Posted on August 12th, 2023
Hit the vid for our walkthrough of Atlantic Tackle in West Ocean City!
WOW!! I just returned from the 5th and final day of the 50th White Marlin Open and it was one of the more exciting scales I’ve ever been involved with. Things started just after 8 AM this morning when I spoke with Captain Willie Zimmerman of the RoShamBo getting ready to do a Facebook live update. Willie quickly told me, “I’ll call you back….we’re literally fighting a blue marlin!” We did periodic updates throughout the day to keep Facebook followers informed and unfortunately the last one reported that after 7 hours RoShamBo pulled the hook. We were devastated for our good friend Capitan Willie and the crew until we realized at 9:15 PM that RoShamBo was going to be the winner of the $50,000 anniversary Calcutta and would win over $1.7 Million.
I spoke with Captain Willie this evening and even though he was upset that they had lost the blue marlin after such a long fight, they were absolutely elated that they were going to receive $1.7 Million in prize money. We’ll talk with him via Facebook live tomorrow to get the scoop.
We saw a couple of marlin today including a 70″ white that didn’t meet the 70 pound minimum, a blue marlin that was just 2″ short of the 114″ minimum size and one blue marlin that would end up taking all of the white and blue marlin money. Captain Dave Warren and his crew on board the Floor Reel caught the only qualifying marlin of the entire tournament and thanks to prize money and added entry levels the crew of Floor Reel will win a world record payout of over $6.2 Million dollars. I’ve fished with Captain Dave and his crew on another boat and I can tell you they are awesome fishermen and even more awesome people! Congratulations to Floor Reel, RoShamBo and all of the other winners of the 50th Annual White Marlin Open! Congratulations are also in order for Jim Motsko and the entire Motsko family for 50 years!! Here’s who wins what with approximate payouts for the 50th White Marlin Open.
No Qualifying White Marlin
Blue Marlin
Floor Reel – 640.5 Lbs – $6.2 Million
Tuna
1st Place – Reel Tight – 265 Lb Bigeye – $1 Million
2nd Place – Fishlik – 247.5 Lb Bigeye – $360,000
3rd Place – Game Over – 221.5 Lb Bigeye – $160.000
4th Place – RoShamBo – 215 Lb Bigeye – $1.7 Million (Anniversary Calcutta)
Wahoo
1st Place – Shooting Star – 57 Lbs – $2,000
2nd Place – Captain Deadly – 55 Lbs – $28,000
3rd Place – Boy’s Toy – 46 Lbs – $26,000
Mahi
1st Place – Roncito – 50.5 Lbs – $25,000
2nd Place – Aquila – 32 Lbs – $78,000
3rd Place – Maverick – 31 Lbs – $27,000
Outside of the tournament Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star saw some good fishing for sea bass and flounder over ocean structure today.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler had a nice day in the ocean today as well with plenty of sea bass and some flounder for his anglers.
Wyatt Leiphart was on board Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing when he hit his mark on this big 54 pound souther ray.
Cary Vanden Broecke sent in this awesome photo of an awesome red drum that was caught behind Assateague today on the Deadly Tackle Thing A Ma Jig!!
The Tortuga fishing out of Bahia Marina had a great day putting a bunch of anglers on keeper flounder in the clean water of high tide.
