Posted on August 22nd, 2015
Whooooo! Yesterday was a busy day both on the docks, and for me and the Hooked on OC crew. We had some serious changes to the leaderboard in the 24th Annual MidAtlantic Tournament followed by an awesome awards ceremony that lasted into the wee hours of the morning. It was a great week of fun, competition and camaraderie with beautiful weather conditions and lots of fish weighed at both the Canyon Club Resort and Marina in Cape May, NJ and Sunset Marina in Ocean City. There were some fish that held the board all week long and a few that hit the scales Friday and did some serious damage. Here’s how it all breaks down.
Wahoo
The heaviest wahoo of the week came to the dock in Cape May on Friday and blasted the competition when it tipped out at 73 pounds. Jackson Hseih from New York, NY collected a check for $46,506 for his beauty of a wahoo.
Dolphin
The Bar South came to the scale at Sunset Marina on Wednesday and weighed a 38 pound mahi to jump into the lead in the dolphin category. Angler Paul Spencer of Spencer Yachts helped Rob Gothier from Camp Hill, PA receive $48,199 for the largest dolphin of the tournament.
Tuna
The 3rd heaviest tuna of the MidAtlantic Tournament was caught on Monday and held on to a piece of the on the board reward for the entire week. Thomas Mackell of Gwyneed Valley, PA fishing on the Operating Room weighed a 198 pound bigeye in Cape May that would eventually earn him $154,758.
We also saw the 2nd heaviest tuna of the tournament on Monday in Ocean City when the crew of the Canyon Runner hoisted a a 199 pound bigeye, just one pound larger than the Operating Room. Adam LaRosa of Point Pleasant, FL also held on to some on the board reward money and received a check for $223,496 on Friday evening.
The heaviest tuna in the tuna category was captured by the crew of the Plane Simple. Angler Jim Jensen from Satellite Beach, FL threw up a 214 pound bigeye on the scale at Sunset Marina in Ocean City that earned him $452,822.
Blue Marlin
All three of the blue marlin that would place in the MidAtlantic Tournament this year would be caught out of Ocean City. The 3rd heaviest of those would be the fish caught by the crew of the Fish On. Angler Rob Kathery of Ft. Lauderdale, FL won $91,885 for his 437 pound blue marlin.
The 2nd heaviest blue marlin ended up being the big money winner in the blue marlin category. The 1st place blue was not in the Blue Marlin Pro Jackpot so that money would be won by the Ringleader’s 543 pound blue weighed on Monday. Thanks to all of the added entries, the Ringleader’s fish caught by Ryan Carroll of Dallas, TX was worth $420,998.
The heaviest blue marlin of the tournament was caught by the crew of the Makara on Wednesday and tipped the scale at Sunset Marina at 566 pounds. Thomas McMurray of Ocean City, MD won $196,836 for his first place blue marlin.
White Marlin
There were some real leaderboard changes with the white marlin category. Friday is historically known as “moving day” in the MidAtlantic Tournament and this Friday was no exception. The 3rd heaviest white marlin was caught by the Naps V and weighed at The Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May. Angler Joe Napolitan from Holland, PA won $74,213 for the 3rd heaviest white marlin this year.
We saw the 2nd heaviest white marlin come to the scale on Friday from a crew that is no stranger to Friday heroics. The crew of the Lights Out pulled into the scale at Harbour Island on Friday to take 2nd place in the White Marlin Open a few weeks ago, and did the same thing this Friday at the scale at Sunset Marina for The MidAtlantic Tournament. The 72 pound white caught by Bill Haugland of Coral Gables, FL was the 2nd heaviest of the event and won $137,287.
The heaviest white marlin, and most prestigious fish of the 24th Annual MidAtlantic Tournament was caught by a junior angler. 16 year old Vincent Savino of Brooklyn, NY was fishing on his Dad’s Texas Tea and caught what would be the largest white marlin of the tournament. Vincent’s 77 pound white marlin hit the scale on Friday afternoon in Ocean City and won the crew of the Texas Tea $714,259!
There were some impressive numbers in the 24th Annual MidAtlantic Tournament with 139 boats fishing, 543 total billfish being caught and over $2.8 Million in prize money awarded. It was an awesome week and next year’s 25th anniversary should be even better.
Some Fish in OC crews that had great days on Friday were the White Lightning and the My Cin. Captain Luke Blume on the White Lightning out of Sunset Marina had a white marlin release and this rare sailfish release in their final day of The MidAtlantic.
Captain Dave Black on the My Cin out of Sunset Marina had a good day with the white marlin releasing three whites out of four bites in the Poor Man’s Canyon.
Inshore the flounder are still biting. It’s slowed down quite a bit in the bay but the ocean structure fishing for flounder has still been good. Here’s a happy junior angler with his nice flounder caught on the Judith M with Captain Don Hetherington.
