baits, spooling reels with fresh line, loading provisions, fueling their vessels and completing other routine boat and gear maintenance. By late afternoon, guests and other crew members were returning to their boats from a trip home, shopping or spending the day at the pool or on one of the beautiful beaches of Cape May and Ocean City.

Though both billfish and the tuna categories remained unchanged, we now have a qualifying dolphin and the wahoo category has been filled as two were weighed today. The evening’s weigh-in session got underway when Charleston, South Carolina’s William Garmany wheeled his Reel Current to the scale at Sunset Marina and weighed a 22-pound dolphin for angler James Pruitt to lead the category. Second and third place are vacant. In the wahoo division, Christopher Little of Pasadena, Maryland aboard his Talkin’ Trash weighed a 29-pounder today for angler Keith Culler and sits in second place. Shane Moore of Jarrettsville, Maryland weighed a 25-pounder today for angler Luke Reeder on the Moore Bills and currently sits in third place. Jupiter, Florida’s Mary Naylor remains atop the leaderboard in the category with the 76-pounder caught on her Lil’ Crum and weighed on Day Two. Worthy of note, no qualifying blue marlin has been weighed through three days of fishing.”

Capt. Ron Santee Jr. had good fluking with his Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands on Wednesday when Sam boated an 8 7/16-pounder that was just six ounces short of the monthly pool leader.