$2.8 Million Dollar Marlin

By Scott Lenox

$2.8 Million Dollar Marlin

The 43rd Annual White Marlin Open has come to a close and it was definitely one for the record books.  329 boats entered the week vying for over $4.4 Million in prize money and by the end of the week one boat had won more than half of it.  There were sharks, wahoo, tuna, blue marlin and white marlin brought to the scales at Harbour Island and some of them won their anglers quite a bit of money.  There were 1,358 white marlin caught and only 23 of those fish were boated.  Only one of those 23 boated white marlin would go on to meet the tournament minimum of 70 pounds which would win it’s crew quite a bit of money.  It was an absolutely awesome tournament and it was our pleasure to do the Livestreaming of the event.  Here are the winners!

Shark

2nd Place     Rumor Has It     Hunter Pusey     223 Pound Mako Shark    $3,500

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1st Place     MJ’s     JD Messler     260.5 Pound Hammerhead    $4,500

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Wahoo

4th Place     No Service     Steve Figiel     40.5 Pounds     $22, 862.50

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3rd Place    Got Fish Too     Daniel Stuart     41 Pounds     $24,862.50

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2nd Place   Second Chance      Brian Leader      54 Pounds     $3,000.00

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1st Place     Two Timing Connie     Richard Hammond      79 Pounds      $24,862.50

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Dolphin

4th Place     Delta Dawn      Thomas Bennett     34.5 Pounds      $13,717.50

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3rd Place     Sea Breeze      Shannon Mills      35.5 Pounds      $13,717.50

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2nd Place Tie     Reel Joy     John Gudelsky     36 Pounds     $16,217.50

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2nd Place Tie     SEA WOLF      Brian Russell      36 Pounds     $14,967.50

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1st Place     SEA FLAME      Josh Sharp      39 Pounds      $19,717.50

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Tuna

5th Place     Reel Direct      John Hoffman      67 Pounds      $30,504.00

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Tie 3rd Place     Fish Whistle      Pat Horning      71.5 Pounds      $5,626.75

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Tie 3rd Place     American Lady      Dave Arnold      71.5 Pounds      $52,126.80

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2nd Place     Magic Moment      Mark Hutchison      233 Pounds      $131,968.00

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1st Place     Hubris      Rich Kosztyu      236.5 Pounds      $767,091.00

The tuna won so much money because the winner of the blue marlin category was not in the winner take all blue marlin calcutta and there was no other qualifying blue marlin.  WMO rules state that the winner take all blue marlin will go to the largest tuna in the category also entered in the winner take all blue marlin.

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Blue Marlin

1st Place     Get Reel      Jim Conway      790 Pounds      $258,995.00

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White Marlin

The biggest story of the week was the winner of the white marlin category in the 43rd Annual White Marlin Open.  The only qualifying white of the tournament has set a new record for the highest payout ever in the world of sportfishing.  The Kallianassa with angler Phil Heasley caught a 76.5 pound white marlin worth a whopping $2,818,660.00

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Congratulations to all of the winners and also to the Motsko family for putting on a terrific tournament!!

Fish in OC charter C-Boys with Captain Luke Blume had a terrific final day of fishing yesterday for their last day of the White Marlin Open.  Captain Luke put the crew of the C-Boys on four white marlin releases out of five bites.

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Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing had to deal with some rough conditions the past two days, but he was able to get it done putting his shooters on some nice cow nosed and southern rays.

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