Kiss a million goodbye — white marlin leader overturned

After fighting off many challengers, Chasin Tail finally got caught as their quest for a million dollar plus payoff was detoured when Fish Whistle weighed a 79.5-pound white marlin in the White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Md. That leaves Tommy Winkle in the lead for $1,460,000 as the contest concludes Friday. If the leaderboard is correct at 10 p.m., that was today’s only significant change.

After two opening days of great weather and canyon fishing at the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland as most of the fleet sailed, there was a little turn in the weather Wednesday with boats taking a beating returning in the afternoon plus some rain during weigh-ins. Yet. 120 boats used one of their three fishing days. I didn’t do the late blog because there was little movement in the standings.

Graham Ward brought in an unusually large 121-pound yellowfin tuna to match against the bigeyes, and Reeldiculous took over fourth in tuna that could be worth $100,000 because that boat is in the small boat division. Nighthawk III weighed a fine 54.5-pound wahoo, but that’s well short of the 82-pound leader by The Natural.

The species count for Day 3 was 227 white marlin released plus two that made the 68-inch  minimum for weighing  but fell short of the leaders,  — plus six released blue marlin, the first two spearfish of the contest, one sailfish, and one each wahoo, tuna, and dolphin weighed.

The tournament record for whites is 1,358 set in 2016 when there were similar water conditions. There were 103 boats out today, and the rest of the fleet of 404 will be using their last day tomorrow. Check for my late blog if there are any significant weigh-ins.

The Monmouth County surf has been producing some school stripers recently. I gave that a shot this morning and was pleased to release three bass of 20 1/2,  24 and 24 1/2 inches on a small Gibbs popper while casting around surfers enjoying the fairly large swell. Nothing wild, but I’m always delighted with any striper on a popper in August. Frank Manzi reported a couple more surf schoolies today, and Vinny D’Anton released a few in Shark River.  The regulars at Bay Head said they had some cocktail blues up to 12 inches plus short weakfish early — but there were no signs of Spanish mackerel.

Capt. Joe Massa decided to make the long run from Morgan Marina to the mid-range grounds for bluefin tuna on Sunday, along with Jim Peters, A.J. Orlando and Dave Rubek on his My Three Sons. They had their best luck in the afternoon as a 52-incher was jigged, and Massa cast a big popper to tuna breaking around cownose rays to get into a 1 1/3-hour battle on spinning tackle with a very fat 46-incher.  The trip ended up totaling 164 miles.

Capt. Jim Freda has been getting into those tuna consistently with his Shore Catch out of Manasquan Inlet. He says both “overs” and “unders” can be jigged off bottom in 140-160 feet with jigs of 80-120 grams. A visitor from San Diego jigged a 54-incher last week.

The wind is predicted to shift to the northwest on Friday at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20.  Saturday is looking ideal with west winds at 10-15 knots.

There’s usually not a lot of difference between large white marlin, and every one meeting the minimum length to be weighed becomes a  heartstopper for the leaders at the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Md. as a few ounces may mean millions of dollars.

The crew of Chasin Tail has led since Day 1 with a  74-pound white that’s currently worth $1,450,000, but they had to sweat out nine weigh-ins yesterday. Backlash barely missed catching up to them by eight ounces as they took over second at 73.5 pounds. Ironically, their fish is worth even more at $1.5 million as they are in more Calcuttas. The big loser was the previous second place boat, Reel Chaos, which dropped out of the big money when Cricket took over third with a 71-pounder currently worth $89,000.

I had some trouble with my late blog last night, but the feature of it was the weigh-in of the first blue marlin by Haulin N Ballin at 465.5 pounds. That blue would be worth $740,000 if it stands up,

Though Crisdel wasn’t challenged for first in tuna with their 201-pound bigeye worth $940,000, the relatively small tuna in second and third were moved out as Mjolnir boated a 145.5 -pound tuna and The Right Place was close behind at 135 pounds.

Game Changer leads in dolphin at 35.5 pounds, but Viking 72 moved into second with a 33-pounder. The Natural is way ahead in wahoo at 82 pounds, though Keepin It Reel took over second a 61.5 pounds.

The species count for Day 2 was again impressive with billfish. There were 473 whites released and nine boated for a total of 482 whites by the 335 boats that fished. There were also 23 blue marlin released in addition to the one weighed. Most interesting was the seven sailfish released after only one the first day. Sailfish are a rarity in the canyons. The other species landed were in modest numbers with just four tuna, three dolphin and one wahoo. That may be because leaderboads were filled and boaters didn’t bother weighing much smaller fish.

After most of the fleet sailed during the first two days with perfect weather, I figured few would do so today in order to save a day for the end of the contest. Yet, 120 boats headed out into a forecast of possible storms late in the day.  I’ll summarize the results later tonight.

Others seem to be having a hard time catching big fluke, but it’s been no problem for John Letizia. As noted in last week’s blog, he ran his boat out of Manasquan Inlet to the north to just miss doormat status with a 9 3/4-pound fluke. Yesterday he waited until his target  had lunch — and it weighed 10 pounds, 6 ounces as a true doormat.

Capt. Vinnie Vetere of Katfish from Great Kills said striper fishing was tough Tuesday, though one near 30 pounds was caught. He noted that jumbo porgies have moved into waters off the Rockaway jetty, and took his party there to load up on scup to 15.5 inches.

Bob Matthews from Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Marina reported better ocean fluking. The Ocean Explorer had a 10-pound, 5-ounce doormat last week along with 7-and8-pounders.  There are some keepers in the river for his rentals along with lots of shorts.  The surf has some small blues and stripers plus lots of kingfish. The mid-range grounds continue to produce bluefin tuna up to over 100 pounds with regularity.

The Monmouth County surf was good to Frank Manzi this morning as he caught four bass up to a rare legal 29-incher that was also released. Vinny D’Anton and I fished Shark River which looked good, but was dead. Just before leaving, with a thunder storm coming, Vinny caught a 26-inch bass on a Chug Bug  — and then I got the skunk off on my last cast as a fat 22-inch bass hit a Band of Anglers Spin Dart plastic.

Joe Melillo reports from Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant that the local surf came alive again with early morning cocktail blues plus some fluke, Spanish mackerel and small weakfish. Use small lures of an ounce or less.

Though there wereseveral changes on Day 2 of the White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Md., all the leaders survived. The first blue marlin eligible for weighing was a 465.5pounder on Haulin N Balln.

Two whites fell just short of first, but took over the next two spots with a 73.5-pounder on Backlash, and a 71 on Cricket. Viking 72 took over second in dolphin with a 33-pounder, and Right Hook moved to fourth with a 28.5-pounder.

Frank Criscola’s Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club had to wait in a long line to weigh-in their bigeye tuna yesterday evening at the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland, but the wait was worthwhile as Russ Garufi’s catch took over first in tuna by a mile at 201 pounds. That put Crisdel in line for $940,000. The only tuna even close to it was then weighed at 101 pounds for Chuck Metz on Theresa Jean.

Though bigeyes get much bigger, it’s not easy to come up with such a fish during the few days of a tournament, and while fishing under IGFA rules. Crisdel boated a 265-pounder about a week ago after a very long fight on 50-pound,

The information in the final blog last night was wrong except for the white marlin. I waited an hour after the scales closed to get the day’s final results, but the tournament hadn’t updated their leaderboards.

The tuna board going into today had Bar South third at 77.5 pounds, followed by M.R, Ducks at 72 and Eastbound at 69 pounds. There was no dolphin leaderboard at all last night, but Game Changer has the lead at 35.5 pounds, followed by Ditchdigger Too at 30.5 pounds and Top Notch at 27 pounds. Rather than no wahoo, there were enough to fill the board. The Natural had a 82-pounder that was the sixth largest in the 46 years of the WMO. That’s going to be a tough one to beat! Camecelin is second at 54.5 pounds, and Sweetums has third with a 50.5-pounder. There were no blue marlin big enough to weigh, but a 277.5-pound mako shark was weighed by Greg Robinson on Polerizer. That division doesn’t pay much, but the mako leads the Big Fish Calcutta worth $225,000.

As noted last night, there are two white marlin weighed for the biggest pay-offs — with Chasin Tail first at 74 pounds and Reel Chaos at 70 pounds.

There were lots of whites released the first day, with the count at 415 plus eight long enough to be brought to the scales. There were 17 blue marlin releases. Fish brought to the scales included eight tuna, eight dolphin, four wahoo and one shark. However, there were 389 of the 404 boats fishing yesterday. Today there are 335 boats fishing, which means there won’t be as many boats fishing the last two days as is normally the case.  I’ll try to get today’s “really final” results for a later blog after the scales close at 9:15.

There was a little flurry of striper action yesterday morning when the tide turned in at Shark River as I switched to a Tsunami Sand Eel since there didn’t appear to be any blues around — and caught two 23-inch bass while losing another I later added a smaller bass on the way out, Vinny D’Anton had the turn timed for 7:15 this morning, and we waited around for it. I released a 25-inch striper right at 7:15, but there was no blitz, I added a 20-incher, and Vinny caught a 24-incher on a Chug Bug before everyone left. Vinny had caught five smaller bass early, when I caught the only blue — a 4-pounder on a Z Man Swimmerez.

Both Tommy Cox and Frank Manzi did as well working Monmouth County beaches this morning despite the very low tides.

Dan Brodzinski once again proved that it pays to have a rod with you any time you go to the beach. He took his wife to Sandy Hook for a beach supper Sunday evening, but waded out in the shallow water to catch a short fluke. He then saw something move aand switched to his Tin Teaser to get hit by what turned out to be a cownose ray of about 40 pounds which he fought for an hour before getting it close enough to cut off.

There’s a small craft advisory posted for Wednesday morning to night, with seas building to 4-6 feet. South winds at 10-15 knots in the morning increase to 15-20 with gusts to 25 in the afternoon — when there’s a chance of showers and thunderstorms.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported catching blues and bonito on jigs this morning before switching to chub mackerel sea bass and ling later.

Capt. Vinny Vetere said weekend striper fishing was tough, and he had to work hard to cover his striper guarantee on Katfish from Great Kills.

Almost the entire fleet sailed on the opening day of the 46th White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Maryland.

Two eligible whites were weighed as Chasin Tail had a 74-pounder, and Reel Chaos a 70-pounder.

There were no big tuna, but Bar South took the lead at 77.5 pounds, followed by M.R. Ducks at 72 and Eastbound at 69. There was no dolphin leaderboard posted, but Hellsea had the early lead at 22.5 pounds. I saw Top Notch weigh a 27-pounder on the Marlin Cam. There were no blue marlin or wahoo weigh-ins.

Chuck Many took a break from striper fishing in NY/NJ Bight last week for a trip to Cape Charles, Va. that proved well worthwhile.

While a cobia is a rare catch up here (much more common in South Jersey), they are a regular visitor to Virginia waters. Chuck fished with Capt. Capt. Clinton Lessard of SHO NUF Charters as they saw 54 cobia during a 6-hour trip, and hooked 13 up to a 57-incher estimated at 52 pounds. All were released.

The 46th White Marlin Open began today out of Ocean City, Md. with the boat count up one from yesterday to 404 — with the purse up to $6,143,000. With the weather right for canyon trolling, almost everyone sailed as 389 boats used their first day.

Though the scales didn’t open until 4 p.m., there’s already the first white marlin weigh-in as Nathan Walker on Chasin Tail brought in a 74-pounder to take the lead for 3,450,000. There was also a tuna to get that board started for about $2 million dollars as Jon Hartman on De Bait Able weighed a 61.5-pounder. The dolphin board got started with a 22.5-pounder by Don Smily’s Hellsea to take the lead for $115,000.

The scales are open to 9:30, and with all those boats fishing there are bound to be lots of fish weighed.  I’ll add a blog when all of the day’s results are in.

The ASMFC is meeting in Arlington, Va., and striped bass anglers will be looking forward to the Thursday afternoon decision on what cuts to make in order to reduce mortality of the overfished stock,

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported good variety action over the weekend with chub mackerel, sea bass, blues and some Spanish mackerel. Today’s fishing was decent for chub mackerel plus sea bass, ling and blues.

Allen Riley and John Mazzeo from South Plainfield fished Sandy Hook this morning where the tide was very low and fishing dead with no bait in the wash. On the positive side, with the light northeast wind there were no flies.

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Nick Honachefsky used a home-tied bucktail to catch a dolphin in the 25-pound class Sunday while casting in the Glory Hole. That’s a very large dolphin for inside the canyons.

The 46th White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Md. gets underway tomorrow with 403 boats in the hunt for $6.1 million in cash awards. I’ll add a late blog to cover the first day’s fishing after the scales close each night.

Raritan Bay fluking was tough this morning when I joined Debi Decker of Monroe and Jan Navara from Milltown on Capt. Joe Onorato’s Fish N Trish from Gateway Marina in Highlands. There weren’t even many shorts around the TC Buoy, and little drift to work with. It was a little better with shorts in Ambrose Channel, where Joe also caught a legal sea bass. When the tide turned in Sandy Hook Channel we finally got steady action with shorts, but couldn’t get over 17 3/4 inches. Adding Fisherman’s Choice squid strips to Gulp seemed to make the difference. Those strips soaked in Fin Essence shedder crab oil are available at the Tackle Box in Hazlet.

Bottom fishing pro Capt. Kenny Namowitz will be running open Tuesday at 7 a.m. with his Mimi Vi from Point Pleasant. Make reservations for that $75 trip by calling 732 370-8019.

Below is a report from Jeff Merrill about the recent Stone Harbor Marlin Tournament:

Billfish Bite Breaks Wide Open!
Polarizer Takes Top Honors at Yacht Club of Stone Harbor Billfish Tournament!
Cape May Inlet Puts Participants in the Heart of the Action!
It was a wild weekend of billfish action and the timing couldn’t have been any better for
participants at the 53rd Annual Yacht Club of Stone Harbor Billfish Tournament which was held
July 25-28 out of Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May, New Jersey. Not only did the
weatherman cooperate, the white marlin and blue marlin showed in force as well. Over the two
days of fishing in this all-release billfish event the tournament fleet found solid action and
Canyon Club Resort Marina via Cape May Inlet was the perfect vantage point to get in on the
bite at the middle and northern canyons. The fleet of 26 boats racked up an impressive 143
billfish releases including 133 white marlin and 10 blue marlin! That translates to nearly three
billfish per boat per day! Team Polarizer led by George Robinson, President of South Jersey
Yacht Sales, took 1st Place Boat honors with 14 white marlin. The 2nd Place Boat award was
captured by Joe Zerbo’s Fishaholic with eight white marlin and two blue marlin while 3rd Place
Boat accolades went to Tom Kilareski’s Intuition for 10 white marlin.
Team awards were also presented and teams consisting of three boats each were drawn at
random at the Captain’s Meeting. The 1st Place Team award went to the team of Polarizer, Tom
Byrne’s Insure and CJ Eni’s On a Role who together tallied 2700 points. In addition to
Polarizer’s 1400 points, Insure added 900 points for eight white marlin and one blue marlin
while On a Role added 400 points for one blue marlin and three white marlin. The 2nd Place
Team tallied 2100 points and included Fishaholic, Mark Colyar’s Gigabyte 2 and Tom Russell’s
Pursuit 38. Fishaholic added 1000 points for eight white marlin and two blue marlin while
Gigabyte 2 scored 900 points for nine white marlin and Pursuit 38 added 200 points for two
white marlin.
Several individual angler awards were also handed out and as the tournament is always a familyoriented
event, IGFA and non-IGFA rule compliant angler awards were awarded. Rachel Linus
aboard Bob Barbaro’s Badger took 1st Place Angler and 1st Place Female Angler with 600 points
for five white marlin and one blue marlin. Joe Albano aboard Dave Anderson’s Krazy Salts
received the 2nd Place Angler award with 600 points for six white marlin while 3rd Place Angler
went to Noah Citron aboard dad Jeff’s Singularis with 400 points for four white marlin. Kurt
Vonseekam aboard Polarizer won 1st Place IGFA Angler with 600 points for six white marlin
and 2nd Place IGFA Angler went to Matt Sullivan on Fishaholic with 400 points for three white
marlin and one blue marlin. The 3rd Place IGFA Angler was Jesse Bowman aboard Intuition
with 300 points for three white marlin. Top Junior Angler was won by Camryn Diller aboard
dad Jamie’s Canyon Lady with 300 points for three white marlin.

Bob Belansen’s Beast received the Warren Buckingham Memorial Trophy awarded for the Most Outstanding Catch which was a 124-pound yellowfin tuna caught by Tommy Belansen after a three hour battle on light-tackle. Bill Davis, captain of the Polarizer, received the Walt Hendee Captain’s Award presented to the 1st Place Boat Captain. Worthy of note is Polarizer was Top Boat on Day One with 600 points and Intuition was Top Boat on Day Two with 800 points releasing their last billfish of the day a scant one minute before Polarizer!
August is just a few days away and the two highlight events on the 2019 billfish tournament calendar are on tap. With a combined cash purse last year well north of $8.8 million, the White Marlin Open and MidAtlantic offer an opportunity to win a life-changing cash payout and Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May, New Jersey puts you in the heart of the current billfish bite. The White Marlin Open is set for August 5-9 followed by the MidAtlantic which runs August 18-23. For those planning on fishing both events, Canyon Club Resort Marina would like to welcome you to our award winning 300 slip world-class facility and offer free dockage for the week between the two tournaments! That’s right! As a satellite port for the White Marlin Open and the venerable home port annually for the MidAtlantic tournament you can compete in two of the most popular and prestigious billfish events each summer from Canyon Club Resort Marina and save as much as 1/3rd on your transient dockage! There are no tricks, gimmicks or hidden costs. Enjoy a week with family, friends or crew together with other White Marlin Open and MidAtlantic tournament participants at Canyon Club Resort Marina where you’re centrally located to the middle and northern canyons and just minutes from great shopping, dining, beaches and historical sites along one of the most beautiful areas of the Jersey shore. At Canyon Club Resort Marina we put the Mid in MidAtlantic! You don’t need to be a pro angler or even an expert because it only takes one bite from the right marlin or tuna to capture a windfall of cash. Come join us for three memorable weeks in August! See ya on the docks!
To reserve your slip and for more information contact Dockmaster/Ship Store Manager Paul Hoffman at 609-884-0188. For MidAtlantic tournament information contact Tournament Director Aaron Hoffman at 609-884-0177. You can also visit the tournament’s website at http://www.themidatlantic.com.

Hundreds of boats will be seeking big money billfish and tuna when the Ocean City, Md. White Marlin Open gets underway Monday. Last year that contest drew 382 boats and over 3,000 anglers contesting for a purse of $5.4 million. The winning white marlin was worth over $2.5 million.

As always, I’ll keep track of results and post an additional blog when the scales are closed each day.

The hot bluefin tuna bite continues at the mid-range grounds off the northern N.J. Shore. Capt. Jim Freda of Shore Catch out of Manasquan Inlet put the Lee Santipal party into  three “over ” bluefins on jigs, releasing two.  The largest was 54 inches — and they added two “unders”.

There was a big improvement in fluking out of Atlantic Highlands on Friday as Capt. Ron Santee finally saw a volume of large fluke being netted on his Fishermen. Dave Bachovin was close to the doormat mark with a 9 7/16-ound fluke, and added four more from 3 1/2 to 6 5/8 pounds. Joe Sullivan had four from 7 1/4 to 5 11/16 pounds — and Anthony Barker boated an 8 7/16-pounder.  Capt. Rob Semkewyc also did well with keepers that day, but today it was back to shorts as one angler caught 27 without a keeper on the Sea Hunter.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported chub mackerel didn’t hit well, but they added sea bass, bluefish, ling and Spanish mackerel.

The Shark River blues didn’t cooperate again, but I did catch one and lost another on a popper.

Grumpy’s Tackle in Seaside Park reported more fluke in the surf on Gulp — and it was reported that those fish were spitting out sand eels.

The blackfish season has reopened in N.J., but for just one tog at a 15-inch minimum through 11/15. Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant has green crabs in stock.

Bob Correll reported from Bay Head that the cocktail blues failed to hit metal in t he surf for the second day in a row.

The forecast is for southwest winds at 5-10 knots with a slight chance of a shower into early morning.

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant is chartered Sunday morning.

John Letizia, one of the regulars at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant, is better known for his Point Pleasant Canal eeling for stripers, but pursues all inshore species with his boat — and came up with a beauty yesterday at Shrewsbury Rocks.

His fluke would have blown away all of the entries in last Saturday’s Point Pleasant Elks Fluke Tournament, but was just shy of doormat size at 9 3/4 pounds.

The 10-pound fluke ranks up in northern fishing accomplishments along with the 50-pound striper and 20-pound bluefish. There’s no official definition of a doormat fluke, but dedicated fluke fisherman recognize it as 10 pounds — and such fluke are very few and far between in NY/NJ Bight waters. A few more ounces would have been great, but John was thrilled with his outstanding catch — and will have even more incentive to beat it.

At Belmar, the Big Mohawk reported some fluke limits Thursday for jiggers, but noted that those dragging bait caught NOTHING! That’s a pretty good indication of how you should be fluking in the ocean. The Big Mohawk sails at 5:30 a.m. on the weekend.

The Golden Eagle had a good catch today which included chub mackerel, bluefish, sea bass, ling and fluke. Though the mackerel were swimming around the boat, they were hard to catch. The Golden Eagle is adding a 16-hour trip for tuna, dolphin and other exotics on Tuesday, Aug. 13 from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 732 681-6144 for reservations.

The Shark River bluefish that provided lots of topwater action on poppers yesterday morning weren’t there this morning. I did release one 4-pounder on a Z Man Swimmerz paddletail plus a small striper, and later added a 23-inch striper that hit a Band of Anglers Dart Spin I was reeling in fast to make another cast.

Joe Blaze of Brielle fished Manasquan River from his Boston Whaler last evening, but only came up with short fluke on his fly rod before dusk — when bluefish up to 8 pounds hit his 3-inch Lefty’s Deceiver. Joe said the river was loaded with tiny bait (probably spearing) which was never attacked.

Calm weather continues as Saturday’s forecast is for west winds at 5-10 knots — though there’s a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon.