Big-money catches remain elusive

Tournament will still award $8.6M

Three days into what’s touted as the “World’s Largest and Richest Billfish Tournament,” the big-money fish aren’t biting.

The white marlin and blue marlin leaderboards remained empty after Wednesday’s third day of the White Marlin Open in Ocean City, Maryland. No qualifying marlin have been brought to the scales since the tournament began Monday.

On Wednesday, Fender Bender, a boat based in Virginia Beach, brought in a white marlin, but it was a few pounds shy of the 70-pound weight minimum, the tournament announced in a release. Fender Bender, which won nearly $3 million last year for an 82.5-pound second-place white marlin, was the only boat among 279 fishing Wednesday that hauled a white marlin to the scales.

The lack of blue marlin and white marlin, though, won’t dampen the excitement as the tournament — boasting an estimated purse of $8.6 million — continued Thursday and Friday. If the blue marlin and white marlin categories remain empty, the tournament’s open format structure pays out all the prize money to the remaining categories.

The White Marlin Open’s biggest prize — an estimated $5 million — would fall to the heaviest tuna, and after Wednesday that belonged to Southern C’s, an Ocean City boat that brought in a bigeye tuna weighing 247.5 pounds. If that holds, the crew would pocket about $6 million in total prize money, according to the tournament’s website.

Second place belonged to

Big Stick out of Cape May, New Jersey, at 246.5 pounds.

In other divisions, the Jenny Poo (Palm Beach, Florida) leads the wahoo category with a 71-pounder that would claim around $125,000, and 10-4 Joker (Chincoteague, Virginia) has a 29-pound dolphin worth an estimated $91,000.

The tournament’s 409 boats are permitted to fish on three of the tournament’s five days until 3:30 p.m. On Thursday, 352 boats headed to the fishing grounds.

The tournament’s social media accounts indicated some marlin were heading to the scales at press time.