The MidAtlantic is down to its last two days, and no one can complain about the volume of billfish that have been available so far. Yesterday’s big blue marlin breakout was impressive, and white marlin releases remained high. Big Stick had 15 along with a blue yesterday, while Judge recorded nine — and there were eight each for Ocean 80C and Krazy Salts.

Of course, getting that one bigger white that can be weighed in for millions of dollars remains elusive — though Max Bet did so yesterday with a third place 66-pounder.

Though Pipe Down started the day all alone with a 489-pound blue marlin, they were all the way down to fourth by the time the scales closed. Chip Caruso’s Pipe Creamer stands first at 889 pounds, followed by Amarula Sun at 548, Tighten Up at 528, and Intents with a 483-pounder.

Surprisingly, the tuna category was unmoved by the 165 boats fishing. Lit Up tied Low Profile for fourth at 101 pounds. The very vulnerable leaders are Marli at 205 pounds, Talkin Ttrash at 195, and Random Chaos with a 112-pounder.

Liquidity remains far out in front with a 45-pound dolphin, with Too Many Martinis moving into second at 33 pounds. The wahoo category got a shakeup as Y-Knot boated a 56-pounder and Water Damage added a 51 – while Waste Knot had a 46-pounder.

The Points leader is Big Stick with 1650, followed by Trashman at 1560, Sweet Spot with 1425 and Gina Lisa at 1350.

With 180 boats fishing today, there should be lots of movement on the leaderboards. I’ll do another blog with updated results after the scales close tonight. Just before publishing I got word from the scales that Talkin Trash has weighed a 253-pound bigeye!

There’ a small craft advisory inshore for Friday with south winds at 15-20 knots plus gusts to 25 and likely showers.

Nick Honachesky reports “I’ve officially made the dream come true – combining fishing and beer. Thanks to working with Heavy Reel Brewing Co. we’ve concocted a smooth tasting American Lines In Lager. Have one with me this Saturday at the brewery in Seaside Heights from 4pm to 6pm! Stay tuned for more events, sign up for the newsletter at www.saltwaterunderground.com “

After tonigh’;s blog warned that the leading 489-pound blue marlin may not be too secure, that was exactly what happened at the evening MidAtlantic weigh-ins. Tighten Up weighed a 529-pounder, Pipe Dreamer had a leading 889-pounder, and Intents added a 483. Amarula Sun tried to make up for their prospective winner lost to mutilation by their props by weighing a 548-pounder.

The white marlin division got a third place entry with a 66-pounder by Max Bet.

There was no change in tuna, but Y Knot took first in wahoo at 56 pounds. I’ll have a complete listing tomorrow.

With the MidAtlantic drawing to a close Friday night, the two billfish leaders worth millions won’t be easy to beat though my experience indicates they are no sure thing.

In the early days of that contest, I was a guest angler on Absolut-ly out of Brielle Yacht Club when I was the only one tending rods during long day of no hits when one doubled over. That turned out to be a blue marlin over 500 pounds, but that was a summer of big blues. When combined with a blue release, that fish won the Blue Marlin Champion trophy for the Dinardi brothers. However, it wasn’t worth a cent in the tournament, and became the only blue over 500 pounds that never payed off in contest history.

The 70-pound white marlin leading in the prime category for the Viking 80C will be hard to beat by rolling, but they do get bigger on this side of the Atlantic. My personal record as a boat captain is a 99-pounder caught by my wife Kathy while sharking off Montauk when I kept a Mako center console there many years ago. The very few huge whites I’ve heard of were caught by shark or giant tuna chummers.

We should have a better idea of how the MidAtlantic will play out after today’s results are in. I’ll be adding a blog after the scales close.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar didn’t catch much during Tuesday’s Exotics trip as northeast winds were blowing 25-30 knots. Today they had a pick of 2-4-pound blues with limits for those who worked at the jigging.

The inshore forecast is for south winds at 10 knots before increasing to 15-20 plus gusts to 25 in the afternoon. There’s a chance of showers.

Jeff Merrill reports for the MidAtlantic as follows:

“Overnight a weak cold front spread through the MidAtlantic’s tournament ports of Cape May, New Jersey and Ocean City, Maryland bringing relief from the heat and humidity of the past few days but with the front came the associated steady northeast breeze and occasional gusts.  Only 11 boats headed offshore this morning on Day Two while 170 used their “Lay Day.”  While Lay Days, also known as non-fishing days, give crews a chance to rest up, they also provide time to re-rig, re-set and re-group for the next day’s fishing.  With Friday’s offshore weather forecast questionable, the docks at Canyon Club Resort Marina and Sunset Marina were buzzing today as participants spent the day hard at work preparing for what looks to be back-to-back days of fishing.            

Pat Healey’s Viking 80 based out of New Gretna, New Jersey remains atop the leaderboard in the white marlin division with a 70-pounder caught on Day One.  Tim Tanghare of Vincentown, New Jersey on Big Oil remains in second place with a 69-pound white marlin which was also weighed on Day One.  Third place currently remains vacant. ”    

With no blue marlin weighed today, Jeff Crabtree’s New Smyrna Beach, Florida-based Pipe Down continues to lead the category with a 489-pounder caught on Day One.  Second and 3^rd place remain vacant.

Joe Stein III of Marriottsville, Maryland and his Marli remain in the lead in the tuna division with a 205-pound big eye just a few pounds ahead of Christopher Little of Pasadena, Maryland and his Talkin’ Trash with a 195-pound big eye.  In third place is Random Chaos with Michael Pintozzi of Langhorne, Pennsylvania and his 112-pound yellowfin.  All three leaders in the tuna category were caught on Day One.                   

Jeff Kogok’s Too Many Martinis from Saint Michaels, Maryland moved into second place in the dolphin category today after weighing a 33-pounder.  David Schockley of Jupiter, Florida continues to lead the category with his 45-pounder caught aboard his Liquidity on Day One.  Ed Russo of Carlstadt, New Jersey on his Big Deal now sits in third place with his 32-pounder which was also caught on Day One.     

Joe Drosey’s Rhonda’s Osprey from Ocean City, Maryland remains in the lead of the wahoo division with a 23-pounder while second place still belongs to Avenue, Maryland’s George Hall on Hall Pass with a 22-pounder.  Both fish were weighed on Day One.

Worthy of note Chris Volpe’s Gray Fox released three white on Day Two.        “

I also noted that Strokin’ seemed to be fighting whites all day and ended up with 10 releases.

The 489-pound blue marlin boated on Pipe Down during yesterday’s first day of the MidAtlantic was a great catch, but actually well short of the day’s best — if it had counted. As Jeff Merrill of the MdiAtlantic noted “The hard luck award for the day and possibly even the tournament goes to Captain Danny Veid of Tarpon Springs, Florida aboard Amarula Sun.  The crew hooked up a huge blue marlin about an hour before lines out and fought the massive billfish before getting it to the boat and cleanly placing two fly gaffs into her.  Unfortunately, the marlin then tried to free itself from the gaffs and in the process got caught in the propellers mutilating the fish.  The MidAtlantic follows IGFA rules which clearly states mutilated fish are disqualified.  Worthy of note the crew of the Amarula Sun self-disqualified the fish which after weighing still pulled the scale down to 808 pounds!”

The MidAtlantic started off with a bang as most of the 181boats competing for a purse of $5,790,020 took advantage of good weather to use one of their three days out of five. Just as we began to wonder if a white marlin big enough to weigh existed, there were two qualifying in that biggest money category. The Viking 80C demo boat hit the 70-pound mark that’s rarely beaten during trolling tournaments, but was still only one pound up on Big Oil.

Large dolphin have also been scarce this summer, but the 45-pounder caught on Liquidity stands a good chance of holding up — and a volume catch on Big Deal took over the next three spots at 25,26 and 32 pounds.

After even MJ’s couldn’t catch a bigeye in the Big Rock Tournament, they’ve been building up to the point where Crisdel had blasts from wolfpacks of bigeyes a couple of times while winning the WMIT. The present leaders of 205 pounds for Marli and 195 pounds on Talkin Trash may not make it to the

finish.

There were lots of marlin releases yesterday, including 8 whites and a blue on Lovin Life;8 whites on Gina Lisa; and 7 whites each on Taylor Jean and Viking 80.

Once again, I’ll be doing a blog after the scales close this evening in order to bring results up to date.

Tomorrow’s inshore forecast is for northeast winds at 10-15 knots before going east 5–10 in the afternoon.

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant had hot jigging Monday for small blues plus some mixed size bonito. Small jigs worked best.

After boaters couldn’t come up with a blue or white marlin big enough to weigh in at the White Marlin Open and WMIT, that problem was overcome on the first day of the MidAtlantic. Pipe Down weighed a 489-pound blue marlin that was well over the 400-pound minimum for that species. Then V iking 80C brought in a 70-pound white that stood up against a 69-pounder on Big Oil. Almost the entire fleet fished today. and they managed just a few bigeyes. Marli leads at 205 pounds, followed by Talkin Trash at 195, Random Chaos at 112 — and Low Profile with a 101-pounder. Crisdel dominated in tuna a few days ago at the WMIT as they raised schools of bigeyes, but only weighed a 57-pound tuna today.

A very impressive dolphin was the 45-pounder by Liquidity, while Big Deal loaded up with dolphin of 25, 26 and 32 pounds. Rhonda’s Osprey leads in wahoo at 23 pounds.

The unofficial field for the 2023 MidAtlantic out of Cape May plus Ocean City, Md consists of 181 boats fishing for a purse of $5.7 million- and176 of those boats fished the first day. That should result in a very busy weigh-in period starting at 5 p.m. I’ll add a post after the scales close.

The MidAtlantic has a double minimum for billfish weigh-ins as whites must be 69 inches and 65 pounds — while blues have to make both 102 inches and 400 pounds. Tuna count at 50 pounds, while dolphin and wahoo must be at least 20 pounds.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant has room on bottom fishing trips the next two days as well as on many others coming up. Call for details call 732 370-8019.

The Paramount from Brielle will be running squid trips from 7 to noon Tuesday and Wednesday.

The forecast is for northeast winds, but at just 5-10 knots.

Frank Criscola’s Crisdel out of Brielle Yacht Club won the White Marlin Invitational for the second straight year. A couple of blasts from bigeye schools filled the scoreboard for a $147K win.

Capt. George Steller couldn’t find bigeyes as large as last years, but a 116.1–pounder led the way. Now it’s on to the MidAtlantic and much bigger pay-offs as that contest begins fishing in the morning.

There wasn’t much other information available from the WMIT, but Git Up did win the dolphin category with a 16-pounder.

Capt. Ron Santee reported from his Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands that there was way too much current which he couldn’t get away from. Those who worked hard with a lot of lead were able to put a catch of fluke together.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar had plenty of action all morning with 2-4-pound blues plus a few Spanish mackerel and a bonito. Both plain and tailed jigs worked well.

The inshore forecast is great, with southwest winds at 5-10 knots in the morning.

The White Marlin Invitational concludes today at Beach Haven with 52 boats using their last day, but offshore anglers will swiftly move over to the MidAtlantic as fishing begins Monday out of Cape May plus Ocean City, Maryland.

It’s been hard to get info out of the WMIT, but as of this morning Shark Byte had the points lead with 650 — followed by Code Blu. Git Up and Crisdel with 450. Bandit had the three leading tuna at 115.9, 107.6 , and 105.3 pounds –with Crisdel next at 104.6 pounds. There were no eligible dolphin or wahoo, and no weigh-ins of white or blue marlin.

At Belmar, the Golden Eagle had jigged limits of 2-4-pound blues plus bonito on Friday while the pool went to a 14-pound jumbo blue– the first jumbo I’ve heard of in some time.

Sunday’s forecast is for west winds at 5-10 knots before going southwest in the afternoon at 10-15 knots.

It took some time to get results, but the White Marlin Invitational got off to a decent start yesterday with a few tuna and many billfish releases.

Shark Byte took the lead i buillfish release points at 650 — ahead of Code Blu, Git Up and Lovin Life and Crisdel with 450 each. Bandit had a bigeye blast with 115.9- and-107.6-pounders — while Crisdel weighed a 104.6-pound yellowfin.

Jim Hutchinson Sr. reports for the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Assn, as follows:”

Recent catches in the waters off Long Beach Island have included triggerfish on the bottom, and mahi, cobia, and Spanish mackerel up in the water column. There have also been some reports of a resurgence of croakers around. Meanwhile, the artificial reefs continue to give up good numbers of fluke.”

Last call for the HRFA Catfish Chaos tomorrow from 12:01 a.m. to 3 p.m. You must register today by calling Dan Harrison at 551 265-3460. The fee is $20 for adults and $10 for those under 16. There are many NY and NJ weigh-in stations.

Catfish Chaos DerbyAugust 19, 2023- Last day to register -Aug. 18

Speaking of the reefs, Captain John Lewis of the “Insatiable” announced that the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife sank a scallop boat on the Garden State North Reef Site on Friday, August 11. This deployment was sponsored by the Sportfishing Fund and the Junior Mate’s Reef Project of the Beach Haven Charter Fishing Association.

This deployment follows others that add to the marine habitat to provide the marine ecosystem with food and shelter for all marine organisms. This in turn will develop enhanced fishing opportunities for recreational anglers.

Captain Brett Taylor and “Reel Reaction Sportfishing” had a double charter this week and boxed a nice mahi-mahi in the morning while fishing ocean structure. That group also reeled in10 keeper fluke to 24-inches along with three sea bass. His afternoon group fished in the bay with poor tidal conditions yet still picked some 62 fluke with three keepers and a blowfish. Steady action!