Posted on August 12th, 2017
When the Griffin threw an 86 pound white marlin on the dock on Wednesday afternoon a lot of us thought that the big money in the 44th Annual White Marlin Open was in the bag. An 86 pound white marlin would have won all but just a few years of the White Marlin Open being that it was the 8th largest white ever caught in the tournament’s history. Well my buddy Kevin Rohe of Mills Creek Builders and Kitchen Fancy (last year’s blue marlin winner in the White Marlin Open) and his boys on the Wire Nut took that as a challenge and as Kevin was leaving the scales last night at around 9PM he said, “we’re going to get a big one tomorrow boys.” Well Kevin is a man of his word and that’s exactly what he and his crew did today. I got a text from Kevin about 30 minutes before he arrived at the scale at Harbour Island saying his fish was 74″ and had a girth of 31″ and I said to DJ Wax, “we may have a new first place fish coming in.” When I heard the final measurements from dock staff Mike and Alex I was pretty certain that we would have a new leader. Mike shouted the numbers…..”73!”…….”15 1/2!”…..and I leaned to Wax and said, “this fish is going to be 93 or 94 pounds.” I was wrong….it was 95 1/2 pounds!! Andy Motsko announced the weight and the crowd erupted and the rest is, as they say….history. Congratulations to Kevin Rohe, angler Glen Frost (his first white marlin by the way) and the rest of the Wire Nut crew on their historic White Marlin Open catch and their check for over $1.6 Million!! Here’s how the 44th Annual White Marlin Open ended up…..
Shark
Restless Lady Frank Snover 126 Pounds $6,500
Wahoo
3rd Place Karen Marie Jonathon Bennett 50.5 Pounds $24,250
2nd Place G Force Seth Obetz 53.5 Pounds $26,250
First Place Hog Wild Gary Capuano 55 Pounds $27,250
Dolphin
1st Place Silly Money Andrew Cohen 23 Pounds $74,250 Largest Dolphin Payout Ever
Tuna
2nd Place Tie Warden Pass Kris Rainear 67 Pounds $52,359
2nd Place Tie Blue Runner James Boynton 67 Pounds $89,789
1st Place Intents Joe Sadler 68.5 Pounds $865,962
Blue Marlin
No qualifying blue marlin
White Marlin
3rd Place M.R. Ducks Joe Andrews 79.5 Pounds $164,082
2nd Place Griffin Mike Donahue 86 Pounds $1,525,370
1st Place Wire Nut Glen Frost 95.5 Pounds $1,654,210
Another Fish in OC partner that did well in the White Marlin Open was the crew of the Lisa with Captain Stu Windsor. Captain Stu put Mike Cutler on a 59 pound yellowfin tuna that helped them win the small boat tuna and big fish calcuttas and a check for $112,050.
Although they didn’t win any prizes in the 44th Annual White Marlin Open the crew of the C Boys with Captain Luke Blume and mate Jon Henry had a great day of fishing in otherwise tough conditions. The crew of C Boys was a perfect four for four on white marlin releases today.
The crew of the Pumpin’ Hard with Michael and David Burt had a good tournament as well. Today the Burt boys put their crew on two white marlin releases and got a great shot of one on the fly.
Away from the tournament the party boat fleet had a good day of fishing bottom structure on the ocean today. Things got tough on board the Morning Star with Captain Monty Hawkins when mate Wes Pollitt took the day off. Captain Monty had to resort to kid’s pulling the hook so they could get underway.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler had a good day on ocean structure putting anglers on some nice flounder and sea bass action today.
The Judith M ocean going party boat had a good day today as well putting anglers on sea bass, flounder and some nice triggerfish.
Captain Marc Spagnola of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing had some really nice conditions today. Captain Marc was able to take advantage and put his shooters on some good cow nosed and southern sting ray action.
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