41st Annual White Marlin Open Returns To Ocean City; Live Bait Ban Instituted For Billfish This Year Shawn J. Soper, Sports Editor OCEAN CITY -- Ocean City will once again become the center of the sportfishing universe on Monday when hundreds of anglers and thousands of spectators gather in the resort for the 41st Annual White Marlin Open. The White Marlin Open is annually one of the highlights of the summer season in Ocean City, a kind of crescendo before the downward slide into mid-August and the close of another summer season. Thousands of fishing enthusiasts will cram into host Harbour Island marina each day next week for a chance to see a potential million dollar fish raised at the scale. Over 300 boats typically compete in the annual tournament, recognized as one of the top and richest billfish tournaments in the world. Just as they have for decades, hundreds of spectators will line the seawall at the Inlet to watch the parade of boats chugging out to the canyons off the coast on Monday, weather permitting. Much has changed since angler Vince Soranson won the first White Marlin Open with a 68-pounder way back in 1974, but much has remained the same. The tournament gets underway on Monday with the first of five official fishing days and participating captains and teams of anglers choose to fish three of the five days. As of mid-week, the roster of boats registered for this year’s tournament had started to fill out, according to tournament founder and director Jim Motsko. Last year, 262 boats competed in the tournament and it appeared as of mid-week that figure might be eclipsed. “We can’t complain,” he said. “We’re a little bit ahead of where we were last year, but we really won’t know until Sunday night. Everything is looking pretty good right now though.” Motsko said everything is business as usual for the tournament this year with the notable exception of a stated rule change. After a considerable uproar in the local fishing community about the relatively new trend of using live bait to target billfish, Motsko on Monday posted a rule change banning the use of live bait for billfish during the tournament. He posted the rule change on the WMO website on Monday. “With the intention of preserving sportsmanship, rewarding angling skills and billfish conservation, the intentional use of live bait and/or live bait teasers in the attempt to catch billfish is not allowed,” the statement reads. Motsko said the WMO has always followed IGFA rules, which allow live bait, but concerns raised by the local sportfishing community prompted the rule change. “It’s never really been an issue until recently,” he said. “Let’s just say people have found a little different way to catch billfish. After a million calls and emails, I decided this week to state the rule change. It’s always kind of been an unwritten rule, but now it’s officially on the books.” In some years, the winning fish in the signature white marlin category is caught on the first day and hangs on all week as challenger after challenger are brought to the scale. In other years, the winning fish is brought to the scale at Harbour Island at the 11th hour on the tournament’s last day. In either case, there is never any shortage of drama in the tournament with millions in prize money at stake in several categories, including, of course, white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and shark. Thus far, after a lukewarm start, the offshore fishing season in Ocean City has started to heat up in the last few weeks as evidenced by the remarkable big-eye tuna bite during the inaugural Big Fish Classic last weekend. In the last week or so, the number of reported billfish release has spiked up and wahoo have started making appearances around the marinas as the resort’s sportfishing fleet has started to gear up for the tournament. Last year featured one of the most unusual white marlin categories in recent memory with the winning crew fishing from a different boat after problems with their own vessel. There were also three 77-pounders tied for first place in the division after the first two days. On Tuesday, the crew on the “Billfisher” broke the ice with a 77-pounder that temporarily took the top spot on the white marlin leaderboard. On Wednesday, a stir was created when two 77-pounders were weighed within a short period of time to create an unprecedented three-way tie in the signature white marlin division. Before the big crowd that had gathered at host Harbour Island could wrap their heads around the possibility of a three-way tie for the first time ever in tournament history, the crew from the “Kingfisher,” who were fishing on the “Odinspear” after their own vessel experienced problems, rolled into the scale with another big white marlin to weigh. When the “Kingfisher” crew’s white marlin was raised at the scale, it registered 83 pounds, knocking the three competitors tied at 77 pounds down the leaderboard. Angler Tom Jones and the “Kingfisher” then had to sweat out the remaining two days of the tournament to see if their 83-pounder would stand up and claim the WMO’s top prize. More: ow.ly/zQRxW
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 18:18:27 +0000
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