Tight Lines

Following is the official press release from Jeff Merrill with results from Day 3 at The Midatlantic:

As Day Three of the 2019 MidAtlantic dawned much of the fleet took a Lay Day after fishing back-to-back the first two days of the tournament. Day Three found 48 boats heading out in a light breeze under partly cloudy skies hoping the billfish bite of the first two days continued. On Day Two a total of 199 billfish were released including 177 white marlin and 22 blue marlin. Though the fleet of boats fishing today was considerably less than the two previous days several major changes to the leaderboard occurred.

In the white marlin category we now have a new leader after Brooks Smith’s Uno Mas from Stuart, Florida weighed a 71-pounder for angler Jeremy Cerdas at Sunset Marina in Ocean City. Marty Judge’s Upper Marion Township, Pennsylvania-based Judge is now in second place with his 68-pounder. Nick Eubank’s Double Barrel based out of Boca Raton, Florida weighed a 67 pounder for angler Andrew Schwartz today in Cape May to move into a tie for third place with John Raimondo’s Sea Mistress from Avalon, New Jersey. No blue marlin was weighed on Day Three and that category continues to be vacant.

Though numerous yellowfin tuna have been weighed through the first two days of the tournament big eye tuna have been noticeably absent. That changed today when Curtis Macomber of Berlin, Maryland pulled his Stalker to the scale at Sunset Marina to weigh a pair of big eyes weighing 226 and 207 pounds. That brace of big eyes now gives Stalker the heaviest and second heaviest tuna. Tommy Hancock’s Dem Boys hailing from Isle of Palms, South Carolina currently has the third heaviest tuna with his 96 pounder.

The dolphin division continues to be led by Laytonsville, Maryland’s Todd Dickerson aboard his Top Dog and Baltimore, Maryland’s Curtis Campbell on his Reel Estate as both have weighed 33 pounders earlier this week. Ed Russo of Carlstadt, New Jersey on Big Deal and Jamie Diller of Stone Harbor aboard Canyon Lady are tied for second heaviest dolphin with 27-pounders.

The wahoo division continues to be led by Ross Clubb of Newmanstown, Pennsylvania aboard his Chain Reaction with a 33-pounder. Thomas Quhoun’s Ocean City, Maryland-based Special Situation still has the second heaviest wahoo with a 29-pounder. Hilltown, Pennsylvania’s Andy Schlotter on his My Time owns the third heaviest wahoo at 28-pounds, also caught on Day One.

Boats with significant billfish releases on Day Three include Brooks Smith’s Uno Mas with 10 white marlin released. John Bayliss’ Tarheel and John Gudelsky’s Reel Joy each released two white marlin and one blue marlin. Tommy Hancock’s Dem Boys let go one white marlin and one blue marlin while Joe Posillico’s Torta released a blue marlin today.

Ple

 

It didn’t take a big fleet to shake things up in The MidAtlantic today out of Cape May and Ocean City. MD.

A couple of my predictions came through as I’ve been saying that one blast of bigeyes would scramble the tuna division. That’s what appears to have happened as Stalker weighed tuna of 207 and 226 pounds to knock everyone back two places and set a standard that will be hard to beat.

I also felt that it would take a white marlin of over 70 pounds to win that richest division, and that happened when Uno Mas weighed a 71-pounder. Double Barrell also got in the money with a 67-pounder. 

Sea Wolf moved into third in dolphin with a 29-pound entry.

I’ll send Jeff Merrill’s official press release in in the morning.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar got into jigging blues right away today and reported there was no lull in the near-shore action on surfacing fish that make up in volume for their small size. The only other fish able to butt in on the action were some Spanish mackerel.

A couple of readers spotted my caption error in yesterday’s blog with photos of tackle dealer Bruce Hrobak and his son Tanner at the White House. The photo of them was with Ivanka Trump, not the First Lady.

 

There were some 3-4-pound bluefish in Shark River this morning which provided good popper sport for those with the patience to keep casting. I released five on a Storm Rattlin’ Bug — but there was no 30 1/2-inch striper such as I released yesterday or any striper at all.

Joe Blaze fished on his Boston Whaler in Manasquan River, and got into lots of cocktail blues on fly. He tried going deeper for larger blues, but only caught a short fluke. Joe complained about a very slow current.

Capt. Vinnie Vetere had good Tuesday striper fishing in the Hudson River, and has room for two anglers tomorrow on his Katfish from Great Kills.

After today’s weigh-ins are in, boaters in The MidAtlantic will only have two more days of canyon trolling to stake their claim on a share of a $3,528,760 purse. Once again I’ll add a late blog after the scales close at 9 p.m.

At this point there are no no fish on the leaderboards that look like sure winners. As expected, the first day’s 67-pound white marlin didn’t last, as Judge added a pound to take the lead in the big money division that is likely to go to a white over 70 pounds. One bigeye blast could wipe out all the tuna leaders where Dem Boys leads at 96 pounds. There are still no blue marlin over the 400-pound minimum, though quite a few blues have been released. There’s a tie at 33 pounds in dolphin between Reel Estate and and Top Dog. That is also likely to be beaten. The wahoo division jumped up from just 29 pounds to Chain Reaction’s 35 pounds — which is still small as wahoo go.

There’s a small craft advisory up this evening for southwest winds, but by morning that’s down to southwest at 10 — though gusting to 20. There’s a possibility of thunderstorms tomorrow evening.

The scales just closed at Day 2 of the MidAtlantic, when the big news was the movement in the big money white marlin division.  Judge took over first with a 68-pound entry that was just one pound more than Sea Mistress had the first day. Auspecious moved into third at the 65-pound minimum, and several boats weighed legal length whites that fell just short.

Not surprisingly, there was a new wahoo leader as Chain Reaction had a 35-pounder to move ahead of yesterday’s 29-pounder by Special Situation.  In the dolphin category, Top Dog matched Reel Estate’s 33-pounder. Dem Boys remained well ahead in tuna at 96 pounds, but Sushi moved into second at 80 pounds — pushing Blue Runner to third with yesterday’s 79-pounder. Lucky Lady Jean boated a 77-pounder for fourth.  I’ll pass along Jeff Merrill’s official report in the morning.

It’s probably never happened before, but a tackle shop owner was invited to speak at the White House last month. Bruce Hrobak, who used to own Jersey Coast Bait & Tackle (now Gabrial Tackle) in Brick, N.J. , now has the Billy Bones tackle shops in Port St. Lucie and Stuart Florida. He came up to speak at President Trump’s news conference about his environmental positions. Hrobak thanked the President for expediting funds to work on the Lake Okeechobee Dam after the blue-green algae bloom problem last year contaminated St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon to such an extent that sportfishing-oriented firms were practically put out of business.  Hrobak noted that the ecosystem is starting to come back, but much remains to be done.

He was accompanied by his son Tanner (21) who has survived several brain cancer operations, and helps manage the shops. I’ve fished with Tanner, and can testify to the fact that he’s a skilled and enthusiastic angler. Below are Bruce & Tanner with the First Lady.

Bluefish are finally putting in an appearance both inshore and in the ocean. Party boats have been jigging limits of them regularly in the 1-2-pound class, along with some bonito, chub mackerel and Spanish mackerel. Joe Melillo, at Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant was surprised by large blues yesterday morning while casting metal in Manasquan Inlet.

Shark River has had some mostly 3-pound blues hitting poppers this week, but I also caught a couple of 6-pounders yesterday morning and one around 8 pounds this morning. Even though the sun was high, those occasional blues kept me casting — and I got a big blast I figured was a jumbo chopper as it ran off and fought deep before coming up and showing its tail. To my great surprise, it was a 30 1/2-inch husky striper that provided a “shot in the sun” on a Storm Rattlin’ Bug popper before being released. That was my largest from Shark River which produces schoolies up to 26 inches at times, but hardly anything larger.

As noted in last night’s late blog, the first day of the MidAtlantic out of Cape May plus Ocean City, Md. produced lots of fish for the 138 boats which used the first of their three fishing days, but none that look like sure winners of the millions at stake Sea Mistress is all alone in the big money white marlin division with a 67-pounder as several others which qualified to be weighed by length failed to weigh the minimum of 65 pounds. At the White Marlin Open from Ocean City a couple of weeks ago, it took a 79.5-pounder to walk away with over $1.4 million, so chances are that the 67-pounder won’t hold up.

As noted in the late blog, there was a 364-pound blue marlin weighed by The Chaser, but that was short of the 400-pound minimum. MJ’S later brought in another big blue only to fall short at 367 pounds. The White Marlin Open has a better system which requires a 114-inch minimum length to make the blue official regardless of weight. It’s much easier to determine length at boatside than to guess the weight of such large fish. As it is, blues that don’t make 400 pounds don’t even count in the points categories for trophies.

Lots of dolphin and wahoo were brought in as there is no minimum weight for them. Reel Estate leads in dolphin at 33 pounds, followed by Big Deal and Canyon Lady at 27 pounds. At the White Marlin Open it took a 41-pound dolphin to win. There were an unusual number of relatively small wahoo trolled. Special Situation leads at just 29 pounds. It took a 91-pounder to win at the White Marlin Open.

There were no hundred-pounders taken in the tuna division, but Dem Boys was close at 96 pounds. At the White Marlin Open, Frank Criscola’s Crisdel boated a 201-pound bigeye the first day and cruised to victory.  Blue Runner got off to a good start with tuna of 79, 68 and 68 pounds for second, fifth and sixth. Viking 72 had an appropriate 72-pound tuna.

I’ll have another late blog after the scales close at 9 p.m.

In local news, the Golden Eagle from Belmar had their 16-hour tuna trip today, and read lots of bluefins that wouldn’t hit. They had one on for a short time, but lost it. There were lots of bonito that provided a good catch. Monday’s bluefishing was slow, perhaps because there were 300 blacktip sharks feeding on bait fish. Six of them were hooked, and one was released.

 

 

A million dollar white marlin of 67 pounds was caught by Sea Mistress on the first day of the MidAtlantic Tournament out of Cape May plus Ocean City, Md. That was the only white that made the 65-pound minimum, and probably won’t stand up all week. Indeed there aren’t any fish on the leaderboards that are likely to survive the week. The best bets may be the 96-pound tuna leader on Dem Boys (though one blast of bigeyes would change that) and the 33-pound dolphin on Reel Estate.  Blue Runner took second, fifth and sixth in tuna with entries of 79, 68 and 68 pounds.  There were a surprising number of relatively small wahoo weighed in that category which has no minimum. A 364-pound blue marlin was weighed by The Chaser, but it fell short of the 400-pound minimum.

The official report from Jeff Merrill follows:

Crews were anxious to get offshore on Day One as the 2019 MidAtlantic got off to a busy start with 138 of the 156 boat fleet, including 60 from Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May and 78 from Sunset Marina in Ocean City, heading out before daybreak. A light breeze and moderate chop at the canyons was reported and while late afternoon rain may have cleared the beaches of vacationers, it did little to dampen the enthusiasm at the tournament! It was a late night and busy morning for tournament staff compiling the final entry data and while all calcutta entries are still being tabulated a new tournament record cash purse of over $3.5 million is anticipated! This total would mark the sixth consecutive year a record cash purse has been up for grabs at sportfishing’s “Main Event!” Keep in mind with the wide range of calcuttas (side bets) available to all boats often more than three places will be noted during the week as being “in the money.”
The headline story of the day came from Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May where Avalon, New Jersey’s John Raimondo weighed a 67-pound white marlin for angler Bill Dever aboard Raimondo’s Sea Mistress. No other qualifying white marlin were weighed at either tournament venue so second and third place remain vacant. Additionally, no qualifying blue marlin were weighed.
In the tuna category, Dem Boys hailing from Isle of Palms, South Carolina weighed a 96-pound yellowfin for Tommy Hancock to take the early lead. Mark Deblasio’s Blue Runner from Manasquan, New Jersey sits in second place with a 79-pound yellowfin. Pat Healey’s Viking 72 based out of New Gretna, New Jersey is currently third with a 72-pound yellowfin.
The scales at both tournament venues saw numerous dolphin and wahoo weighed on Day One and the leaderboard was constantly changing. Currently the heaviest dolphin belongs to Baltimore, Maryland’s Curtis Campbell at 33 pounds caught aboard his Reel Estate. Ed Russo of Carlstadt, New Jersey weighed a 27-pounder from his Big Deal to sit in second place tied with Jamie Diller of Stone Harbor, New Jersey aboard his Canyon Lady. Talkin’ Trash and Joseph Stein III of Marriotsville, Maryland aboard his Marli are tied for third place at 25 pounds.
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Ocean City, Maryland’s Thomas Colquhoun aboard his Special Situation leads the wahoo category at 29 pounds
followed closely by Hilltown, Pennsylvania’s Andy Schlotter aboard his My Time with a 28-pounder. Currently
tied for third heaviest wahoo are Westfield, New Jersey native Walter Koller aboard his Nasty Habit and Todd
Willard of Greenville, Delaware aboard his Fish On as both weighed 27-pound ‘hoos on Day One.
Some of the boats with significant billfish releases include Brooks Smith’s Uno Mas with seven white marlin and
Tom Gessler’s Boy’s Toy with six white marlin. Mike Penza’s Oil Slick, Todd Dickerson’s Top Dog and Andrew
Hall’s Lucky Linda Jean each released four white marlin. Marty Judge’s Judge released four white marlin and one
blue marlin while Jeffrey Scannelli’s April Fool and David Johnson’s JT each released two white marlin and a blue
marlin. Jim Smith’s Mjolnir let go two blue marlin and a white marlin while Joe Roberts’ Love Boat released two
blue marlin.

The Jamaica from Brielle made a run offshore today in order to concentrate on bonito, but also came across the first signs of the late summer little tunny run off the Shore. They found them 16-20 miles from port, along with bonito as both jigs and bait worked.

Just as occurred over a decade ago, little tunny showed up offshore with school bluefins in June — and were a problem for tuna trollers. Yet, once again, they disappeared in a couple of weeks rather than moving inshore.

Effective lures for the toughest fighting inshore fish in our waters included epoxy jigs, Avas, Crippled Herring and Deadly Dicks. Nicholas Publicze from Bethlehem, Pa. won the pool with a 8-pounder.  The Jamaica will make that trip again tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.

Apt. Vinny Vetere reports striper action on bunkers has been good in Hudson River from his Katfish out of Great Kills. He has room for one or two tomorrow — and is also open Thursday and Saturday.

The forecast for Tuesday is north at 5-10 knots, switching to southeast in the afternoon.

The MidAtlantic is underway, with 138 boats fishing the first day. I’ll add a blog after the scales close at 9 p.m.

Tony Pacititti struck it rich in the JCAA new format fluke tournament , led by Dave Pacitti’s 10.86-pound doormat. as they swept all fluke Calcuttas.

The leaderboard below shows all the standings down to Kevin Cole’s 3.31-pound sea bass that won a valuable Calcutta. Cole has been doing very well in the fluke tournaments this year.

 

 

 

Dave Pacitti swept all the fluke Calcuttas in the first  JCAA new format fluke contest when he weighed a 10.8-pound doormat from Flounder Wet Spot at Fisherman’s Den in Belmar Mina to win $9, 906.

Sorry for the late blog, but I just got back from the awards party in Brick for the JCAA Tournament. I’ll have all the details tomorrow.

The MidAtlantic is all set to go on Monday out of Cape May and Ocean City, Md. with about 150 boats and a purse of over $6 million. I’ll be doing late blogs this week with results each day after the scales close at 9 p.m.

The Jamaica from Brielle reported a slow start to their daily 7:30 a.m. trip, but ended up with a good mix of blues, bonito, chub mackerel and sea bass. Joe Andros of Bound Brook won today’s pool with a 5-pound bonito.  On Monday they will run offshore to concentrate on bonito.

The Mimi VI from Point Pleasant will run open at 7 a.m. for bottom fishing. Call 732 370-8019 for reservations.

The forecast for Monday is southwest winds at 5 knots, increasing to 10-15 in the afternoon,.

The 2-4-pound bluefish that provided lots of jigging action for party boat anglers in northern N.J. yesterday were back again today. The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported another day of good weather and steady fishing as some bonito, chub mackerel, sea bass and fluke were added to the catch.

The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant called yesterday the best bluefishing of the season as the hi-hook caught 35, and there were many limits plus bonito and chub mackerel.

There shouldn’t be any weather problem in getting to those fish on Sunday as the forecast is for south winds at just 5-10 knots with 3-foot seas.

There was no bluefish bite in Shark River this morning. Frank Manzi lost two small fish that he thinks were stripers, and I had one small fish hit on a popper. A seiner left lots of spearing and peanut bunker on the shore , and I took a few of them to the Spring Lake surf to get the skunk off by quickly releasing three short fluke up to 16 inches despite lots of weed in the surf.

Paul Haertel was pleased to get 61 boats in the new-format JCAA Fluke Tournament that winds up tomorrow.

The multi-million-dollar MidAtlantic begins with the captains meeting in Cape May tomorrow. Offshore trollers have another contest coming up right after it with the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club’s 39th annual Offshore Open from Aug. 24-31. There will be an estimated $200,000 in cash prizes for tuna (except bluefins), swordfish, dolphin and wahoo plus white marlin and blue marlin releases. Ray Catena Audi sponsors Challenges for yellowfin tuna and albacore that don’t require any fee in addition to the basic tournament entry of $500.  The captains meeting will be on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Crystal Point Yacht Club.  A small boat category is included for boats 35 feet or less.  Brochures are available at area tackle shops and marinas.

The bluefin tuna jigging at mid-range grounds continues. This one was caught on a popper cast by Joe Massa.

Bluefish have been hard to come by most of the time this season, but there was finally a breakthrough today as the Golden Eagle from Belmar reported “Super Crazy Bluefishing” today. To be sure, they were only 2-4-pounders, but any-sized blues in quantity are unusual these days. That fishing was on jigs, and they also had chub mackerel, bonito and sea bass.

The Jamaica from Brielle also had blues yesterday mixed in with bonito, chub mackerel,  Spanish mackerel, and a few sea bass. They recommend epoxy jigs and A-17 diamonds.

Vinny D’Anton reported some 3-pound blues were caught this morning in Shark River on poppers. He hooked the only small striper among them.

Capt. Vinny Vetere had a good day with stripers upriver on Wednesday. His Katfish from Great Kills may be available for charter or open boat on Saturday. Call 917 393-8908.

The surf at Manasquan was still rough and fishless this morning, but with light winds forecast the surf should be calm and clear tomorrow.

Nick Honachefsky of Saltwater Underground reports tropical waters have moved in within three miles of the Jersey Shore. He used Williamson Flash Feathers to catch both Spanish mackerel and “chicken” dolphin out there today.

Southeast winds at just 5-10 knots are forecast for tomorrow. Sunday should be south at 5-10 knots with patchy fog and 3-foot seas.

The JCAA new format fluke tournament is underway, and the MidAtlantic has its captains meeting in Cape May on Sunday.

The official  results from the recent White Marlin Open at Ocean City, Md. are in, and they set a high standard for the MidAtlantic . You’ll notice that several Brielle boats were in the money, but Frank Criscola’s tuna champ Crisdel was listed as from Ocean City rather than  Brielle Yacht Club.

The official release follows:

AUGUST 11, 2019 Final Tournament Summary
The 46th White Marlin Open can be considered the most successful tournament yet for a number of reasons: 404 boats fishing for a World Record $6,186,870 in prize money is a good start. The red hot billfishing set a tournament record for the number of billfish caught and released. The prize money paid included two anglers that each won over $1,500,000, a blue marlin won $962,165, a tuna that took $935,915, a dolphin that won $74,900, and a shark that won $231,300.
As impressive as the payouts were, equally remarkable was the huge number of marlin caught & released. By definition nobody saw them at the scales, but the release flags flew all week. The tournament record was 1,358 whites caught in 2016 but the anglers toped that by over 100 fish. The final count was 1,459 whites caught with 1,429 released with the top release boat, “Big Deal” out of Brielle, NJ breaking a 39-year-old record for most billfish releases by boat. The previous record was 26 white taken by the “Escapade” in 1980. In addition to the white marlin, the boats took 47 blue marlin with 46 released, and 13 sailfish were released as were the 2 spearfish caught. The total number of all billfish caught in the 46th Open was a staggering 1,521.
In the money divisions, basically, the big fish in most categories on Thursday held their spots after the last day of fishing. Ocean City, Maryland native Tommy Hinkle weighed a 79.5-pound white marlin on Thursday while fishing aboard the “Fish Whistle out of Indian River DE. The fish took 1st place and netted Tommy $1,504,720. Hinkle had also won the top white marlin in 2008 making Tommy the first angler in tournament history to win the top white marlin twice! The “Backlash” out of VA Beach, VA kept their $1,502,450 for the 73.5-pound white caught on Monday by angler Michael Wagner from La Plata, MD. “Chasing Tails” with angler Nate Walker, both from VA Beach, VA caught their 74-pound white on Monday and earned $135,000 (they were entered in fewer added entry levels than Backlash).
The 465.5-pound blue marlin caught on Tuesday by Craig Dickerson from Pasadena, MD aboard the “Haulin N Ballin” out of Ocean City, MD was the only qualifier in that division and Dickerson won $962,165 for his blue.
The “Crisdel” out of Ocean City, MD weighed in a 201-pound bigeye caught by Russell Garufi from Bishopville, MD on Monday and stayed in first the whole week to kept $935,915. The “Seakeeper” from Wilmington, DE weighed a 150.5-pound Allison tuna on Friday. The angler was Andrew Semprevivo from Mystic Island, NJ who took 2nd place and won $135,432 for his efforts. Ocean City native Ronnie Fields weighed a 145.5-pound tuna off the “Mjolnir” out of Bay Point, FL on Tuesday and held on to win $128,675.
The 277.5-pound mako shark caught Monday by Greg Robinson aboard the “Polarizer” out of OC, MD was the only shark weighed and held onto $231,300 won from the “Big Fish” pool.
The “Give It Away” out of Jupiter FL took over 1st place in the wahoo division with a monster
91-pound fish caught by Anne Aramandia from New Braufels, TX who won $24,475. Other
winners in the wahoo division were the “The Natural,” who won $23,475, “Keepin It Reel” who
won $20,475 and the “Nighthawk” out of Brielle, NJ with angler Jay Monteverdi, also from
Brielle who won $20,475.
The big winner in the dolphin division was the “Miss-Tress” out of Brielle, NJ with Randy Drozd
also from Brielle. The “Miss-Tress” was in the small boat dolphin division and the 38-pound
dolphin weighed on Friday won $74,900. The 1st place 41-pounder taken off the “Playmate”
out of OC, MD won $20,380 while the 2nd place dolphin was caught off the Stewart, FL boat
“Irene”. Angler Frank Sinito form Jupiter, FL won just $3,000 as the boat was not entered in
extra added skill levels.
In the Small Boat Division, it was Tommy Hinkle with the top white which helped his winnings
grow to $1,504,720. The heavy fish was taken by the “Reeldiculous” angler Graham Ward who
caught a 121-pound yellowfin good for $108,000.
Top Release Anglers
White Marlin Open Grand Champion
Ed Russo from Carlstadt, NJ
Fishing on “Big Deal” out of Brielle, NJ
1,190 points, 17 white marlin released
2nd Place Angler
Robert Wedeking from Princeton, NJ
Fishing on “Override” out of Brielle, NJ
910 points, 13 white marlin released
3rd Place Angler
Victor Roof, Jr.
Fishing on “Game On” out of Charleston, SC
875 points, 10 white marlin and 1 blue marlin released
4th Place Angler
Nicholas Rodriguez from Dover, DE
Fishing on “Par Five” out of Dover, DE
735 points, 8 white marlin and 1 blue marlin released
5th Place Angler
Dante Rodriguez from Egg Harbor, NJ
Fishing on “MJs” out of Cape May, NJ
735 points, 8 white marlin and 1 blue marlin released
Top Release Boats
1st Place Boat
“Big Deal” out of Brielle, NJ
1,960 points, 27 white marlin released*
$84,150
2nd Place Boat
“Uno Mas” out of Ocean City, MD
1,785 points, 23 white marlin and 1 blue marlin released
$31,860
3rd Place Boat
“Tar Heel” out of Wanchese, NC
1,750 points, 25 white marlin released
$28,800
* Broke a 39-year-old Tournament Record for most release points by a boat. The previous
record was 1,949 billfish pts. by the “Escapade “ in 1980 which consisted of 24 white marlin
released and 2 boated. The “Big Deal” out of Brielle, NJ caught and released 27 white marlin
to earn the WMO top release boat ever.