Posted on August 24th, 2023
It was a busy day of scales action for day 4 of the 2023 MidAtlantic Tournament and there were some major changes to the leaderboard. Michael Jordan’s Catch 23 grabbed a spot in the white marlin category and a couple of Fish in OC charter partners dropped some nice fish on the dock and are looking at a bunch of money currently. With only 10 or 11 boats left to fish tomorrow we’ll see if anything changes on day 5. Here’s who’s leading after 4 days of fishing.
Heaviest White Marlin
1st Place – Common Sense – 87 Lbs
2nd Place – Boss Hogg – 76 Lbs
3rd Place – Catch 23 – 75 Lbs
Heaviest Blue Marlin
1st Place – Pipe Dreamer – 889 Lbs
2nd Place – Amarula Sun – 548 Lbs
3rd Place – Tighten Up – 528 Lbs
Heaviest Tuna
1st Place – Talkin’ Trash – 253 Lbs
2nd Place – The Right Place – 234 Lbs
3rd Place – Taylor Jean – 216 Lbs
Heaviest Dolphin
1st Place – Liquidity – 45 Lbs
2nd Place – Quick Raise – 34 Lbs
3rd Place – Too Many Martinis – 33 Lbs
Heaviest Wahoo
1st Place – Y-Knot – 56 Lbs
2nd Place – Cover Mission – 52 Lbs
3rd Place – Water Damage – 51 Lbs
Away from the tournament the crew of the private boat Milla Time with Al Miller, Joe Wyatt, Steve Cannon and Scott Beattie had a crazy good day in shallowish water releasing a mako shark, a white marlin, a blue marlin and boxing a bunch of nice mahi. It was Scott Beattie’s first white marlin so he went in the drink at the OC Fishing Center.
Mike Dzurnak used a Deadly Tackle Live Bait Rig with a mullet to land his personal best flounder of 20.25″ today.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported a mixed bag today, but did manage some nice flounder on the trip.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star was on the lookout for mahi today….and he found em.
A gloomy late August morning. Foreboding. Sunrise offered a tale of foul weather to come in dark overcast. There were just a few cracks in easterly cloud-cover, enough to confirm daybreak. Certainly wasn’t a day for Hook sunglasses I enjoy so much.
We had paddled on off a good ways when Heidi deployed our block bundle on Pete Maugans’ Memorial Reef. We kept paddling. Fishing began with a school of peanut mahi. We worked further and further out. Only had a few bailers all day (a tad larger mahi.) Still, after weeks of pea-green (not at all clear) water, I was glad to be able to see down a ways, even in overcast skies. And in that clear water we found more mahi. Although I anticipate it will be short, inshore mahi season has unquestionably begun. I’ll open more trips in Sept soon. Another sign of ocean health was schools of flying fish as we got offshore a ways. Nice.. Vic tried to get a pic. Sometimes 30 or 40 in the air – time you get the phone out? Gone. Sea Bass Bob was just one off a limit – he had that 10th mahi hooked up several times. That’s too bad. I always give a season pass should an angler limit out on our first good day of mahi.. (Ahhh.. Sorry about the chest pain Bob! Captain’s got jokes!) Heidi used her reef builder’s karma to box 7 – several others too. The pool winner is pretty obvious. Shots of fish were pandemonius & offered no time for pics. Laying in tomorrow (again!) for wind and rain. Gosh. I should have already opened Sept by now – wanted to see if I could add more mahi trips! Shall. I open reservations with my Fish Report sent from morningstarfishing.com. Awful nice to see mahi in the air.. Cheers All, Monty