Posted on August 13th, 2016
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
1st Place MJ’s JD Messler 260.5 Pound Hammerhead $4,500
Wahoo
4th Place No Service Steve Figiel 40.5 Pounds $22, 862.50
3rd Place Got Fish Too Daniel Stuart 41 Pounds $24,862.50
2nd Place Second Chance Brian Leader 54 Pounds $3,000.00
1st Place Two Timing Connie Richard Hammond 79 Pounds $24,862.50
Dolphin
4th Place Delta Dawn Thomas Bennett 34.5 Pounds $13,717.50
3rd Place Sea Breeze Shannon Mills 35.5 Pounds $13,717.50
2nd Place Tie Reel Joy John Gudelsky 36 Pounds $16,217.50
2nd Place Tie SEA WOLF Brian Russell 36 Pounds $14,967.50
1st Place SEA FLAME Josh Sharp 39 Pounds $19,717.50
Tuna
5th Place Reel Direct John Hoffman 67 Pounds $30,504.00
Tie 3rd Place Fish Whistle Pat Horning 71.5 Pounds $5,626.75
Tie 3rd Place American Lady Dave Arnold 71.5 Pounds $52,126.80
2nd Place Magic Moment Mark Hutchison 233 Pounds $131,968.00
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.
Blue Marlin
1st Place Get Reel Jim Conway 790 Pounds $258,995.00
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
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.
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.