TONS Of Tuna For Day 1 At The 2026 Ocean City Tuna Tournament

By Scott Lenox

Posted on July 10th, 2026

I just got home from one of the busiest first days of scales action in a long, long time. Scales opened for day 1 of the 39th Annual Ocean City Tuna Tournament at 4 PM and for the first hour and a half it was business as usual. After 5:30…..not so much! It was basically non stop from then until we left after 9 PM. There had to be hundreds of tunas weighed between the scales at the Ocean City Fishing Center and Sunset Marina and it was exciting to watch and be a part of. Here’s who’s leading after day 1. Thanks to the Ocean City Fishing Center for the pics!

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Away from the tournament ocean bottom fishing was good again today with plenty of sea bass and flounder for folks fishing on the Angler with Captain Chris Mizurak.

Anglers fishing on the Miss Kathleen out of Bahia Marina had a great day with sea bass and flounder around the rail.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star found some today too

Sea Bass & the Flounder Queen – 7/10/26

Found an easy southerly swell with the least bit of chop from a west wind out front this morning. Wind falling out still more as hours passed didn’t hurt. Made for a pretty day off there.

Sandra and Doreen put today’s reef unit on the bottom; landed on a barge deck where it will add well to the reef’s complexity.

From there – east.

Had some great sea bass catching today. Five anglers were in double digits with Jeff winning the sea bass pool and Bob, high hook at 14, close behind. Sandra, however was the undisputed flounder queen with the only 2 keepers on the rail & nice ones at that.

Her secret bait?

Clam on a bare hook.

Go figure!

Cheers,

Monty