What do big boats big fish big money have to do with Cape May?
Today is the final day to make it happen and the big fish are here. An all time record $3,133,000.00 is in the pot for the more than 150 boats registered in this years MidAtlantic tournament. in Cape May and in Ocean City, Maryland. Boat crews can fish three out of the five days of the tournament.
The white marlin bite continued its steady pace on Day Four of the 25th MidAtlantic and the ‘riggers of vessels at both tournament ports bore the evidence of just how good the action was. For the 131 boats, including 58 from Cape May and 73 from Ocean City, that gave it a go today most picked up right where they left off yesterday and reported ideal conditions offshore and found the billfish in a feeding mood.
Four days of fishing are in the books and well over 500 billfish have already been caught and the tournament’s catch ratio is already well above one billfish per-boat per-day! With minimum weights of 65 pounds for white marlin and 400 pounds for blue marlin to qualify it’s worthy to note over 95% of the billfish caught have been released! The billfish are here. Finding one that makes the minimum weight is the challenge for the fleet as the tournament wears on.
The billfish points saw a major shake-up thanks to the large numbers of white marlin and blue marlin released, the weight standing saw little change in all categories.
Action at the scales on Day Four in Cape May saw George Conway’s Placid C’s from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey weigh a 56-pound wahoo which puts him in the mix in that category. Glenmoore, Pennsylvania’s Sean O’Donnell aboard his Got Game weighed a yellowfin tuna of 71 pounds to get on the board. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Thomas Kilareski aboard his Intuition weighed a yellowfin tuna of 69 pounds to join the crowd in the category.
Other action in Cape May saw Stone Harbor’s Jamie Diller aboard his Canyon Lady weigh a dolphin of 24 pounds which puts him in the mix of that division.
In Ocean City, Fishing for MD based out of Dayton, Maryland weighed a dolphin of 53 pounds to get on the leaderboard in the category.
Some of the boats with significant billfish releases on Day Four include Robert Warder’s Boss Hogg with nine white marlin released while Dave Anderson’s Krazy Salts and Marty Judge’s Judge each released eight. Ed Dunn’s DA Sea and Art Kontos’ Let it Ride each released seven white marlin. Gentilini Motors Super Crew and Gina Addeo’s Gina Lisa each let go six white marlin while Michael Rich’s Business released five. Jon Duffie’s Billfisher let go five white marlin while Rich Ryon’s Anthracite released four.
With more than 3 million bucks on the line, action at the scales tonight will be exciting. You can watch the excitement as it happens on the live feed here.
