Posted on August 10th, 2016
185 boats were in the ocean for day 3 of the 43rd Annual White Marlin Open. Sea conditions were a little rougher than they were the first two days, but it was still fishable and there were some nice fish that came to the scale at Harbour Island. We saw the first shark of the tournament, there was a nice dolphin that jumped on the board and we had a big tuna trucked in that would steal first place on the leader board. Here’s how things look after three days of fishing.
The lone shark of the tournament was brought in today by the crew of the MJ’s. JD Messler’s 260.5 pound hammerhead was a real crowd pleaser and is currently worth $4,500.
A wahoo came in early on today that would qualify and take third place in the category for now. Steve Figiel fishing on the No Service caught a 40.5 pounder that is worth $14,000.
Yesterday’s second place dolphin is today’s third place dolphin caught by Thomas Bennett on the Delta Dawn. Thomas’s fish is worth $17,000.
Second and first place in the dolphin category are now shared by a pair of 36 pound dolphin. John Gudelsky on the Reel Joy now has to share the top spot with Brian Russell who caught his dolphin on the Sea Wolf. Thanks to daily meat fish calcuttas John’s fish is worth $17,000 while Brian’s fish is worth $15,000.
Third place in the tuna category is now held by Pat Horning who was fishing on the Fish Whistle. Pat’s fish was bumped down the leader board today, but is still worth $9,000.
The second place fish in the tuna category is a really nice 233 pound bigeye caught aboard the Magic Moment by angler Hutchison. Mark’s fish was bumped to second place today and is currently worth $130,000.
First place in the tuna category had to be trucked in to Harbour Island today. The crew of the Hubris lost their steering on the way home and had to be towed back to the dock. They got the boat in the slip and then brought their bigeye to the scale to find out that it weighed 236.5 pounds. Angler Rich Kosztyu will be able to help get the steering fixed if his fish holds up since it will be worth $400,000.
Jim Conway fishing on Get Reel is still looking good in the blue marlin category. Get Reel’s blue marlin is still the only blue marlin on the board and at 790 pounds it’s going to be a tough fish to beat. If it holds it will be worth $150,000.
The crew of the Kallianassa breathed another sigh of relief as they are one more day closer to making tournament history. Angler Phil Heasley’s 76.5 pound white marlin made it another day as the only white marlin on the leader board and one step closer to cashing a check worth $2.4 Million.
The weather for tomorrow looks about as rough as today, but still fishable, Friday maybe not so much. Word on the dock is that Friday might be a really rough one so most of the boats that have a day left to fish will probably use it tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a busy day at the scales. If you can’t make it to 14th street make sure you check out our Livestream at www.whitemarlinopen.com
Outside of the tournament the crew of the Spring Mix II with Captain Chris Watkowski and mate Aytron Pryor had a good day fishing the Poorman’s Canyon. Anglers Calvin Jones, Phillipe Ackerman, Chelbie Sinclair, Hunter Talbot, Morgan Talbot and Scott Talbot were two for two on white marlin releases and caught 10 mahi up to 27 pounds.
The Morning Star with Captain Monty Hawkins had a good day on the rip catching some nice flounder and sea bass. The crew also added more blocks to the Ocean City Reef Foundation sites to help build reefs off of the coast of Ocean City.
Captain Jeff Coats of Pitboss Fishing had two trips today having some great family fun. This morning Captain Jeff’s newest Irish friend Cameron was all over the croaker. This afternoon it was lots of throwback flounder in the bay behind Harbour Island on the incoming tide.
I got a Facebook submission from my buddy Juan Franzetti who is an avid spear fisherman. Juan was in the water today and speared himself a huge cobia that he estimated at around 70 pounds. That’s a doozie of a cobia and it dwarfed his son Lucas as he laid beside it.
