Article by Larry Budd
There certainly was a lot of activity on the rip this past week with several tournaments and some nice weather days. Unfortunately, the bite has not risen to the occasion and still proves to be challenging. Still, there were some highlights to the week. As you will see in this issue a number of bigeye tuna made their way to the scales, including a new Heaviest for the Season for Maryland. There was also a small billfish run over the weekend and lots of bailer mahi found at the Pots and under various floating debris. A couple more wahoo showed up at the docks, but not at the size of the ones last week. We also saw two tournaments. The 4th Annual Jimmy Johnson’s Atlantic City Quest for the Ring Tournament ran from last Monday to Friday with Sunset Marina as a weigh station and the Ocean City Marlin Club celebrated it’s 20th Annual Kid’s Classic Tournament, and it was epic!
Let’s start with JJ’s Quest for the Ring. It was a first for the four year old event to expand weigh station options and add Ocean City and the Sunset Marina to the station in Atlantic City at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Several Ocean City boats have participated in the event in prior years, including the “Roll Groove” who won the Ring of Honor at the inaugural event in 2022.
This year’s Ring of Honor Champion was the “Krazy Salt’s” who generated 2,519.9 points by releasing 14 white marlin and a blue marlin during the 5 day event. Local boat “Christine Marie” did well in that category earning 5th Place with 1,200 points. The top spot for white marlin went to “Team La Barca” with a 69.25” and 63.5 lb. white. “Team Harvey”, who marks Fisherman’s Marina as their seasonal port during our summer tournament season finished the event strong last Friday when Christian Sanchez boated a 128” and 649 lb. blue marlin in the Tom’s Canyon. That marlin easily took 1st Place for the event and the second largest payout of $173,250.
Taking home the biggest award was the Ocean City Fishing Center based “Ro Sham Bo”. They too came on strong on Day 5. Capt. Willie Zimmerman had the boat in the Wilmington Canyon when they found a wolfpack of bigeyes and were able to get 3 on at the same time. All were over 150 lbs. and the biggest caught by Nick Shriver at 202 lbs. took top honors and $205,950! Pictures and stats can be found in our coverage starting on page 54.
20 years old and still as popular as ever, the Ocean City Marlin Club’s Kids Classic saw 73 boats register with over 400 youth anglers! While this event has divisions for almost every type of inshore and bay fish, it also has offshore ones for tuna, billfish, wahoo and tilefish. Coming in at Number 1 for white marlin was the “Reel Chaos”. They cruised into the scales at Sunset Marina with 4 white marlin release flags flying earning 400 points. They found those whites in the Poor Mans Canyon while trolling in 200 fathoms. 1st Place for blue marlin saw a 3 way tie between the “Billfisher”, “Kilo Charlie” and the “Tara Jessica”. Interestingly, they fished different canyons and depths. The “Billfisher” was in the Poor Mans in 500 fathoms, the “Kilo Charlie” was in deep water at 1000 fathoms behind the Washington Canyon and the “Tara Jessica” was only in 150 fathoms in the Baltimore Canyon.
The ”Tighten Up” won 1st Place for Heaviest Tuna with a 49 lb. yellowfin tuna caught by Grey Crocker. The top 3 fish in this category were only separated by 2 pounds, showing how consistent the yellowfin weights were compared to the jumbos of the last 2 weeks. While several mahi were weighed, they were all bailers. The “Reel Chaos” and the “Playmate” shared 1st Place with two 6.0 lbs. dolphin.
The ”Playmate” had a nice day on Saturday in the Washington Canyon around the 800/800. They brought the mahi that tied for 1st Place, two yellowfin tuna and a wahoo to the scales. The wahoo was a hefty 54 lbs. and was only 1 of 2 fish weighed, easily taking 1st in that Division.
There was so much more to this very fun event including the carnival held at the Marlin Club after scales on Sunday. This year featured a dunking booth that was manned by several boat captains, Pure Lure’s Brendon Hanley and the Club’s own President Ryan Freese and Renee Lessman. It would be an understatement to say they were all soaked! Full results and pictures can be found starting on page 60.
Outside of these events tuna was still the primary canyon catch, followed by bailer mahi. Last week started off with the “Chain Reaction” returning from an overnight trip to the Lindenkohl Canyon. The bite picked up for them in the evening putting 7 yellowfin on ice and another at first light the next day. The largest was 60 lbs. The “Boss Hogg” had a couple nice trips mid week. The first had Capt. Brian Porter trolling between the Spencer and Wilmington Canyons returning with 10 yellowfins. The second with Capt. Alex Beane was in the Baltimore Canyon. This time they got 5 yellowfins and a mess of mahi including a gaffer bull. The “Oppor-Tuna-Ty” went 6 for 6 on yellowfins in the Baltimore last Thursday and the “Fish On” snagged 8 there Friday.
The weekend shifted to bigeyes. Friday saw the start with the “Reel Chaos” returning from the Wilmington with a pair of bigeyes at 222 lbs. and 233 lbs. as well as a boat limit of 54 mahi and some blueline tilefish. The 233 pounder set the record for Heaviest of the season at the time, but not for long. The “C-Boys” came close to a tie with a pair of tuna from the Washington. Their heaviest eyeball was 223 lbs. I got a text early Saturday morning from Capt. Austin Ensor that he had returned early from an overnight trip that started Friday. After leaving Sunset Marina at 1:30 PM and setting up in the Poor Mans, they got 3 bites in the late afternoon. 1 yellowfin and two bigeyes. The crew looked at the eyeballs and said ‘that’s enough, lets head back’! And it was enough, with one at 199 lbs. and the other 238 lbs. The latter was the new Heaviest of the Season for a couple of hours until the “Full Service” hit the scales. No stranger to our First Fish or Heaviest Fish charts, Capt. Brendan Barbey let me know Sunday that he was coming in with a big eyeball that hit on a Green Machine in the Washington Canyon. It weighed 272 lbs. at Sunset Marina and has set the Heaviest Bigeye for the season to date and I suspect will be a hard fish to beat. We do have 4 of the largest tournaments of the season coming up, so watch those charts to see if it is bested!
The weekend saw some billfish action in addition to the tournament. The ”Kilo Charlie” with Capt. Howard Smith and anglers Abi Dolmetsch, Jake Gibson, Bryce Mithoefer and Nate Smith spent the day east of the Baltimore in 1000 fathoms and caught a Grand Slam. They released 2 white marlin, a blue marlin and a sailfish! It was the first marlin for all the boys.
Hopefully this fishery picks up in time for the upcoming tournaments. Over the next 5 weeks we will see 7 offshore tournaments including some of the richest, bringing world class anglers to our waters. The first one up is this weekend, the Big Fish Classic, with scales held at the Talbot Street Pier. With a projected purse of $1.5 Million and using two 32 hour time slot fishing windows, the action is almost guaranteed! It is always a show and fun environment at the scales, so come check them out from 4-9PM on Friday and Saturday and 4-PM on Sunday. Friday is a lighter day as only boats with a notable catch will return versus remaining offshore for the night, so Saturday and Sunday are your best bets to see some Big Fish!
Until next week, tell us what you’ve been catching at [email protected]. §
