Posted on August 23rd, 2024
The 33rd Annual MidAtlantic Tournament is in the books and it was another exciting event with lots of awesome fish weighed! Friday finished up in grand style with two huge blue marlin hitting the board along with tuna, wahoo and mahi. Congratulations to all of the winners!!
White Marlin
1st Place Lights Out 81 Lbs
2nd Place Kaarmaa 77 Lbs
3rd Place Par Five 75 Lbs
Blue Marlin
1st Place Deadicated 795 Lbs
2nd Place Dem Boys 760 Lbs
3rd Place Gret’s Three Js 638 Lbs
Tuna
1st Place Reel Tight 180 Lbs
2nd Place Warden Pass 174 Lbs
3rd Place Team S.I Yachts 88 Lbs
Wahoo
1st Place Lil Crum 76 Lbs
2nd Place Torta 71 Lbs
3rd Place Prime Hook / Jenny Poo 54 Lbs
Mahi
1st Place C-Boys / Reel Joy 32 Lbs
2nd Place Remix Main Stage 28 Lbs
Kristen and I got a chance to get out and do some fishing today and she lucked into a nice 19” keeper flounder and a legal grey trout.
Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters had three great trips today with flounder, bluefish and sheepshead ending up in the net.
Anglers fishing on Saltwater Adventures has a great time fishing offshore in some beautiful weather and they had the fish biting well.
Matthew Brannan used a live spot near Assateague Island to nab this nice 20” keeper flounder.
Blake Gunther and Derek Yobst and crew used Deadly Tackle tog jigs to land some stud August tautog.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star is hoping for warmer water, but he had some big sea bass on board today anyhow.
Another gorgeous day at sea; at times cat’s paws rippled its surface, then too we experienced long periods of mirror calm ocean all around.
Mate Joe had several lines out but no takers on the troll. We slowed to deploy a bamboo/pyramid unit at an experimental reef. AJ & Tanya sent it down with perfect accuracy. Our secci disk reading was an astounding 10 fathoms. Sixty feet of vis..
From there?
East.
Yesterday we’d struggled to find mahi in 70/71 degree water. No mahi in that – or dern few at least. We only saw one all day. Sea bass didn’t mind at all.
At day’s end though we had 73.5 degree water.
I had high hopes yesterday’s warming would continue into today.
Ol man Murphy, that jelly side down scoundrel; he was having none of it.. Dogone 69 degree water!
What..
Can’t fix it.
Folks sure caught some nice sea bass!
There’s no doubt Tanya leveraged her reef builder’s karma (and a lot of skill!) to box the most jumbos. She took a hard run at the pool too. In the end Pete nudged her out for the money. .
Was but 12/14 miles off the beach on our way in when I spotted a tall, sharply angled fin moving across my bow – fast – big – not shark – no tail fin though. Thought maybe one wingtip of a manta ray but no – would have seen its breadth as we got closer.
Fish cut across my bow getting it – really moving – once to stb I saw bronze bars on it..
Blue Marlin.
Back in the day blue marlin were frequently targeted at the third lump.
Beautiful clear water right now. The more oysters they grow in Ches/DE Bays – the more blue water we’ll have inshore again.
OC’s claim to “White Marlin Capitol of the World” comes from the 1950s/60s heyday at Jackspot some 19/20/21 miles off. Boats from even mid-Jersey would make the run. Must have been some unreal fishing. I spoke to many skippers years ago who caught billfish much closer still.
I think it’s repairable. We needn’t have green, algae laden nearshore waters. Oysters in grand biofilter reefs throwing spat no human alive has ever seen.. Promise: Oyster restoration = marine water restoration.
Nice day on the rip.
C’mon warmer water!
Cheers,
Monty
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler had some good fishing today with plenty of nice sea bass around the rail.
